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The Xfm New Music Award 2010

added 04 January 2012 at 17.13

The xx walked home with the trophy for the Best British Debut Album of the year...

Xfm has announced that The xx has won its highly prestigious Xfm New Music Award for their debut album 'xx'.

Thousands of Xfm listeners voted online at xfm.co.uk for their favourite UK debut album from last year. The ten finalists were then judged by a panel of leading musicians and industry experts who chose 'xx' as The Best British Debut Album Of 2009. The xx beat stiff competition from other bands and artists such as Florence and The Machine, La Roux, Mumford And Sons and White Lies to scoop the third Xfm New Music Award.

Oliver Sim from The xx said: “It’s a big honour. We’re on tour with Florence at the moment and I’m a huge fan of hers and I’d seen the people that we were up against. There’s going to be a big celebration, it’s a huge honour.” Speaking about the album, Oliver admitted, “We did this album for ourselves. We wrote these songs thinking no-one else would hear them.”

This year’s judging panel included Xfm’s Dave Berry, John Kennedy and Clint Boon, as well as Carl Barat from Dirty Pretty Things/The Libertines, Tom Smith from Editors, The Charlatans’ Tim Burgess, plus Tom Clarke, lead singer of The Enemy, who won Xfm’s first ever New Music Award for 2007.

They were also joined by industry producers and experts such as John Leckie who produced legendary albums by bands such as The Stone Roses and Radiohead, along with Ben Cardew of Music Week, MTV’s Digital Media Director David Morgendorff and Xfm listener and voter Madeleine Weinert.

Speaking of the winning album, Tom Smith of Editors said, "It's true originality, something you've not really heard before, it's not linked to sales, it's not linked to critical acclaim, it's something you'll come back to again and again and again. For whatever reason, they're resonating with critics and fans, which is good."

Listen to the Tom Smith interview here

Meanwhile, former winner Tom Clarke of The Enemy claimed: "I came down here to go all out for Florence, because she owned 2009. But I think the right decision was probably reached. It's not the obvious one.
That was the bit that swung it for me, the moment that John Leckie mentioned the record had soul. Because most people in the room and most people that buy music would want their record to be real. Florence is amazing and has had so many big tunes this year, but she'll probably win absolutely everything else anyway."

Listen to the Tom Clarke interview here

Listen to the Carl Barat interview here

The voting was held at XO in Belsize Park, North London - for more information, see www.rickerrestaurants.com/xo 

Tagged as The XX

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