He has sold more than 70 million records across the globe and is known as much for his anthemic “Bat Out Of Hell” as he is for his seemingly indestructible constitution. But the music industry was left wondering what was ailing Meat Loaf today, after the artist made a bizarre, rambling appearance at an awards ceremony, which he capped by nearly falling off the stage.

Almost a year has passed since the star, after staggering around the boards of the Metro Arena, in Newcastle upon Tyne, for an hour, announced to a packed crowd that he could no longer continue and had just performed "probably the last show I'll ever do".

At the time rumours persisted, although angrily denied, that the singer had been drunk on stage. Today, appearing at the Q Awards, at the Grosvenor House hotel in West London, to pick up an award for “Classic Song”, for his biggest hit single, he again appeared to be in distress.

No cameras are allowed inside the ceremony, to preserve the dignity of the artists within, who tonight included Coldplay, the Kaiser Chiefs, Keane, and Massive Attack. Meat Loaf made an inauspicious entry to the event. With his knees buckling on the red carpet, he sported a reddened eye, which his spokespeople said was a “scratched retina”, of provenance unknown, which was affecting his vision and mobility.

His award was to be presented by Al Murray, a comedian who hosts a late night ITV programme in his persona “the pub landlord”, a garrulous and nationalistic licensee. In a ceremony that was packed with technical errors, Murray, trademark pint of lager in hand, joked to the audience that he hoped Queen had won the award, as Meat Loaf’s name flickered behind him on the giant television screens.

Meat Loaf then attempted to make his way to the stage, before seemingly becoming foxed by the half a dozen steps up to the podium. His representative later said that he suffered from “vertigo”.

The stairs having finally been negotiated, the singer stumbled towards the microphone to give his acceptance speech, clipping it with his face before teetering to the edge of the platform, saved only by a last minute shifting of his giant frame back onto the boards.

Facing away from the majority of the crowd and into bright lights that angled into one side of the stage, he mouthed some inaudible words before eventually elucidating a quote from his friend and long-time collaborator Jim Steinman. “If you don’t go over the top, you have no idea what’s on the other side,” he told the 400 attendants, all of whom had been stunned out of their normal cat-calling and into silence. He then pronounced himself “jubrant” at the honour.

As Murray interceded, the singer, somewhat threateningly, challenged him to repeat his introductory words about Queen. “Most of it was extemporized,” the comedian responded. “Extemporize something new,” came the reply. “Do you know any Queen songs?” Murray asked, wincing. Meat Loaf did, breaking into a line of Fat Bottomed Girls, before following it up with a short rendition of My Generation, by the Who, whose lead singer, Roger Daltry, presented an earlier award.

In a bid to end the impromptu performance, Murray then suggested that they carried on the singing at the pub. This prospect seemed to find favour with the singer, who was then helped off the stage and into a waiting car. He could be heard telling organisers that he had not been drinking and that he would submit to a blood test if it would satisfy them.

A spokesman for the star said that he had suffered from a bout of vertigo, affecting his balance and speech, but had insisted on appearing at the event. “He had not been drinking,” the spokesman said.

Other winners at the awards included Coldplay, who won Best Album and Best Act in the World Today. The Last Shadow Puppets, a side project of Arctic Monkey Alex Turner, was named Best New Act. Duffy beat Adele to the Breakthrough Artist gong and Keane won Best Track for their single Spiralling.

The Kaiser Chiefs took the title for Best Live Act, Adam Ant won the Q Icon award and David Gilmour, of Pink Floyd, took the Outstanding Contribution to Music title.

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