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Radiohead miss the Mercury again as Elbow win with The Seldom Seen Kid
Elbow have won the 2008 Nationwide Mercury Prize with their fourth album, The Seldom Seen Kid, at the Grosvenor House Hotel in London on 9 September. Radiohead's In Rainbows was on the shortlist, the band's fourth nomination without a win, after OK Computer, which lost to Roni Size & Reprazent's New Forms in 1997, Amnesiac in 2001 and Hail to the Thief in 2003.
Lauren Laverne announced the shortlist of 12 on 22 July at The Hospital in Covent Garden. In Rainbows was up against Adele's 19, Burial's Untrue and The Last Shadow Puppets.
Elbow's first album, Asleep in the Back, was on the 2001 list alongside Amnesiac. Guy Garvey, their singer, collected the prize and a cheque for £20,000.
This is quite literally the best thing that's ever happened to us.
Guy Garvey1
The 2008 Mercury shortlist
| # | Artist | Album |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Adele | 19 |
| 2 | British Sea Power | Do You Like Rock Music? |
| 3 | Burial | Untrue |
| 4 | Elbow | The Seldom Seen Kid (winner) |
| 5 | Estelle | Shine |
| 6 | Laura Marling | Alas I Cannot Swim |
| 7 | Neon Neon | Stainless Style |
| 8 | Portico Quartet | Knee-Deep in the North Sea |
| 9 | Rachel Unthank & The Winterset | The Bairns |
| 10 | Radiohead | In Rainbows |
| 11 | Robert Plant & Alison Krauss | Raising Sand |
| 12 | The Last Shadow Puppets | The Age of the Understatement |