Antony And The Johnsons’ scoop Mercury prize

A CROSS-dressing unknown singer, who has spent his entire adult life living in America, was the shock choice to win one of Britain’s most prestigious music awards last night. Antony Hegarty, 34, won the Nationwide Mercury Prize in a glitzy ceremony at London’s Grosvenor House Hotel.

His band Antony And The Johnsons’ album I Am A Bird Now was named as the best British record of the year by judges, beating off competition from 11 other acts including Coldplay, Hard-Fi and favourites Kaiser Chiefs.

Antony left his birth place of Chichester, England, aged 12, grew up in California and now lives in New York. His haunting piano-based tunes have won good reviews and I Am A Bird Now features contributions from his musical heroes Lou Reed, Rufus Wainwright and Boy George.

Antony told a stunned crowd: “I think they must have made a mistake. I am completely overwhelmed. It’s insane. “What's really exciting about this night is just this wonderful biennial that shows the rich diversity of the spectrum what’s going on in music at the moment.

“It's been so wonderful to be here just meeting everyone. I love so many of the artists performing tonight, I think it's a bit bonkers to give it to one person.”

He later added that he’d be spending his £20,000 prize money on a new wardrobe, telling us: “I really should buy some new clothes. I look a bit rough.”

Despite previously blasting Antony as “American”, the Kaiser Chiefs said if they couldn’t win then they’re glad the prize didn’t go to a rock rival.
Frontman Ricky Wilson told us: “I would have been very jealous if Maximo Park, Hard-Fi or Bloc Party had won. “We can’t contend with Antony And The Johnsons as they’re so different, so I don’t really mind.

“Although I thought KT Tunstall should have got it.”

And Hard-Fi weren’t too upset about losing either, with singer Richard Archer revealing his group had already made the prize money back in alcohol.
“Antony fully deserves it but we’ve drunk £20,000 worth of booze – so we’ve also won!” he boasted.

The Nationwide Mercury Prize is renowned for throwing up surprise winners.
Oasis, Radiohead, Coldplay and Blur have never won the gong, but M People, Talvin Singh and Dizzee Rascal all have.

Antony And The Johnsons are perhaps the biggest shock victors since the awards started in 1992, but the judges were unanimous in their decision.

Chair Simon Frith told us: “This was the most utterly distinct album of the year. You listen to it and it gets you immediately – you have to respond to it.
“From our point of view whether Antony is British or not is irrelevant, we just pick the best album based on the competition’s rules.”

Excellent choice. Its a great album. Kaiser Chiefs could feel bitter seeing as their album is probably better than Franz Ferdinands offering. Antony and the Johnsons are nice and different. They played here recently and are playing soon again.

It wasn't a surprise to me, even though I think the album is a bit patchy in places, it is totally the sort of thing that wins these kind of awards.

Stuck €15 on Anto to win yesterday and the best price going was 5/1.

Good man Owl. The album is good for what it is. I should of put money on but then again I should of done the lotto and got the numbers right too :)

I really don't like it, plus its a bit controversial as he's been off living in America since he was a kid and the bands American!

Its a British and Irish competition!!!

Great album, great singer. Congrats to them. And as if the Kaiser Chiefs are better than Franz! They are Franz rip-offs if anything...

it was only really between them and hard fi the rest are utter rubbish , kaiser cheifs whats that about terrible manufactured music .

The Chiefs sound nothing like FF. To me the Chiefs sound like Sham 69 crossed with Blur. their singles are basic enough as songs but its great drinking and dancing music.

What is Manufactured Music exactly? Is every album required to be in a genre of its own? Can styles not be adopted by other bands. I assumed a band that is started by two business people looking for 3 boys, 2 girls, one lesbian, one gay, and a minority figure thrown in, forced to wear black suits or white suits or black and white suits and handed 11 tunes and handed out personalities on a little memo, as a Manufactured Band.

I didn't think 5 lads who play together in a band and scribble their own tunes down and have played in your local pub and tried to release a bit of an album as manufactured.

The Kaiser Chief's released a decent debut and the songs are strong enough....

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Originally Posted by Gareth

What is Manufactured Music exactly? Is every album required to be in a genre of its own? Can styles not be adopted by other bands. I assumed a band that is started by two business people looking for 3 boys, 2 girls, one lesbian, one gay, and a minority figure thrown in, forced to wear black suits or white suits or black and white suits and handed 11 tunes and handed out personalities on a little memo, as a Manufactured Band.

I didn't think 5 lads who play together in a band and scribble their own tunes down and have played in your local pub and tried to release a bit of an album as manufactured.

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the kaiser chiefs used to do stuff like radio head then they got dropped by there label so they sat down a said what kind music can we make money out of and came up with there new album its not what they want to play but what they have to play to make a living .so the songs mean nothing to them its just some thing to make money out off , its nonsence music same as FF etc they have no substance and get old very quickly like FF last year were the big band to see get ****ed sing the songs and dance about , this summer i cant listen to the songs anymore it will be the same for the kaiser's next year

manufactured music i use to describe music that means nothing to the artist perfect example is destiny's child
song : bills bills bills where basically to get one of these women you must be able to pay there hair nails phone bills for them
independant woman : a song about how independent there are and they dont need any men !!

its also used for band s that either follow a formula to song writting or get a song writter to write for them , eg westlife

I like my music. Most of my cds are of artists that life for their music and dont really have massive success. However I would not say the Kaiser Chief album is god damn awful cos I do like the tunes. Its not a laster, just like The Killers kinda bores the knickers off me but that is not really its objective. I wouldn't go as far as labelling them with Destinys Child and Westlife thou?

i think this is agreat decision. anthony and the johnsons are not exactly a hugely commercially sucessful band but thats criminal. because they are amazing. haunting and magnificent. this way all this controversy is going to make people check out what all the fuss is about. none of the other bands really need that kind of publicity, they are already doing fine on their own steam.

thought anthony.. would win myself. Thought about backing him. was getting 7/1 on betfair. ah well .. at least the kaiser chiefs didnt win.

On another slightly different note, I was looking at the recording of the awards on tv at the weekend and I thought that the performance of KT Tunstall was excellent. It's not a song that I am mad about but she performed it really well. No band, just her, an acoustic guitar and some effects pedals.....the best live performance of the night.

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Originally Posted by Paulie

On another slightly different note, I was looking at the recording of the awards on tv at the weekend and I thought that the performance of KT Tunstall was excellent. It's not a song that I am mad about but she performed it really well. No band, just her, an acoustic guitar and some effects pedals.....the best live performance of the night.

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Yeah I saw it too and mentioned it on another forum. I thought it was brilliant the way she built up the layers of the song, kinda like song producing by numbers, but not quite. ;)

Really impressive imo.

B.