DIY travels North with LNER to the 2025 Mercury Prize Newcastle

Get your bets in, don your glad rags - it’s Mercury Prize week! One of the biggest nights in British and Irish music, the prestigious award honours the best albums produced over the last twelve months and spans all genres, from rock to rap, folk to pop.

And this year’s shortlist is one of the most eclectic, exciting yet. Longtime DIY favourites Fontaines DC, CMAT, Wolf Alice and Sam Fender are all amongst the artists who appear on this year’s Album of the Year list, while others to have been given the nod include pop innovators FKA twigs and PinkPantheress, rap disruptor Pa Salieu, DIY Class of 2025 alum Jacob Alon, and indie legends Pulp. Joe Webb and Emma-Jean Thackray are flying the flag for jazz this year, and folk luminary Martin Carthy completes the list - at an incredible 84, he’s the oldest ever artist to be shortlisted.

To mark the occasion, DIY are teaming up with LNER - the Official Travel Partner of the 2025 Mercury Prize Newcastle - to celebrate the power of journeys, both musical and literal. This year’s Prize heads to Newcastle for the very first time, and has partnered with music development agency Generator to present the Mercury Prize Newcastle Fringe: a programme of special events running across the North East to shine a spotlight on Northern talent and local creativity along the way.

So, now the countdown to the ceremony - which takes place on Thursday 16th October at Newcastle’s Utilita Arena - is well and truly on, we’ve joined forces with LNER to accompany you on the journey there! This special print edition of DIY is all about connecting you to the stories and artists behind the twelve shortlisted albums, the places they come from, and the journeys that inspire them.

In it, we chat to some of the shortlisted artists to dig deeper into their work, and elsewhere, Team DIY give their verdict on why the other shortlisted LPs are game-changing, award-worthy records. So, the real question is: which album do you want to be named the 2025 Mercury Prize Album of the Year?

Head over to our Instagram for a chance to win two tickets to the ceremony, and dive into DIY’s 2025 Mercury Prize Newcastle special edition below.

Get tickets to watch Wolf Alice live now.

Tags: News, CMAT, FKA twigs, Fontaines D.C., Jacob Alon, Pa Salieu, PinkPantheress, Pulp, Sam Fender, Wolf Alice