Returning for its 26th edition, The Mercury Prize took to our screens with yet another evening of brilliant live performances and a celebration of the British indie-music scene. With all shortlisted artists receiving a trophy, there could only be one winner out of the twelve, and that winner is Wolf Alice with their second album Visions Of A Life.
Having smashed their way onto the indie scene with a run of incredible EP’s, the North London band released the critically acclaimed My Love Is Cool in 2015, before following it up with the incredible Visions Of A Life last year.
Speaking when picking up the prize, lead singer Ellie Rowsell said: “Thank you so much, this means so much to pick this up with my three best friends”
The winner of the 2018 Hyundai Mercury Prize is @wolfalicemusic's 'Visions Of A Life'.#HyundaiMercuryPrize #MercuryPrize pic.twitter.com/qZlz3hkFXp
— Mercury Prize (@MercuryPrize) September 20, 2018
“I remember the first label meeting we had, the geezer said “the fuck are you? you don’t look like a band at all… But here we are, and I can’t believe it Noel Gallagher’s sat there.” – added Theo
"This means so much to pick this up with my three best friends…" ❤️@WolfAliceMusic win the #HyundaiMercuryPrize 2018 with 'Visions Of A Life' pic.twitter.com/0i9FsGfS3T
— BBC Sounds (@BBCSounds) September 20, 2018
Speaking to us about the album’s influences back in September 2017, drummer Joel Amey told us: “Our influences have been there for a long time, our first record wasn’t a full expression of everything that we’re into, we have always been into hardcore punk,” the drummer explains, “we don’t really get influenced by people that we hang out with, it’s more of the case that these people are just fun to drink with and share the stage with – we’re just lucky that our mates are in amazing bands; Slaves are amazing, Peace are amazing, but I think our influences are things that we find ourselves.”
This year’s event saw a series of performances from all twelve nominees, including a special, pre-recorded song by Arctic Monkeys, currently midway through their UK tour the band couldn’t make this year’s event.
Wolf Alice took the coveted prize away, beating out an incredible round of names including Florence and The Machine, Everything Is Recorded, Noel Gallaher’s High Flying Birds, Sons Of Kemet, Jorja Smith, Everything Everything, Nadine Shah, Lily Allen, Arctic Monkeys, King Krule and Novelist.
