the xx win mercury prize
First news of the day, and fresh off the press; The xx have just taken out the prestigious Mercury Prize in London, for their acclaimed self-titled debut album.
The £20,000 prize, awarded for the best British album of the year, was announced just over an hour ago at London’s Grosvenor House. After beating out a veritable A-list of British music, including Foals, Laura Marling, Mumford and Sons, Paul Weller and Dizzee Rascal, frontman Oliver Sim seemed stunned by the win.
“I don’t know what we were expecting but we weren’t expecting this,” he said when accepting the award.
The band told reporters that they were going to throw a huge party in celebration of the win, and were planning to use the prize-money to establish their own recording studio.
“We made this album in a converted garage,” said band member Madley Croft.
“I think we’d love to make our own studio, somewhere where we can just experiment.”
The xx now join Portishead, Franz Ferdinand, Arctic Monkeys and Klaxons as past winners of the Mercury Prize.