Tuesday 24th December 2013 by Andrew Trendell | Photos by Richard Gray

Tags: Foals

Gigwise readers have named Foals' Yannis Philippakis as music's Hero of the Year, 2013. 

The frontman was voted ahead of the likes of David Bowie, Biffy Clyro's Simon Neil, Alex Turner of Arctic Monkeys and Queens Of The Stone Age frontman Josh Homme. Danny Brown, Drake, Kanye West, Kendrick Lamar and Lady Gaga fared less well, coming bottom of the poll. 

See the full poll results here

It has been Foals' most successful year to date. Their fourth album Holy Fire was critically acclaimed, and saw the band achieve headliner status for the first time when they topped the bill at Latitude Festival. They also won respect with high billings at both Glastonbury and Reading and Leeds. Not only that, but Holy Fire also saw them receive a nomination for the Mercury Prize, and they also performed a massive show at London's Royal Albert Hall. See our review and photos of the gig here. 

Yannis has also made waves with his comments on music streaming services, when he compared Spotify, which boasts over 24 million active users (6 million of whom pay for the service), to tipping without paying the bill at a restaurant.

"It's like going to a restaurant when the chef and all the waiting staff have worked their asses off, and you leave coppers as a tip, and you don't even pay the bill," he told Channel 4 News. "That's basically what Spotify's like, I think."

The Oxford rocker added: "I'd rather somebody stole the record on vinyl than bought it or streamed it on Spotify. Because I think you should listen to music on vinyl, and I think basically anything's better than that (Spotify)."

Watch Foals performing 'My Number' at Glastonbury 2013

Gigwise readers' top five musical heroes of the year were:
1. Yannis Philippakis, Foals
2. Alex Turner, Arctic Monkeys
3. David Bowie
4. Simon Neil, Biffy Clyro
5. Josh Homme, Queens Of The Stone Age

Below: Photos of Foals bringing Holy Fire to rock Leeds Festival 2013