Sam Fender has called on the music industry to find more fresh voices from working class backgrounds.

• READ MORE: Sam Fender – ‘People Watching’ review: reflective and perceptive indie rock from North Shields’ shining star

The North Shields singer-songwriter was the recipient of the Songwriter of the Year prize at the Ivor Novello Awards in London last night (May 21), and was presented the prize by Elton John, who described him as ”one of the greatest lyricists Britain has ever produced”.

Elton said that he had been a fan of Fender’s since his debut album ‘Hypersonic Missiles’ in 2019, which he said “blew his mind”, and he explained that since then, Fender has become “a huge friend of my family, he’s part of our family”.

“What impresses me about Sam so much is his honest outlook on what happens when you grow up in somewhere like North Shields,” John continued. “His lyrical ability to paint pictures that are grim, uplifting, whatever, makes him one of the greatest lyricists I think Britain has ever produced.”

“The only thing I’ll say is, for Christ’s sake, you’ve been at Number One for 12 weeks now, bugger off!” he concluded, referring to the ongoing success of his single ‘Rein Me In’ with Olivia Dean.

An emotional Fender then took to the stage and read notes from his phone that were “all spelt wrong”, taking time to congratulate Jacob Alon, who won the Rising Star award at the ceremony, as well as Best Song Musically and Lyrically for ‘Don’t Fall Asleep’. “We’re just all NPCs living in their world,” Fender said, describing their performance earlier in the night as “one of the greatest things I’ve ever seen in my entire life”.

“I’m so fucking, so privileged to be doing this,” he went on to say, choking back tears as he remembered his manager Owen Davies “walking into that pub that day when I was 18” while he was playing a set.

“As an industry, we cannot rely on people like Owen having to walk into the pub to find kids from fucking working class backgrounds,” he said. “All the way through ‘People Watching’, that year, my manager did his job always and looked after us, but he lost both of his parents that year and I just want to thank Owen.”

He ended by thanking Elton for “bringing me into your family” and called his sons Zachary and Elijah “the most magnificent fucking polite wonderful kids around”.

Last year, Fender and John released ‘Talk To You’, a song included on the deluxe version of ‘People Watching’, which won the Mercury Prize last year.

Fender also told Elton last year that he had already started thinking about the follow-up to ‘People Watching’. “I’m going to make another album, I think,” he said. “I’ve got a load of other songs, so I want to make another record.”

In a four-star review of ‘People Watching’, NME wrote: “Reflective, analytical and vulnerable, ‘People Watching’ does exactly what the title may suggest: takes stock of the characters, friends and loved ones who have made Fender the person he is today. He approaches each track with sensitivity as he looks back on his life so far – perhaps even with an inkling of guilt – and contemplates who he may be next.”

Other big winners at the Ivor Novellos included Thom Yorke, who was handed the Academy Fellowship alongside George Michael, as well as CMAT and Rosalía.