Arctic Monkeys star Alex Turner has dismissed rumours he was drunk when he took to the stage at London's BRIT Awards to accept the band's Best British Album prize, blaming his bizarre behaviour on nerves.

The singer led the band onto the podium to accept the night's most coveted award for their record Am, but baffled the audience with his strange rambling speech, which ended with him throwing his microphone down onto the stage.

The incident sparked a storm of criticism among fans on Twitter.com, with many suggesting Turner might have been drunk, but the star has now spoken out to clear up the rumours.

He says, "In public I'm a quiet guy, so doing anything in front of lots of people always makes me nervous. I'm known for my music, not how well I deliver a speech. People always assume if you're in a band that's been on the scene for ages that you're going to be really confident, but that's not true."

The Arctic Monkeys also won the best British Group award during the prizegiving on Wednesday night (19Feb14).