Preview: The Mercury Music Prize 2005
Coldplay and the Kaiser Chiefs are among the rock acts battling it out for this year's Mercury Music Prize, the UK and Ireland's most prestigious music award. It will be Coldplay's third attempt at the prize.
Back in 1992, the Mercury Prize was introduced to honour the best of British and Irish music acts. The board recognises all genres, from urban winners Ms Dynamite in 2002 and Dizzee Rascal in 2003 to rock outfits Franz Ferdinand in 2004 and Badly Drawn Boy in 2000.
The award often provides debut or alternative acts a chance to break through into the mainstream. Simon Frith, the chair of the judges, says this year's shortlist celebrates "the power of making music live and entertaining crowds".
Top of the live, guitar-based contenders are Coldplay, with their album X&Y, and Kaiser Chiefs with Employment. But the field is wide open: outsiders Bloc Party with Silent Alarm, Hard-Fi with Stars on CCTV, and Maximo Park with A Certain Trigger, are all vying for the prize. Kaiser Chiefs are the bookies' early favourites for the prize of £20,000 and, more importantly, global publicity.
"It's a weird thing to say, but somehow I feel quite vindicated," says Kaiser Chiefs lead singer Ricky Wilson. "This time last year we didn't have a record deal."
Wilson adds that if the band wins the prize they would donate the £20,000 money to the rehearsal studio in Leeds where they wrote their album to encourage other fledgling groups in the city.
Of the band, Frith says, "They are a wonderful pop band. They are obviously another bunch of boys with guitars, but they write catchy songs. Very hard to dislike."
Other nominees include talented singer/songwriter KT Tunstall with her album Eye To The Telescope; The Magic Numbers' self-titled album of Beach Boys-infused harmonies; urban rap act M.I.A with Arular; and former drag queen extraordinaire Antony Hegarty, whose powerful vocals lead Antony And The Johnsons with their album I Am A Bird Now.
Selecting the 12 nominees is down to an independent panel of judges - music industry experts, journalists, record company bosses - who vote for the 12 most influential albums of the year from a selection of 170 entries. The panel will choose just one lucky winner from the list and announce the results in a star-studded London ceremony on 6 September.
If you're not lucky enough to have scored an invite, you can watch and listen on BBC 2, BBC 4 and BBC Radio 1.
