The 2007 Vodafone Live Music Awards

It's five o'clock on Wednesday afternoon, just two hours before Vodafone's second ever annual live music awards kick off – and in the bowels of London's Earl's Court (Brompton Hall) it's a hive of activity. Crews are dashing around with shoulders-full of wire; lights are being hoisted up on scaffolding; tense-faced people are clutching clipboards and shouting into mobile phones...it's a timely reminder of all the hard work that goes into creating the type of onstage energy that can leave an audience buzzing for days. Over the course of the night we'll have plenty of reminders of just why all that effort is worth it.

These awards are Vodafone's celebration of the best live music we've seen in the last twelve months (or much longer, in the case of Iggy Pop, winner of tonight's Freddie Mercury Lifetime Achievement Award). We’ve got awards for key, but often overlooked categories such as "Best Roadie" and "Best Show Production", everything that helps an audience to connect memorably with an artist onstage. The proof, though, is in the performances – and tonight's ceremony includes incendiary live turns from no less than nine acts, all of which seem ready to raise their game for the occasion.

Coventry upstarts, The Enemy, kick things off with a blistering rendition of their number one single, "Away From Here". It hardly seems fair that the lads then lose out to nu-rave scenesters, Klaxons, for the XFM Live Breakthrough Act and Muse, who pip them to the post for "Sony Ericsson Tour of the Year". But the quality of the competition only goes to show the vibrancy of the live music scene in 2007.

Other ace performances tonight include gems from the hugely exciting Brazilian art rock crazies, CSS, as well as the dazzling Kate Nash, in an elegant olive green 1940s dress and hat, who does her usual trick of giving such a pared down, intimate performance of "Foundations" that you feel like you're there with her in that dysfunctional relationship. 80s revivalist, Calvin Harris, performs his hit single "Acceptable in the 80s" while bouncing madly from foot to foot, bent concentratedly over his retro electro equipment and wearing VERY tight pink jeans, to a visual backdrop of giant Rubik's cubes and images of Ronald Reagan. We are also treated to a typically epic, beat-driven performance from The Manic Street Preachers, a crowd-tantalising walkabout by Enrique Iglesias, and a thoughtful performance from Athlete. Then there's the brilliant Pigeon Detectives, definitely the crowd favourites for the night, whose lead singer Matt Bowman burnishes his rock'n'roll credentials with the only stage dive of the evening.

"Beth Ditto taking off her knickers" is just one of the suggestions put forward by the presenters (including Tara Reid, Jimmy Carr, Kimberley Stewart and the effortlessly cool Debbie Harry) for this year's best on-stage moment. But what's been the most memorable live moment for you in the last 12 months? Perhaps you were one of the incredibly lucky few hundred who got the chance to cram themselves into the stunning St Paul’s Church in Bristol to see Amy Winehouse, justly the winner of tonight's "Best Live Female" award, perform just a few feet away, while self-consciously flashing her brand new engagement ring at the curtain raiser for this year's Vodafone TBA gigs. Or did you make it to the incredible homecoming performance in Leicester that "the people's band" Kasabian swaggered, bounced and rocked their way through? Michael Leavis, picking up the award for best music festival, thought that they were the pick of the performers at Glastonbury this year.

Anyone who saw Mika’s shiny, happy, technicolour outdoor Vodafone TBA gig in Manchester – where fans donned fancy dress, and ticker tape rained down, on one of the only gloriously sunny afternoons we’ve seen this year – will have cheered when the camp, six-foot bundle of joy emerged as a winner, beating hipster favourites Mark Ronson and Jamie T, as well as James Morrison, to win the "Best Live Male" award.

Another hugely popular winner is Geoff Buckley, loyal set-shifter for James, with the band's lead singer, Tim Booth, winding his way through the packed artists' bar on the edge of the stage to hand over his "Best Roadie" award. "I've never had anything like this happen to me in my entire life," he roars over a pint later, before sharing his own favourite on-stage moment: "an early Happy Mondays show at the Free Trade Hall, when Bez was sick all over the amplifiers!"

"You can't beat the feeling of seeing your favourite band playing live in front of your very eyes," announces Radio 1's Chris Moyles – our host for the evening – before introducing rising Brit film star and former So Solid member, Ashley Walters, and pop favourite Rachel Stevens to present the "Best International Live Act" award. To anyone who made it to last year's sweatily euphoric TBA finale gig – the Killers at London's Electric Ballroom – it's no surprise that the Las Vegas mormons walk away with this one.

Before the award for "Best Show Production" is presented (to a "thrilled" Kylie Minogue), we get a rundown of highlights from some of the most dramatic shows in history – Just in case tonight’s winners were tempted to rest on their laurels. We get Motley Crue wielding chainsaws; U2 commissioning the world’s biggest-ever video screen; and, heart-stoppingly, German death metallers, Rammstein, setting themselves on fire.

As Moyles says, with live music it’s not what you do with it – it’s how big it is. Quite. Let’s hope live music spends the next 12 months getting bigger still.

See the winners