The Mercury is the prize everyone loves to knock, but last Tuesday there weren’t too many complaints. I spoke to a number of people connected with the award, and each confirmed that this year’s shortlist had been whittled down to three contenders: the Monkeys, Guillemots and the former Pulp guitarist Richard Hawley.
Since its inception in 1992, the Mercury has flirted with perversity. The panel famously overlooked Pulp and Blur in its third year, awarding the prize to M People. The award has also come to be seen as a curse: for Roni Size (1997), Gomez (1998) and Talvin Singh (1999), victory seemed more like the final nail in the coffin than a springboard to greater success. When I asked Turner if that had occurred to him, he said: “It doesn’t bother me. If it happens, it happens.” But, as you suspect he believes, it probably won’t.