Manic Street Preachers won best track at the Q Awards in October

Previous recipients of the prize, the magazine's equivalent of a lifetime achievement award, include New Order and 2007 winners Primal Scream.

"It's really made me feel fantastic," bassist Nicky Wire told Music Week.

The band will headline the NME Awards Big Gig on 28 February at London's O2 arena. The awards themselves take place that night in the O2's Indigo venue.

Bloc Party, the Kaiser Chiefs and Mercury Prize winners the Klaxons will also appear on the concert bill.

'Icons'

The Godlike Genius award "honours those music icons that have shaped the music landscape over the years".

"It feels like the best one because the NME's what I grew up with," said Wire.

"The Manic Street Preachers are such deserving winners of the Godlike Genius title," said Dan Silver, the magazine's associate editor.