MERCURY MUSIC PRIZE AWARDS 2006
The main thing was , though you’d hardly know it, was that the bands were there - on screen, in person, onstage. They were why it was able to happen. So - Isobel Campbell seemed to be away with the fairies, in a nice way. Mark Lanegan seemed to have been recently disinterred - in a scary way. Thus my Hot tip slithered into Mercury also ran-dom. And up to the top seemed to shimmy Hot Chip (with those zany green specs it wasn’t hard to tell who was the Brains in that band, was it Thunderbirds fans?). But it is at this time of the year, as we knock back free building society supplied fizz and food meet our fellow hacks (lovely people all - I shit you not!), that we should remember those left out in the cold. Banished even from consideration for the nominations because of one simple thing. Money (that’s what THEY want) Bands like The Scanners who perhaps baulk at the fee for Mercury entry (over £250 an album I beleive). Their album, loaned by a neighbour has been the soundtrack this morning. Great title - Vioence Is Golden - and how can you not listen more keenly when the first song springs the “my love leaves a permenant stain” line on you, eh ? Thing I wonder is how does all the Mercury money divide up. It’s not simply that the building society is sponsoring it (getting some of that magic music juju by association) the artists, the artists are actually being asked to make a contribution for the honour of taking part. Is that what makes the prize money? Is the man in the suit, like the landlord in Lou Reed’s Dirty Boulevard, “laughing so hard that he wets his pants? Or is it what pays for the corporate blonde on the table next to us to talk all the way, almost a word for every shummering vocal arc, every tinkled note, of Thom Yorke’s GREAT performance? The disrespect shown for artists playing live - particularly in Yorke’s case when fans, real fans, would have paid handsomely to be were the totally oblivious corporate blonde was - was staggering. The thing is that the artists themselves are sometimes completely unaware - Richard Hawley was - that their record companies pay this money, on their behalf. It was for the then independent SethLakeman a gamble that left him strapped but produced major dividends with his 2005 nomination. My sweepstake pick the Guillemots Fyfe had a top hat, a fabric chess board over his shoulders, big production number for their live performance. ZEitgeisty (sp.?) style quirk - isn’t it striking the way that Fyfe, Yorke, Green Gartside and the OMM editor have all effected this tall bearded, John The Baptist look ? You could almost say, Christ - who’s next? Hopefully it is onward and upward for Zoe Rahman whose performance (accompanied, of course , by the corporate blonde’s incessant chatter) impressed those there for the music (ie both of us) as that of an honest, uncynical and devoted musician. It is certainly good to see women like Zoe and Lou Rhodes and Isabel on the list. Funny but this year it was the excellent Sway’s presence that seemed like the token card in the Mercury Prize, the least acceptable to the people who come to the wing ding to gabber and jaw. As Paul from Rotd reminded me there is a famous music biz adage - all to apparent at events like this - most people don’t like music. Quite literally so, I mean The Arctics are lovely lads an all, but a womanly presence maketh music more meaningful, for some. Though not the corporate blonde who is much more intrigued by the dinky little mini skillet housing the creme brulee. An implement , it must be said, that suggested other uses for those familiar with the rituals involving certain Class A substances. What a sad life, not just ignorant but cheapskate too. Imean if you want to talk all the way through the music , why not go to a restaurant? Oh yeah, I get it because then you would have to pay. Though probably not as much that it would cost for an musician to enter the Mercury…..
