Mercury Prize Shortlist 2010

The Mercury Prize Shortlist is set to be announced in about an hour, but NME have gone and published it early. Were they supposed to? Probably not. Does anyone care about the Mercury Prize anymore? Probably not. The 12 nominees are:

Biffy Clyro – ‘Only Revolutions’

Corinne Bailey Rae – ‘The Sea’

Dizzee Rascal – ‘Tongue N’ Cheek’

Kit Downes Trio – ‘Golden’

Foals – ‘Total Life Forever’

I Am Kloot – ‘Sky At Night’

Laura Marling – ‘I Speak Because I Can’

Mumford And Sons – ‘Sigh No More’

Paul Weller – ‘Wake Up The Nation’

Villagers – ‘Becoming A Jackal’

Wild Beasts – ‘Two Dancers’

The xx – ‘xx‘

So no major surprises really, although Paul Weller seems to be one no one predicted. It’s also nice to see I Am Kloot and Villagers in there. The winner will be announced on September 7th.

See NME’s original post here.

Dot to Dot Manchester (a.k.a. the day I saw 19 bands in 12 hours)

Dot to Dot has been running since 2005, but 2010 saw it travel to Manchester for the first time. I’ve always been one to admire the line-ups of one-day festivals, forget about them, and later indulge in a great deal of self-berating as everyone talks about just how fantastic this set was, and how unmissable that performance was. So when the Dot to Dot flyer landed in my lap, I thought to myself “Not this time.” (Perhaps the abundance of spare time due to my prevailing unemployment played a big part in the decision making process, perhaps not, I’ll let you make your own minds up). Either way, a how to link in aline-up that included Wild Beasts, Blood Red Shoes and Beach House was not something I wanted to miss. So off I trotted to buy my ticket and wait for the 31^st to come around…