Electronic outfit claims Mercury Prize
Electronic trio The xx tonight landed the Mercury Prize for their debut album xx.
The south London band won the revered prize ahead of 11 other shortlisted acts at a ceremony at the Grosvenor House Hotel in central London and victory saw it follow in the footsteps of acts such as Klaxons, Arctic Monkeys and Elbow.
The group – childhood friends who attended the same south west London school - beat acts such as bookies’ favourite Paul Weller and past winner Dizzee Rascal to land the award which will mean a huge boost in sales.
The award – fully called the Barclaycard Mercury Prize – is designed to reward the best album of the past 12 months and is worth £20,000 (€24.500).
Frontman Oliver Sim was stunned by the award: “I don’t know what we were expecting but we weren’t expecting this.”
Collecting the prize from award host Jools Holland, he said: “We’ve had the most incredible year and it’s just felt like every day we’ve woken up to something incredible we weren’t expecting.”
The group went to the Elliott School which has a knack for turning out Mercury nominees.
They included Hot Chip and Burial in recent years, as well as a member of Basquiat Strings.
