Elbow have won the 2008 Nationwide Mercury Music Prize, beating the likes of Radiohead, Adele, Estelle, and bookies favourite Burial. The Manchester band won the annual music industry award for their fourth album, The Seldom Seen Kid.

The prize was contested by 12 of the best of British acts from this year, all of whom were considered to have released the best albums from the past 12 months. The nominees were announced back in July, when I expressed my desire for Radiohead to win for In Rainbows. But it wasn’t to be.

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The Mercury Music Prize, sponsored by Nationwide, is the annual award given to the best album by a British or Irish artist released in the previous 12 months. The ceremony isn’t until later in the year, but a short-list is first released, with the name of the 12 artists, and their albums, on it which the judges think are the best of British.

Having said that, the Mercury Music Prize has a history of choosing albums by up and coming artists, rather than necessarily widely known artists, and certainly not the best-selling ones. Which means there are always some huge surprises in the short-list, and more often than not, in the eventual winner chosen as well.

Last year saw Klaxons named as winners, for their début album Myths Of The Near Future. They beat the Arctic Monkeys, Dizzee Rascal, and Amy Winehouse along the way, although Winehouse’ performance at the awards ceremony probably invoked more press coverage than the Klaxons themselves.

This year’s short-list has now been published, and the usual surprises are present, as well as there being many names missing that were expected to appear.

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The Ivor Novello Awards are an annual celebration of the best displays of song writing over the past twelve months. It’s British biased, but also highlights songs from abroad which sold particularly well.

This year’s nominations have been revealed, and there is one woman head and shoulders above the rest. Amy Winehouse has managed to secure three nominations, two of which are in one category. All despite Back To Black, the album that the songs come from, having been out for over two years.

Winehouse has Love is A Losing Game and You Know I’m No Good both up for best song of the year, where she will compete with Ben’s Brother for their top 40 hit Let Me Out.

Rehab, which actually won the award for best contemporary song last year, is up for best selling British song this time around. Winehouse will be competing with Beyonce and Shakira for Beautiful Liar, and Mika’s Grace Kelly.

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Thursday night saw the Shockwaves NME Awards take place, the cooler, somewhat more indie version of The Brits. The results were a mixture of surprises and the totally predictable, but one thing which was missing this year was any real controversy.

The Arctic Monkeys emerged as the big winners on the night, taking home three awards, including Best Track for Fluorescent Adolescent, Best Video for Teddy Picker and the award for Best British Band.

Klaxons saw their Myths Of The Near Future album pick up the second big award of the year, winning Best Album to add to their Mercury Music Prize from last September.

In a ludicrous show of support for a junkie who is throwing his talent away with each hit he takes, Pete Doherty was named Hero of the Year, which I disagree with so much. George W. Bush was voted Villain of the Year, which I can’t really argue with. As Ben Elton would say: “Ooh, a bit of politics there.”

Amy Winehouse did manage to win something to add to her phenomenal haul of five Grammys, but unfortunately for a woman hoping to launch her own fashion range, it was for Worst Dressed person.

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At last week’s Brit Awards, one of the many highlights was the collaboration between Rihanna and Klaxons.

The two artists, whose styles vary wildly, made a mashup of Umbrella and Golden Skans work as if the songs had been written in unison, and were always meant to go together.

Now, Rihanna has expressed an interest in releasing the collaboration as a single. She told BBC 6Music (reported here via Digital Spy):

“[It was] really different, very cool, unexpected. But when I hear it, I just want to hear it more. It makes it so much more rock and roll.

“It’s a different tempo and everything. But I actually want to release a version like that. Maybe the same version. I really, really liked it.”

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8pm - Mika opens the show with his distinct brand of high pitched camp goodness. There’s no flashy backgrounds or staging, with the focus seeming to be on his actual singing, and stage presence instead. Which is a refreshing change.

Beth Ditto arrives on stage, and the two of them embark on a duet combining Love Today and Standing In The Way Of Control. Once she’s disappeared behind the curtain, Mika goes in to a bit of Grace Kelly.

Already I can see that the crowd is the combination of enthusiastic fans, and industry types who are just there to get drunk and nothing else.

8.05pm - The whole Osbourne clan come up out on to the stage, all dressed in black, and all looking fantastic… yes, even Kelly.

8.08pm - Chris Moyles takes the stage to present the award for Best Live Act. It’s a good job he’s on radio more than telly as he’s put more weight on, if that’s possible.

Nominations - Muse, Take That, Arctic Monkeys, Klaxons, Kaiser Chiefs. And the winner is…

Take That!

That’s a shocker, from boy band to man band, to winner of best live act. Muse have won for the past two years in a row, and I fully expected them to get it again, but there you go.

Gary Barlow does the speech, and is as down to earth/boring as ever.

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The Vodafone Live awards are one of those small awards ceremonies that is quickly getting bigger and getting more attention. They’re still not on the scale of The Brits or anything, but it ended up being a good show, and the list of winners ticks virtually every box for me. Here are the full list…

Best Live Male: Mika
Best Live Female: Amy Winehouse
Live Impact 2007: Gossip
Best Show Production: Kylie Minogue
Best Live Return: The Police
Best Live Music DVD: Oasis: ‘Morning Glory - A Classic Album’
Best Live Music Venue: Wembley Stadium
XFM Live Breakthrough Act: Klaxons
Channel 4 Festival of the Year: Glastonbury
Kerrang! Live Unsigned Act: The Flaming Monkeys
Best International Live Act: The Killers
Sony Ericsson Tour of the Year: Muse
Best Roadie: Geoff Buckley [roadie for James]
Freddie Mercury Lifetime Achievement Award in Live Music: Iggy Pop

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The Klaxons have won this year’s Nationwide Mercury Music Prize for their debut album ‘Myths Of The Near Future’. The New Rave band beat stiff competition from 11 other artists including Arctic Monkeys, The Young Knives, Dizzee Rascal, The View and Amy Winehouse to win the award at the annual awards ceremony.

But it was Winehouse who came away with most of the headlines, after she put in a surprise appearance at the event and sang a beautiful acoustic version of ‘Love Is A Losing Game’.

The evening awards ceremony at the Grosvenor House Hotel in London saw each band play one song from the album they were nominated for, before a team of industry judges retired to decide on a winner.

Each artist gave a good account of themselves, but Amy Winehouse‘ performance at the event had a special significance after her recent well publicised trials and tribulations.

The Klaxons were the last to perform, playing ‘Golden Skans’ before the break and the announcement of the winner.

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Have you ever wanted to own Oasis‘ Noel Gallagher’s guitar? No?

Ok, erm then what about a pair of Johnny Borrell from Razorlight’s trademark white drainpipe jeans? No again? Well then don’t bid on either of these lots at a forthcoming auction for the charity Teenage Cancer Trust.

Indie promoters Trekstock are organising the auction with all money going to the cancer charity. Other Indie stars coveted possessions up for grabs include a signed guitar from the Kings Of Leon, a signed Klaxons T-shirt and a guitar signed by the whole of Art Brut.

Click here for the main MySpace page about the upcoming auction, and if you’re feeling flush, maybe bid on the chance of owning a piece of Indie rock memorabilia.

The Oxjam festival is a month long UK wide musical extravaganza organised by the charity Oxfam. It started last year and the first event took place during October 2006 raising over £500,000.

This year’s event is due to be even bigger, with 3,000 gigs and events happening all over the country during the whole of October. The aim is to hold the event for the next 10 years and try to raise £10 million in that time.

There’s already some big names attached to the festival, including Hot Chip, Kaiser Chiefs, DJ Shadow and Fatboy Slim. And now some even bigger names have sworn their allegiance to the cause, with the big K trio of The Kooks, Kasabian and The Klaxons all signing up.

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