Friday 10 September 2021.

Thursday 09 September 2021. HYUNDAI MERCURY ALBUM PRIZE is at Hammersmith Apollo. The host will be Lauren Laverne. It will be shown live on BBC4 tv and you can view it at a later date on BBC iPlayer. A dozen acts are shortlisted, and most will play a live track on the night. Arlo Parks – Collapsed in Sunbeams Berwyn – Demotape/Vega Black Country, New Road – For the First Time Celeste – Not Your Muse Floating Points, Pharoah Sanders and the London Symphony Orchestra – Promises Ghetts – Conflict of Interest Hannah Peel – Fir Wave Laura Mvula – Pink Noise Mogwai – As the Love Continues Nubya Garcia – Source Sault – Untitled (Rise) Wolf Alice – Blue Weekend ------------------ A massive red carpet outside the Hammersmith Apollo venue for the dinner and drinks arrivals. Arlo Parks and Celeste are posing for photographers on it , when we arrive. Around 500 are seated in the stalls area on 50 tables of 10. The balcony folks arrived an hour after the stalls dinner folks. The show was on for 1 hour 45 mins, two sets of 75 mins and 30 mins. The first set had 10 of the 12 acts perform a track each. Some great tunes played, so I must buy a couple of the albums from tonight's list. The other two had video clips shown on the big screen above the stage. A nice stage production, but obviously not the same level as The BRIT Awards. The second set was where the winner was announced and they performed again. ARLO PARKS was pretty much the advance favourite to win, and she did. She said she used to cycle to school as a child past this Hammersmith venue, The downstairs tables were full of music industry folks rather than celebrities including record company staff, promoters reps, booking agents, a couple from Music Week, Phil Alexander (Kerrang etc), BBC djs Trevor Nelson and Matt Everitt.

Posted 10th September 2021