Behind The Scenes: Mercury Prize ’15

What really goes on...

It’s always strange to suddenly find yourself part of something that you usually watch from the sidelines.

As Clash ducks into a side-door of the BBC building for the Mercury Prize, ready for a night of glitz, glamour and musicians behaving badly, we can’t help being a little disappointed with the “Media Café” we’re led through to – basically the Beeb’s canteen (the chips did look good though) – where expectant hacks and nervous PRs are squirrelled away: the journalists setting up their kit for post-award interviews and PRs preparing to hear whether their artists have won. We’re watching the ceremony unfold on big screens, as it takes place literally in the next room.

Since the Barclaycard sponsorship was replaced by an “association” with the BBC, the years of free booze, three course meals for all, and all-night partying on the house are long gone. Seasoned music journos wistfully remind us of the golden days of the 1990s and one music PR sighs: “Of course the BBC can’t be seen to be extravagant, so, this is what it’s like now…”

But you can’t keep a bunch of music lovers like this down for long, and we’re soon clustering around the screens to watch archive footage of the most memorable Mercury acceptances of the past (highlight: the Arctic Monkeys in 2006 “Somebody call 999 – Richard Hawley’s been robbed!”), a round-up of the surprise, outside wins over the years, and see Lauren Laverne chat with the judges while Slaves pull faces over her shoulder from the row behind.

Performances from the likes of Róisín Murphy and ESKA are mesmeric, and every so often a member of Wolf Alice or Jamie xx scurries out of the main room to the loo, which y’know, is kind of exciting.

Then it’s the biggy, which goes to the epically voiced, timeless, beautiful Benjamin Clementine. “I never thought I would say this,” he near-whispers as he’s presented with his Mercury Award. “If anyone is watching, any child or youngster or student. The world is your oyster: go out there and get what you want to get.”

He begins to cry softly, and asks his fellow nominees to join him onstage, standing together in love and in music. And there’s not a dry eye in the Media Café.

After the ceremony, artists, record company execs and music industry types spill out onto the red carpet (along with the holy grail – a free drinks trolley) and the other-worldly Benjamin Clementine turns his attention to us in the press room. He talks about his journey, from stopping with a mate in Camden to sleeping rough in Paris – he left London with just 60 quid (enough for his ticket) and some dried spaghetti “thinking I was going to get a place to cook it”.

Benjamin’s now infamous story – living on the streets of the City of Light, and busking down in the Metro – is thrown into sharp focus when he tells us that as well as spending it on pianos and a tour, he’ll use some of the prize money to help a cause close to his heart: “I’ve always thought about helping homeless people, since I was once homeless. So if it can, £20,000 should someway, somehow help people.”

His love for and affinity with the French capital is clear: “I realised that we’re all equal and that it’s all about helping each other – I learned a lot of things from Paris. In Paris I learned to grow up as a man.”

“I am English but I do truly respect Paris, the people of Paris, they love art and I really did have to dedicate this to them.”

After thoroughly drying our eyes we chat with classically-trained nominee (and all-round nice guy) C Duncan – up this year for his dreamy, folk-electronica debut LP, ‘Architect’ – over a beer. “It’s the first awards like this I’ve been to, I went to SAMA [the Scottish Alternative Music Awards] a few months ago, but nothing like this,” he says. “It was pretty nerve-wracking in there. I never expected to win, but once you’re there with everyone…this year it really felt like anything could happen, a bit of a free-for-all, so it was really exciting.”

“Anna Calvi was praising my album which was amazing, because I’m such a fan boy of hers. It was totally bizarre and weird to have a panel like that all chat about your album.”

Even though the records off the list he’s listened to the most are Aphex Twin and Róisín Murphy, Chris (we’re on first-name terms now guys) is over the moon for Benjamin Clementine: “His acceptance was really, really lovely, and really humble – it just shows the kind of character he is. His performance tonight was so powerful, such a beautiful, heart-wrenching voice. I’m so pleased he won.”

Trust an artist to put it better than we ever could. Now, where’s that drinks trolley…

Words: Emma Finamore

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