The Mercury Prize, formerly called the Mercury Music Prize, is an annual music prize awarded for the best album released by a musical act from the United Kingdom or Ireland. It was created by Jon Webster and Robert Chandler in association with the British Phonographic Industry and British Association of Record Dealers in 1992 as an alternative to the Brit Awards.
The Association of Independent Music (AIM) is a non-profit trade body established in 1998 by UK independent record labels to represent the independent record sector, which in 2016 constituted approximately 23% of the UK market. Its members include record labels, self-releasing artists and distributors.
Latitude Festival is an annual music and arts festival set within the grounds of Henham Park, near Southwold, Suffolk, England.
Blissfields was an annual music festival in Hampshire, England founded by Paul and Mel Bliss in 2001 at Bradley Farm, Bradley, near Alresford. In 2011 the festival moved to a new site in Vicarage Farm, Woodmancott near Winchester. The festival is currently 2,500 ticket capacity and has previously seen appearances from Mumford and Sons, Bastille, Laura Marling, Super Furry Animals, Tricky, Dizzee Rascal, Years & Years, and Wolf Alice.
John Patrick Vivian Flynn is a British actor and musician. He starred as Dylan Witter in the Channel 4 and Netflix television sitcom Lovesick and has also portrayed David Bowie in the 2020 film Stardust and a young Nicholas Winton in the 2023 film One Life.
Young is a British independent record label that sits in the Beggars Group of labels launched by Caius Pawson in 2006. It has grown from an imprint of XL Recordings into a successful and influential label now partnered with XL and operates across a range of genres. The label's current roster includes The xx, FKA twigs, Sampha, Jamie xx, Koreless and Kamasi Washington.
Marika Louise Hackman is an English vocalist, multi-instrumentalist and songwriter.
Benjamin Gerard Coyle-Larner, known professionally as Loyle Carner, is an English hip hop musician. After supporting various rappers during their tours, he released his debut album, Yesterday's Gone, in 2017, which garnered a nomination for the 2017 Mercury Prize. He released his second album, Not Waving, but Drowning, in April 2019, and his third, hugo, in October 2022. Carner has been nominated for three Brit Awards.
Let's Eat Grandma are a British experimental pop duo formed in 2013 by Rosa Walton and Jenny Hollingworth. They released their debut studio album I, Gemini in 2016 through Transgressive Records. Their second studio album, I'm All Ears, was released in 2018. Let's Eat Grandma describe their music as "experimental sludge pop".
The Big Moon are a British indie rock band, formed in 2014 in London by frontwoman Juliette Jackson. Their debut album, Love in the 4th Dimension, was released on 6 April 2017, containing a number of tracks previously released on their EP The Road. The album was shortlisted for the prestigious Mercury Prize in 2017. They are signed to Fiction Records and have toured internationally. They supported Pixies on their 2019 UK tour.
I'm All Ears is the second studio album by the British musical duo Let's Eat Grandma, released on 29 June 2018, through Transgressive Records. Four singles preceded the release of the album: "Hot Pink", "Falling Into Me", "It's Not Just Me", and "Ava". The album received widespread acclaim from music critics.
Thomas Abraham Misch is an English musician and producer. He began releasing music on SoundCloud in 2012 and released his debut studio album Geography in 2018. In 2020, he released his second studio album What Kinda Music in collaboration with English jazz drummer Yussef Dayes, distributed through Blue Note Records and Caroline. The Album was nominated for the Best Album Ivor Novello Award in 2021. In 2023 he released his third studio album Happy Music, in "collaboration" with his alter-ego, Supershy.
Anaïs Oluwatoyin Estelle Marinho, known professionally as Arlo Parks, is an English singer and songwriter. Her debut studio album, Collapsed in Sunbeams, was released in 2021 to critical acclaim and peaked at number three on the UK Albums Chart. It earned her nominations for Album of the Year, Best New Artist and Best British Female Solo Artist at the 2021 Brit Awards. It won the 2021 Mercury Prize for Best Album.
Gianluca Buccellati, also known as Luca and Bien et Toi, is a Grammy-nominated and Mercury Prize winning American musician, record producer, songwriter, mixing engineer, audio engineer, and multi-instrumentalist. He has worked alongside artists including Lana Del Rey, Declan McKenna, Arlo Parks, Paris Texas, Tei Shi, Overcoats, Biig Piig, sophie meiers, The Marias, Cailin Russo and Hazel English. Buccellati largely wrote and produced Arlo Park's critically acclaimed debut album Collapsed in Sunbeams, which peaked at No. 3 on the UK Albums Chart, won the 2021 Mercury Prize and was nominated for Best Alternative Music Album at the 64th Annual Grammy Awards as well as for the Album of the Year at the 41st Brit Awards.
David Wrench is a Welsh musician, songwriter, producer and mixer based in London. His work has been nominated for Grammys, Brit Awards and shortlisted for numerous Mercury Prize nominations including the 2017 winning album Process by Sampha. and Arlo Parks 2021 'Collapsed in Sunbeams’. Wrench has been the recipient of the BBC Radio Cymru C2 Producer of the Year award five times in six years between 2007 and 2012 and has received Music Producer Guild Awards (MPGs) including Mix Engineer of the Year 2016 and 2019. Credits include, David Byrne, Frank Ocean, The Pretenders, Blur, Caribou, Goldfrapp, Erasure, The xx, Sampha, Jamie xx, Jungle, FKA Twigs, Glass Animals, Florence and the Machine, Arlo Parks, Alma, Hot Chip, Marika Hackman, Honne, Jack Garratt, Manic Street Preachers, Villagers, Courtney Barnett, Austra, Tourist, Richard Russell, Let's Eat Grandma, Young Fathers, Georgia, Bat For Lashes and Race Horses.
Collapsed in Sunbeams is the debut studio album by British singer-songwriter Arlo Parks, released via Transgressive Records on 29 January 2021. The album received widespread acclaim, with many music critics praising Parks' versatility and vulnerability. The record was supported by seven singles including "Black Dog" and "Hurt". The album won the 2021 Mercury Prize, and was nominated for Best Alternative Music Album at the 64th Annual Grammy Awards.
Hugo is the third studio album by English hip hop artist Loyle Carner. It was released via Virgin EMI Records on 28 October 2022. The album was shortlisted for the 2023 Mercury Prize.
My Soft Machine is the second studio album by British singer-songwriter Arlo Parks, released via Transgressive Records on 26 May 2023. It was preceded by the singles "Weightless", "Impurities" "Blades", and "Pegasus", a collaboration with Phoebe Bridgers. Parks toured throughout 2023 in support of the album.
Alessandro Buccellati is a Grammy Award and Mercury Prize winning American musician, record producer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. He has worked alongside artists including SZA, Pharrell Williams, Miguel, DJ Dahi, Mike Sabath, Orion Sun, Arlo Parks, Sean Leon, Eddie Benjamin, Easy Life and Terry Presume.
