Barclaycard Mercury Prize: nominations revealed!

Mercury Prize

We’re sat in The Hospital Club awaiting the announcement of the 12 artists set to vie for Elbow’s crown, otherwise known as this year’s Barclaycard Mercury Prize, and we’re as eager to find out who’s gonna see a sales soar as you.

That was it in short form; we’ve chatted about who our shoe-ins for the Mercury Prize in depth already, so if you haven’t read that yet then have a read.

Micachu? Sons of Noel and Adrian? Friendly Fires? Bat For Lashes? All good bets, if we had our say. Which will hopefully be the case in time (er, hello panel-chooserers) but for now we’ll have to make do with the position of mere onlookers.

So it’s now 11.03 and the room is chocka with hacks and the like, everyone waiting eagerly to see if the list will comprise something interesting, something safe or, well, as per, a combination of the above. Plus your token jazz and folk nominations, of course. If we’re talking outsiders, what would be great (in our expert opinion) would be nods for such wonders as Jeremy Warmsley and The Week That Was. White Lies and Doves and it’ll be just another case of the damned convenience. Not long to wait now… keep hitting F5 for more!

In the event that our social networking skills have already attracted a sizeable crowd of you hitting said F5 (or, god forbid, a CTRL + F5 combo if you’re feeling hardcore), please excuse us while we play the role of a synth-based band on a massive festival stage who’ve just endured a power cut. Is it a joke you’re after? Well you’ll have to wait a bit longer.

Update: it’s now 11.12. You are witnessing the unfolding of my mind. Yes, that’s right, I’m no longer a ‘we’. I just can’t hack it anymore. The room is fairly static. It’s still 11.12.

It is now 11.17. Myself and laptop are now in the studio. It is quite dark here. Estelle’s ‘American Boy’ is playing.

11.20: Elbow‘s ‘Grounds For Divorce’ playing now. See a theme?

11.24 – British Sea Power being streamed. I want them to play something from Portishead‘s Third by accident.

Just hit the 11.25 mark and I have decided to sit on the floor. I don’t possess balance enough to liveblog standing up. It’s just too much.

The main news at an impending 11.27 is that I am stuck with a vintage chewing gum. By which I mean it tastes like dust and is overpriced and unsellable. And old.

Can’t really see that much. Have potentially just spotted person with portable fold-out chair. What is this, the Green Man? Alternatively it could be a tiny pop-up tent.

My poor loves, have I left you without news for four whole minutes? Keep waiting, it has just gone silent… duh duh duh…

False alarm. Laura Marling song is on. Did you know that Laura Marling is extremely popular among the Muso’s Guide writers? I didn’t until very recently. I’d guess they may fight over her at auction.

OOH Lauren Laverne is here. I can hear her. It is dark.

Nominations here!

Glasvegas – Glasvegas

Bat For Lashes – Two Suns

Lisa Hannigan – Sea Sow

The Horrors – Primary Colours

Sorry that was an outburst. So… Glasvegas, I mean really? They’re a poor man’s Twilight Sad. Like a Lidl JAMC. Or should I say Wembley Market offcuts ott-reverb.

Kasabian – West Rider Lunatic Pauper Asylum (is that what it’s called?!)

Led Bib – Sensible Shoes

The Invisible – The Invisible

La Roux – La Roux

The Invisible is a massive surprise! Great news. They’re playing ‘London Girl’ as a highlight, my favourite track. Kasabian though?! Woah.

Friendly Fires – Friendly Fires (hurrah!)

Sweet Billy Pilgrim – Twice Born Men

Speech Debelle – Speech Therapy

Florence and The Machine – Lungs

Well, well! How interesting. Sweet Billy Pigrim representing Willkommen is fantastic news and we were totally right about the lack of Doves. That is just great. It’s an interesting list, more than expected actually. Friendly Fires is great news. But where’s Micachu? Huh?

Some performances are just about to happen here. Lisa Hannigan‘s coming on…

11.39 says it’s lovely, twinkly, delicate folk. Just a thought, hold on – are Led Bib the token jazz? Also The Invisible’s nomination is such a surprise. But Kasabian? Honestly… is it something to do with our #kasabiangate, perhaps? Where’s the ambition there? Wondering if there’s going to be a chance to heckle the judges soon.

Lauren Laverne is speaking in TV voice. And William Hill’s Rupert Adams is here with the odds. Hold up….

10-1 Sweet Billy Pilgrim, Speech Debelle

6-1 La Roux, Glasvegas, Bat For Lashes

5-1 Kasabian, La Roux

Too fast! That’s all we caught. Bets can be made from midday today. But woah there are Kasabian joint favourites? Can someone slap me round the face until this becomes an illusion?

Oh god Kasabian are here. Ever so slightly scared they may find me and try to kill me. HELP.

I saw them once, when I (for some ridiculous reason) went to the Isle of Wight festival. They almost made me projectile vomit. Onto them. I was some way back in the crowd.

(there is a danger of it happening again)

(tell them to hurry up and be less selfish)

(they have just finished, I am going to survive! Woo!)

It’s 11.52. I’ve been moved upstairs. I have a refreshment now, to get over Kasabian.

On the way up, I was just in front of Lauren Laverne who said to someone (T4 presenter, I think), “Peter Andre’s such a lovely man”. Where’s his nomination? Eh?

And for what it’s worth, I’m no WIllkommen expert (apart from seeing the show at the Union Chapel a month or so ago), but I do know that Sweet Billy Pilgrim played it. You try liveblogging at the speed of lightning, commenter. (x)

So, a recap:

Bat For Lashes: great
Florence and The Machine: not
Friendly Fires: brilliant
Glasvegas: really?
Kasabian: suicide-inducing
La Roux: better than Little Boots, still wrist-slittingly bad
Led Bib: unknown quantity
Lisa Hannigan: token folk
Speech Debelle: Plan B favourite, I’m yet to see the attraction – seemed quite narcissistic without charm on first listen
Sweet Billy Pilgrim: surprising, and a super album
The Horrors: surely the favourite? a great LP
The Invisible: also surprising, and brilliant

Everyone appears to be frothing over the T4 presenter. No-one knows who she is. I do. Ha ha ha.

And the odds, to reiterate, suggest that the joint favourites are Florence and The Machine and Kasabian, at 5-1. The outsiders are only on 10-1. What is this, the middle ground?

The cameraheads just went mental for La Laverne. They were baying for her. “Here!”, “oi”, “LAUREN”. Etc. Not really.

A quote from Simon Frith, Chair of Judges: “There are seven fine debut albums on the list and five outstanding records from more established acts, all marking out new ground. What most impresses is the imaginative verve with which British and Irish musicians continue to explore musical possibilities, push musical boundaries and refuse to be pinned down by genre”.

It’s all very well but the 12 albums can be pinned down into a few easy categories: terrace anthems (Kasabian, Glasvegas), female (Florence, La Roux), urban – even though it’s a misnomer (Speech Debelle), not quite made it but received lots of acclaim (The Invisible), dancey indie (Friendly Fires), folk (Sweet Billy Pilgrim, Lisa Hannigan), obscure (Led Bib – who on later reflection, we’d predicted for a nod GO US), great second albums (Bat For Lashes, The Horrors). There’s the 12.

And on a more interesting note, there’s five albums in there we’d like to see win. The other seven on the other hand, would be absolutely terrible. Can you guess which ones?

I know you’re F5′ing like a maniac.

Sorry I just got distracted by Kasabian. I took a brilliant photo of them with my Casio Exilim; award-winning. Laptop battery is dying, sadface. But is anyone still reading this? I realise how unfunny it will read as a stream-of-consciousness-in-hindsight. There is bottled beer flying around, perhaps that is more exciting? Nah, I wouldn’t be so cruel.

I’d like any of the following to win: Bat For Lashes, Friendly Fires, Sweet Billy Pilgrim, The Horrors, The Invisible. So there.

Nothing here could be of more value than M People’s win in 1994, right?

Here’s some multimedia fun! It’s a photo of Kasabian taken by yours truly:

Kasabian

And hot off the press, a photo of the beautiful Natasha Khan (aka Bat For Lashes), who bowled me over at Latitude on the weekend:

Bat For Lashes' Natasha Khan

And on that note, precious and dedicated and humble and loyal readers, I must bid you farewell. The laptop is comatose. More opinion to follow later, thanks for reading and bearing with the RSS feed of my mind!

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