Wolf Alice’s Joel Amey: ‘Our Brit award success still hasn’t sunk in’
Joff Oddie, Ellie Rowsell, Joel Amey and Theo Ellis from Wolf Alice poses with the Group of the Year award during The BRIT Awards 2026(Photo by Jeff Spicer/FilmMagic)
How do you contemplate watching Harry Styles on stage before being named Britain’s best group in a matter of minutes?
That’s what happened to Wolf Alice during this year’s Brits.
Drummer Joel Amey admits it still hasn’t sunk in after the band picked up the award for Group of the Year for a second time.
The quartet, who released their critically acclaimed fifth album The Clearing in August, triumphed over the likes of Pulp and Wet Leg during the ceremony held at Manchester’s Co-op Arena in February.
Joel, who tasted the same success in 2022 following the release of their fourth LP Blue Weekend, told Metro: ‘The award we won happened quite quick. I remember having my mind blown by Harry Styles, and then I was on the stage with Bez.
‘Maybe it hasn’t sunk in. They do a winners’ carpet afterwards and someone was saying it was the second time you’ve won this Brit award. I was looking at it, and looking at the other three (band members), and I don’t think I had the time to process it until that second.‘You don’t really go into a recording studio thinking “how can we get all the accolades and awards?”. It’s not really what drives creative inspiration.
‘Then you come to these moments of validation and things like the Brits where the circles have got wider of the people that are appreciating what you’re doing and the time you’re spending on it – that’s really humbling and not lost on us’.
The band used their winner’s speech platform to highlight the plight facing the UK’s grassroots music scene, with frontwoman Ellie Roswell repeating Music Industry Trust findings that 30 venues closed at a cost of 6,000 jobs in 2025.
Wolf Alice, pictured with Bez and Shaun Ryder, highlighted the importance of the UK’s grassroots venues during their acceptance speech for Group of the Year at the Brits 2026 (Picture: Getty)
She said: ‘It shouldn’t feel like a golden ticket, but a viable career decision for anyone from any background, because we only have to look around at everyone here today, and see how proud we are of Britain’s musical contribution.
Joel told Metro how going to the independently-run Boiler Room in Guildford inspired him to becoming a musician.
He said: ‘The venues shaped me as a person. I went to gigs all the time as a kid in all kinds of venues. But when you’re trying to be a band, you’re not going to start playing Wembley Stadium. There was, in our era, so many things you should go through. We made loads of mistakes in front of people for years in those venues and we got to the stage where we could do something like The Sofa live on the Brits.
‘You have to keep making these mistakes. Grassroots venues are your best friends for that because they are so accepting of you in any shape or form, and that’s why we should always be protecting them.
Joel Amey greets fans outside the Co-op Arena at the Brit Awards 2026 in Manchester (Picture: Getty)
‘But it’s wider than that – it’s not just the venues. We should be safeguarding music all the way from schools upwards. Not just for careers but for mental health. The way I am as a person is just so much stronger because of music.’
Wolf Alice will be playing the Robert Smith-curated Teenage Cancer Trust shows at the Royal Albert Hall later this month.
The series of gigs, of which Metro is a media partner of, features the likes of Elbow, Mogwai, My Bloody Valentine, Manic Street Preachers and Garbage.
Instead of a call from The Cure legend himself, Joel reveals he invited them via email – written all in capital letters.
Wolf Alice’s Ellie Roswell held aloft during their performance of The Sofa at the Brits (Picture: Getty)
‘I think The Cure are generally one of the best bands ever’, he said. ‘He’s just the most incredible writer and vocalist. To get that email was like, wow, I didn’t even know we were on Robert Smith’s radar.
‘The charity is amazing. Then you put the Royal Albert Hall into it, there’s so much wow factor. We’re really excited to play. We’re going to try something different. We know it’s not “do what you did last week”. We want this to be special – that’s our intention.
‘I think I’ve only been to the Royal Albert Hall once and that was when I was a kid. My mum took me to watch Cream!’
Wolf Alice’s charge is showing no signs of slowing down. Festival and global tour dates are locked in across 2026 – and they’re already thinking about new material.
Wolf Alice appear alongside Elbow, the Manics, Garbage, and more for Robert Smith’s curated Teenage Cancer Trust series of shows (Picture: Teenage Cancer Trust)
Joel adds: ‘There was a large gap between Blue Weekend and The Clearing that wasn’t even intentional. We were thinking about this album for a while.
‘It was just boring, logistical things that were road bumps along the way, which did afford the album to grow even more at that time and become even better than I think it would have been when we first intended to record it.
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‘It’s a privilege to be in a situation with a label that’s willing to support you over that time. I love The Clearing but I am playing these shows thinking “we could do something here that’s different” – you’re forever evolving.
‘Sometimes the touring process is what whacks you out of that. But I just don’t feel like that. I feel like keeping going.
‘We have every intention his year – literally out of enjoyment – to keep making new stuff. That’s because the four of us really want to.’
Wolf Alice play their Teenage Cancer Trust show with special guest Nilufer Yanya on Sunday, March 29.
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