Elbow's Seldom Seen Kid wins 2008 Mercury Music Prize
Elbow's The Seldom Seen Kid wins 2008 Mercury Music Prize
Also In The News
|
Fly-half James Hook was in sensational form as he guided the Ospreys to a thumping 32-10 win over the Cardiff Blues at the Liberty Stadium. |  |
Wednesday, 10, Sep 2008 05:02
Elbow's fourth album The Seldom Seen Kid has won the 2008 Mercury Music Prize.
The northwest quintet had been second favourite to claim the prize behind the secretive dubstep producer Burial but took the prestigious award having been nominated for the second time.
"This is quite literally the best thing that's ever happened to us," said frontman Guy Garvey after the announcement.
"We'd like to dedicate this award to our friend Bryan Glancy, because he was one of the greatest men that ever lived."
The Seldom Seen Kid is named after Glancy, a Mancunian singer-songwriter and friend of the band who died in 2006.
Talking to the BBC's Lauren Laverne following the relative surprise of the announcement, Garvey said the honour was "amazing".
Judge Charles Hazelwood said he and the panel had been "just so passionate about [Elbow] from the start actually".
"We just couldn't talk enough about what they'd done," he added.
Fellow judge Jude Rogers commented: "It's such a passionate record, it's from the heart, it's from the gut.
"It's beautiful, it's romantic, it's dark, it's gorgeous, it's just a really, really wonderful record."
And continuing the tribute, NME editor Conor McNicholas, said The Seldom Seen Kid was "something that you fall in love with, and it feels like falling in love".
"It's incredibly emotional, but it's not self indulgent at all," he went on.
"The album's that good that you will go back to it in years to come and there's some albums on the list that you couldn't say that about.
"And Guy Garvey's a hero. He's the drunken poet at the end of the bar, who just has this aura of cool, and they've had it for years."
Adele, Estelle, the Last Shadow Puppets and British Sea Power were among nominated acts to perform at the ceremony at London's Grosvenor House.
Elbow's win sees them follow in the footsteps of 2007 winner Klaxons, for their albums Myths of the Near Future, as well as the likes of Portishead, Gomez, Arctic Monkeys and Antony and the Johnsons.