UNITED KINGDOM: The Barclaycard Mercury Prize 2012 Album of the Year nominations take in their usual leftfield approach with a few surprising announcements, leaving the nominees and the judges excited

Record ID: 342917

  • Title: UNITED KINGDOM: The Barclaycard Mercury Prize 2012 Album of the Year nominations take in their usual leftfield approach with a few surprising announcements, leaving the nominees and the judges excited
  • Date: 13th September 2012
  • Summary: MERCURY PRIZE NOMINEE, MICHAEL KIWANUKA, PERFORMING "TELL ME A TALE" DURING NOMINATIONS ANNOUNCEMENT
  • Embargoed: 28th September 2012 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: United Kingdom
  • Country: United Kingdom
  • Topics: Business,Entertainment
  • Reuters ID: LVAEHFWC07TAPMQ8ELNA3E53LNLA
  • Story Text: It's helped shoot to fame the careers of Arctic Monkeys, The xx, Elbow and Franz Ferdinand.
    On Wednesday (September 12), nominations for the Barclaycard Mercury Prize for Album of the Year were announced in Covent Garden in London, meeting with mixed reactions as a traditionally interesting and eclectic mix of music left out big hitters like Coldplay in favour of newcomers, including eight debut albums.
    Broadcaster and Mercury Prize host Lauren Laverne announced the 12 shortlisted albums, which were The Maccabees for 'Given to the Wild'; Jessie Ware for 'Devotion'; Roller Trio for their self-titled debut 'Roller Trio'; Django Django for their self-titled debut; Field Music for their fourth studio album 'Plumb'; Michael Kiwanuka for 'Home Again'; Sam Lee for 'Ground of its Own'; Richard Hawley for 'Standing at the Sky's Edge'; Ben Howard for 'Every Kingdom'; Lianne La Havas for 'Is Your Love Big Enough?'; Alt-J for 'An Awesome Wave'; and Plan B for 'Ill Manors'.
    Betmaker William Hill has made Plan B and Richard Hawley favourites for the prize at 4/1, while Django Django at 5/1 are considered third favourites.
    Speaking after the announcement to the media, Plan B, the stage name for artist Ben Drew, said he was unconcerned with how his third album -- a No. 1 hip-hop record that was also the soundtrack to his directorial movie debut of the same name about life on the streets of an underprivileged area of London -- was received, but was a little taken aback by its positive reception.

    "I was ready for failure, you know? I was ready to accept commercial failure because I knew that the film and this album, the integrity of it would always be kept intact, but maybe that it wouldn't work so well on radio, and stuff, and I've been pleasantly surprised by how well the album done and first week sales, and it's continuing to do so and being a part of this list just helps it even further," he said.
    Newcomers Jessie Ware and Michael Kiwanuka both performed during the announcements, though for The Maccabees their nomination covers their third album, which managed to reach the top five album chart sales in the UK.
    Speaking of the sensation, the band said it was a simple but warm feeling to have been nominated.

    "It's really, it's an amazing feeling, I didn't think, I never envisaged us being put up for a Mercury award really ever, so it's a really, really nice feeling. I can't really.. You can say a lot more profound things, but the truth is it just feels good," they said.
    The Mercury Prize is renowned for its esoteric choices, and has gone to a wide range of musical genres since it began in 1992, honouring music by British or Irish artists based solely on the music on the album.
    Chairman of the prize's judging committee, Simon Frith, said what they were looking for in the albums was something unique.

    "At the end of the day you need a record that has a kind of personality, that stands out, that's one hand, and sounds completely in and of itself special. but you're also aware of Mercury, that what you're doing is recommending records for other people to listen to," he said.

    "So you've got to be able to persuade other judges that this is the sort of music, however weird it might sound, that other people would like if they heard it," he added.
    Joint favourite for the prize, Richard Hawley, is nominated for his sixth album, and was previously nominated for his 2005 album 'Coles Corner', though he said despite his experience of the industry, artist's creativity never ceases to amaze him.

    "How can you explain music? You create music out of nothing. And all these people from disparate and completely mad as fuck backgrounds, make something totally different, and I just think, I salute them all," he said.
    Hawley added that he hadn't been aware of his nomination until the very last minute.

    "I've only just found out so I'm a bit like... I got pulled out of the pub," he said.
    Sam Lee is one of the eight album debutantes to have been nominated, but said the award, like any other, should be seen in a greater context, as he discovered after being told of his nomination.

    "I was rehearsing with 600 kids for the Thames Festival composition and I was deep in one of the most complicated and hard projects, but suddenly realised that yeah, Mercury, that's wonderful, but kids singing folk songs is as important, so it was a wonderful balance of the glamour and the grit and the hard sweat," he said.
    The overall winner of the 2012 Prize will be decided and announced at the Barclaycard Mercury Prize Awards Show at the Camden Roundhouse in London on Thursday, November 1.
    ENDS
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