Plan B

Mercury Music Prize winners Alt-J could well be adding an Ivor Novello award to their collection of gongs, NME announced today (April 17, 2013). The band have been nominated in the Best Contemporary Song category for their song Fitzpleasure, alongside Plan B’s Ill Manors and The Maccabees Pelican. Alt J won last year’s Mercury Music Prize for their debut album An Awesome Wave. The album has also been nominated in the Album Award category, alongside Beon Howard’s Every Kingdom and Lianne La Havas’ Is Your Love Big Enough?

The awards ceremony celebrates songwriting ability and the remainder of the categories are Best Song Musically and Lyrically, Best Contemporary Song, PRS for Music Most Performed Work, Best Original Film Score and Best Television Soundtrack.

The full list of nominees is below. The 58th annual Ivor Novello awards will take place on May 16th, 2013 at London’s Grosvenor House.

Continue reading: Will Alt J Add An Ivor Novello Award To Their Mercury Gong?

LoveBox is quickly emerging as one of thr most popular festivals in the U.K, as easier to reach, cheaper and less muddy inner-city festivals take precedent over trekking to the countryside and losing all your money in a puddle.

This year, Lovebox will see the likes of Plan B, Goldfrapp, Azealia Banks, Jurrassic 5, Flying Lotus, Hurts, Rudimental, Paul Kalkbrenner, Aluna Georgem Wiley and Foreign Beggars descend upon Victoria Park. Saturday's headliner, Plan B said: “Lovebox at Victoria Park! My home crowd of East London right on my doorstep – I can't wait.” DJs confirmed for the summer festival so far include A-Trak and Mark Ronson while Noisey, Heidi, Red Bull Academy, Hot Creations and Annie Mac, who will each host stages at the festival. Banks said, "I love UK crowds, so it's going to be amazing to play a festival in London." Speaking about their excitement at closing the Sunday session Goldfrapp said: “I am so honoured to have been asked to play at this year's Lovebox festival. It’s a really special festival and I’m excited to get back on stage in front of what is always one of the best crowds!”

Continue reading: Lovebox Line Up Features Plan B, Goldfrapp, Azelia Banks

Mercury Music Prize winners Alt-J have been given their first BRIT Award nods, after being nominated for three awards: Best British Group, Best British Album and British Breakthrough.. Still, despite earlier success the band have admitted that they were still taken by surprise with the announcement of their recognition.

Speaking to NME, keyboardist Gus Unger-Hamilton described the news as "incredible," but admitted that he and the rest of the band were taken by surprise by the announcement, saying: "thought this this wouldn't be for the likes of us."

Last year the group's debut album, An Awesome Wave, received wide-spread acclaim and was awarded the title of BBC Radio 6's Album of 2012 as well as the Mercury Award and with the BRITs constantly vying to remain relevant and 'cool' it looks like the group might also be in contention to take away at least one gong at February's awards show, regardless of what the modest group members may think of their chances.

Continue reading: Alt-J Taken By Surprise By BRIT Nominations

Doing little to dispel their image as white, middle class indie kids, Alt-J pointed out in their acceptance speech at the 2012 Barclaycard Mercury Music Prize that the £20,000 that they won could go towards paying off their student loans. And taking their parents out to dinner. Somehow, you couldn’t imagine Plan B, or Richard Hawley making the same references if they’d won the title.

We’re not entirely convinced by the band’s assertion that they hadn’t thought to prepare for winning the award. As they took to the stage, they said “wow, we literally haven’t prepared for this.” Which shows a gross lack of time management skills, then, given that they have been hailed as the favourites for the award for weeks now and managed to fend of competition from Richard Hawley in the bookies’ odds. By their own admission, they had been tipped as favourites to win before the shortlist even came out. The band decided against naming the people that they wanted to thank, but chose to acknowledge everyone in “team Alt-J,” instead.

Whilst Alt-J are understandably revelling in the praise that has been heaped upon them, for fighting off competition from the likes of Jessie Ware, Plan B and Richard Hawley, one man has taken to Twitter to reveal how Alt-J allegedly tried to prevent him from reviewing their gig, to avoid him publishing a negative reaction. The latest post on the matter, from The Independent’s music critic Simon Price (@simon_price01) reads “Ironically, the call about being banned from the ‪@Alt_J gig came just after I'd been lecturing Solent uni kids about editorial independence.”

The winner of this year's Mercury Music Prize will be announced at a ceremony in London tonight, with British indie pop quartet Alt-J the bookies favourite at 6/4. However, an interesting market mover has sent tongues wagging as to the possibility of an outsider scooping the £20,000 prize.

When the nominations were first announced SkyBet had Sunderland rockers Field Music at 14/1 for their fifth album Plumb, though today, just hours before the ceremony, the band's odds have more than halved to 6/1. That puts them third favourites behind Alt J and Richard Hawley and Field Music are now shorter than Jessie Ware's record Devotion, which has been quietly tipped for the prize. Early favourite Plan B has drifted out to 9/1, while Django Django have also drifted to 8/1. Reacting to a wave of support on their Twitter page today, Field Music told followers, "Thanks everyone for all the kind wishes. Whatever happens we're going to have a right laugh and maybe even a few shandies." Late market movers can often suggest information has leaked out, so if Field Music's odds go any shorter, we suggest sticking your money on! Odds aggregating website Oddschecker.com has obviously noted the market move, tweeting, "Field Music are the big mover ahead of tonight's Mercury Award, 10/1 tops and cut across the board."

Lauren Laverne and Nick Grimshaw will host coverage of the Mercury Prize, which begins at 9.45pm tonight on 4Music. 

Continue reading: Mercury Music Prize: Field Music's Odds Plummet As Ceremony Looms