The enduring Irish rock band, U2, rolled to five surprising wins at the Grammy music awards last night in Los Angeles, ruining the hopes of a perfect comeback for Mariah Carey, the once-troubled singer who returned to the big time last year.

Led by Bono, the singer who has come to stand alongside Bob Geldof as a symbol of pop conscience, U2 won awards in all five categories for which they were nominated, including the prestigious gongs for best song and best album of the year for their latest record How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb.

"I don’t know what to say. This is really a big, big night for our band," Bono told the audience at the 48th Grammy awards. For those people who feared that the success might go to the band's heads, he added, it was "too late for that".

U2's haul brought their Grammy total to 22, putting them sixth on the list of all time winners. The steady success of the band, which last won the album of the year award eighteen years ago, contrasted sharply with a disappointing night for Carey, who had defied a near-disappearance of her musical career to sell 5.2 million albums last year.

Nominated for eight awards deriving from her new album, The Emancipation of Mimi, Carey won three, but was unable to even take to the stage because her wins all came in relatively minor categories in the early, untelevised part of the ceremony.

Alongside U2, the American rock trio Green Day won the third big award of the night, best record of the year, for their song Boulevard of Broken Dreams. Kanye West, a rapper, and John Legend, an R&B singer, both picked up three awards after being nominated for eight.

West, who said before the ceremony he would be disappointed not to win best album of the year for his work Late Registration, said U2's win would inspire him to go back to the studio and work harder.

"I’m going to keep on delivering albums of the year that are so undeniable to the point where you are finally going to let a rapper come up and accept this award," he said after winning three gongs in rap categories.

On a night of surprises, in which Kelly Clarkson, the first winner of America's Pop Idol, won two awards, the greatest shock came when Sly Stone, the mercurial funk pioneer, emerged on stage for the first time since 1993. Sporting a blond Mohawk, Stone sang I Want To Take You Higher after a warm tribute from the music industry.

British winners last night included the Chemical Brothers, who won the best dance recording category for Galvanize and the best electronic or dance album prize for Push The Button. Gorillaz, the cartoon band headed by Damon Albarn, won for best vocal pop collaboration for their single Feel Good Inc. Sir Paul McCartney, nominated in three categories, went home empty handed.

In the classical music field, Leonard Slatkin, the conductor of America's National Symphony Orchestra, and the University Of Michigan School Of Music won three awards for their production of William Bolcom's three-hour epic Songs Of Innocence And Of Experience. The London Symphony Orchestra won the best opera recording award for its performance of Verdi's Falstaff.

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