News You Can’t Ignore The Mercurys

“You can’t ignore the Mercurys,” says Joe Newman of Alt-J, whose debut album ‘An Awesome Wave’ makes up one of 12 shortlisted for the prestigious award this year, originally set up in 1992 as an alternative to the Brits with the aim of highlighting the best British album of the year based on artistic merit. “You trust the judges. I followed the Mercurys from a young age and always really enjoyed it – it was always fantastic to listen to the albums that they were picking. You knew that these albums would be great.”

With previous nominees including Sting, Keane, the Spice Girls, The Darkness, and Robbie Williams – as well as a so-called ‘curse’ speculated to negatively affect the careers of the winners – the Barclaycard Mercury Prize is not without its controversies. From criticisms of shortlisting methods (there is an entry fee of around £200 to have an album considered, plus further costs later on to those successful) to criticisms of the shortlist and winners themselves, the prize arguably harbours as much hatred or indifference as it does love and respect – but how highly it’s regarded by some in British music is inarguable.

“We grew up with the Mercurys in the background,” Joe says. “And as we got older it came to the forefront of our expectations of what good British music is within the year. You begin to think that the best music will always be among the nominations for the Mercurys. When we found out we were nominated we really couldn’t believe it. We went crazy and high-fived each-other until the cows came home.

“We didn’t write the album to get nominated,” Joe adds. “But,” he admits, “you do have thoughts of the Mercurys while you’re writing it. We entertained the idea, definitely. Fantasised about it – but it was like, ‘come on, let’s get real’.”

Not only is the band’s debut full-length nominated for the award – which also sees the winner awarded £20,000 prize money, on top of its reported sales-boosting benefits – it’s now being touted by the bookies as the clear favourite to win. Up against it are albums from Plan B, Richard Hawley, Django Django, Ben Howard, Michael Kiwanuka, Lianne La Havas, Roller Trio, Field Music, Sam Lee and Jessie Ware, as well as The Maccabees – who, likewise, were more than happy to hear of their nomination.

“I think we were all pretty shocked but delighted,” says frontman Orlando Weeks of the shortlisting of their third album ‘Given To The Wild’. “We’ve never aimed for an award with anything we’ve done. I think it would be pretty mind-boggling to attempt to. But it is without doubt a bonus to get recognition for the effort that went into making the album.

“Perhaps why the Mercurys are so interesting or why it sets itself apart from other awards,” he continues, “is that there is only one prize, so the nominees need to come from all sorts of areas of music. I think the best thing about the shortlist is its diversity.”

While more mainstream and commercially successful acts (Michael Kiwanuka, Plan B and Ben Howard) do make up a good proportion of the list re-affirming the calls of ‘safety’, there are undoubtedly some lesser known and more experimental records represented too.

“[The shortlist] has got quite a commercial vibe to it this year,” says Alt-J’s Joe Newman. “But it’s great that bands like Roller Trio are being noticed as well. It’s not about the genre or what you’re trying to achieve, it’s about if the music is good.”

John Rostron, co-founder of Swn Festival and the Welsh Music Prize – an award set up to recognise the best Welsh albums of the previous 12 months – agrees. “It’s quite diverse, lots of albums I like are on there, and a couple I knew nothing about. I’m a big fan of critical selection, filters and prizes for the creative industries and I love the Mercury for doing that for music.”

Co-founder of record label Memphis Industries – who released Field Music’s shortlisted ‘Plumb’ record – Ollie Jacobs believes that the prize is a big boost to the bands involved. “When it happened for the Go! Team back in 2005, it was a staging post on the way to selling a bucket load of ‘Thunder, Lightning Strikes’,” he says. “Time will tell what the effect will be on Field Music, but the main thing is that it’s nice when one of the albums we release gets the Mercury nod.”

Not all in music, though, are quite so supportive of the prize or indeed this year’s selection of nominees – and among them is Andrew ‘Falco’ Falkous of Future Of The Left [who have since won the 2012 Welsh Music Prize]. While the band’s latest album ‘The Plot Against Common Sense’ was eligible and even tipped for a nod by some, Falkous isn’t even sure if the record was put forward for consideration.

He, like others, questions whether the prize is able to fairly represent British music. “The people on the committee probably have a bloody good stab at it, I would think. Under those conditions, though, I would be very surprised [if they could]. It probably represents a certain facet of British music that the ‘industry’ is currently keen to promote.”

For all its critics and flaws, however, the Mercury Prize goes from strength to strength – demanding respect and shining a bright spotlight on those artists chosen. While we won’t know the result until 1st November, with Alt-J’s ‘An Awesome Wave’ by far the bookie’s favourite, what would it mean to the band to win?

“To be nominated is amazing but to win would be unbelievable,” Joe says. “I don’t think it would change us as a band. It would mean that our venue sizes would increase in size and more people would turn up to our gigs and our album sales would go up. But we’ll go about our business like we did before – only with a Mercury prize.”

The winner of the Mercury Prize will be announced on 1st November.

Taken from the November 2012 issue of DIY, available from tomorrow (1st November). For more details click here.