Somewhat surprisingly the
Mercury Music Prize went to
Antony and the Johnsons last night, while slightly less surprisingly it was
Girls Aloud who took the
Popjustice Music Prize. We're off to the pub tonight, so a 'full' look at these events will have to wait until tomorrow, but until then, here's ten entirely true and in no way made up facts about the Mercury:-
- Each year the Mercury Music Prize judges gather together under the guise of choosing the year's best album based on a various criteria, the main one being "Which artist could really do with a sales boost at this notoriously sluggish time of year?"
- Thanks to the band's recurring threats to "break their fucking legs", the organisers guarantee Radiohead a nomination every other year.
- As part of a tie in with that year's Comic Relief appeal, the 1994 prize went to M People.
- According to main organiser bloke Simon Firth, the judging panel were "roaringly drunk" the year they decided that Gomez made the best album, and is still apologising for this decision to this day.
- The Spice Girls were robbed in 1997.
- Badly Drawn Boy, who won in 2000, cashed in his cheque and promptly used the money to order a brand new tea cosy wrought from the finest gold thread to wear upon his unwashed head.
- Every year people waste their hard earned cash betting hopefully on the folk/classical/jazz entrants.
- Coldplay really did deserve both of their nominations.
- Despite the meal looking quite fancy on the telly, each table is actually only given a £5.99 KFC Party Bucket to share between them. Vegetarians in attendance have been known to come to blows over who gets to have the coleslaw.
- If you buy every album to have ever been nominated and proudly display them as your record collection, people will come to the swift conclusion that your taste in music is generally pretty lacking.
music mercury music prize mercury
