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Mercury Music Prize
So that was the Mercury Prize for another year and I don't think I remember the audience being so genuinely pleased for a winner before. Apart from maybe the Kaiser Chiefs who's grins looked a bit forced.

There were quite a few of the albums on the shortlist that I enjoyed this year so it was actually worthwhile watching live on BBC4. The Kaiser Chiefs kicked things off playing I Predict A Riot. A difficult thing to do opening this kind of event where you're playing to your peers and a bunch of industry suits. They're not exactly going to be up and pogoing are they? Still they made a decent fist of it. Their albums not bad though maybe a little one note over the piece. I feel a bit tired by the time it gets the end like I just want them to calm down a bit. Unlike them I didn't think they deserved to win and didn't think they would.

M.I.A. was there but disappointingly didn't perform. I've never seen a performance of hers and I was curious to hear it though they did show clips from a couple of promos I'd never seen. The album is great though and this would have been my tip for the prize had I been putting money on.

The Magic Numbers came on and did what they do and did it well though the bass should have been higher in the mix for full enjoyment. It's a good fun album but there were better records on the shortlist (though not many). I'm glad they're there and it's never a chore to watch them on stage but I hope they stretch themselves on the followup as I fear a boredom factor setting in.

Bloc Party's Silent Alarm I only got recently and haven't given it a fair go though their performance tonight didn't grab me.

Coldplay took the piss on their video piece and had no chance of winning. They played the 'Fix You' video and time slowed to crawl as...

Hard-Fi passed me by as I was out of the room. I have the album unlistened but they've never struck me as being very interesting though I'll give them a fair listen when I get the time.

KT Tunstall I like, she seems pretty grounded and for a female singer songwriter appears to be doing something slightly different from either the baring flesh for success route or the anaemic Didoesque route. Quite impressive solo live performance as well using pedals to layer up backing vocals and a rhythm bed. There is the suspicion in my mind that she's heading in slightly too rootsy a direction for my taste though.

Maximo Park - always got the impression they were strictly second division. Surprised to find them here and made no impact on me.

Polar Bear made an impact though. Not least for the drummers hair which deserved an award on it's own. They were never going to win being the jazz entry but I'm curious to investigate further given their performance here (though I suspect I may love them in short doses rather than over a full album). The drummer is in Acoustic Ladyland who gave a brilliant performance on Later a couple of months ago. At first I thought that they had changed their name and this was the same band but apparently not. Nice addition of computer game effects as well played on a console joypad.

Seth Lakeman was the folk ambassador and recorded the album in his brother's kitchen for almost no money and more power to him for that. Not my cup of tea though.

The! Go! Team! Would have been good had they won but didn't think they would. Their performance of Huddle Formation here just left me breathless. Not sure they make much sense live if you haven't heard the record, there's just so much going on. They were the perfect way to end the live performances on the night though.

Finally to the winners, Antony and the Johnsons. I felt good they won though before hand I was hoping they wouldn't oddly. This album is an acquired taste and I'm not sure how Antony or the album will stand up to the amount of attention they are going to get now. For me this was a small private record, not a record to be shouted about from the rooftops. I could imagine a lot of people are going to buy this off the back of this prize and only listen to it once but it repays repeat listenings, firstly to get used to his unusual voice and then to appreciate the songs. It was annoying to hear one of the voting panel and the NME editor describing the album and Antony as 'weird' and 'strange' and having disturbing lyrical content. How about beautiful and confessional and emotional as more appropriate descriptions? Needless to say Mr NME didn't see Antony appearing on the cover of his magazine any time soon which tells you a lot about the way that paper has gone in recent times.

Antony seemed genuinely surprised by it all realising how arbitrary the whole process was - "it's kind of like a competition between an orange, a spaceship, a potted plant and a spoon". It's no doubt going to have a huge effect on his sales and indeed a trip to Amazon has just showed him as number 1 on the sales chart. Good luck to him. 11:35

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