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Mercury Music Prize Nominees Announced

added 22 July 2003 at 13.10

A triumph for good taste as a whole host of quality acts, including Radiohead, Coldplay, The Thrills and The Darkness are amongst the acts nominated in the 2003 Mercury Music Awards.

The list of nominees was announced  at The Commonwealth Club in London today (July 22) at a ceremony hosted by Jools Holland.

Since their inception in 1992, the annual Mercury Music Prize awards have set out to reward the best in British music, regardless of genre or style. An independent panel of judges selects twelve ‘Albums of The Year’, before choosing on and announcing the overall winner on the night of the Mercury Music Show.

The awards often provide new or less traditionally commercial acts with a chance to break through into the mainstream, and have a significant effect on album sales (and can boost them by anything from 20% to 100%). Previous winners such as Gomez, Roni Size, Talvin Singh and Badly Drawn Boy have all benefited from the exposure the awards attract (as well as the estimated £20,000 prize money).

Those in the running to follow the success of last year’s winner, Ms Dynamite, include Coldplay (surprise, surprise) for their multi-award winning album ‘A Rush of Blood To The Head’, Lemon Jelly for 'Lost Horizons', Radiohead for their sixth studio release ‘Hail To The Thief’ plus newcomers The Thrills for 'So Much For The City' and The Darkness for ‘Permission To Land’.

Elsewhere urban music is represented by Dizzee Rascal's  'Boy In Da Corner', Floetry's 'Floetic' and Terri Walker's album 'Untitled' while the token jazz and folk nominees are Sweto Kinch with 'Conversations With The Unseen' and Eliza Carthy's 'Angelicana', respectively.

The list features familiar Mercury faces such as Coldplay who were nominated in 2000 but lost out to Badly Drawn Boy while Radiohead have been up for two awards for 'Amnesiac' in 2001 and in 1997 for 'OK Computer' - but have never won. However, according to bookmakers William Hill both bands are joint favourites to win with 4/1 odds.

The winner will be revealed at a ceremony on September 9.

The full list of nominees is (with current betting odds)

• Radiohead ‘Hail To The Thief’ (4/1)
  
• Dizzee Rascal ‘Boy in Da Corner' (6/1)
  
• The Thrills ‘So Much For The City’ (6/1)
  
• Soweto Kinch ‘Conversations in The Unseen’ (10/1)
  
• Floetry ‘Floetic’ (10/1)
  
• The Darkness ‘Permission To Land’ (6/1)
  
• Coldplay ‘A Rush of Blood To The Head’ (4/1)
  
• Martina Topley Bird ‘Quixotic’ (12/1)
  
• Eliza Carthy ‘Angelicana’ (12/1)
  
• Athlete ‘Vehicles and Animals’ (8/1)
  
• Terri Walker ‘Untitled’ (8/1)
  
• Lemon Jelly ‘Lost Horizons’ (12/1)

Matt Everitt

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