Hack at work.
Killing Bono
"The best book I have ever read about trying to make it in the music business" - Elton John
"A fantastic book, which manages the difficult trick of being simultaneously very funny and very sad." - Bob Geldof
"I was Neil McCormick's fan in school. He was much cooler than me, a much better writer and I thought he'd make a much better rock star. I was wrong on one count. He's written a great book" - Bono
The xx factor: its the quiet ones you have to watch
Published: 21 Jul 2010
When the Mercury Prize was announced this week, the xx were quickly installed as bookies favourites. Actually, they were favourites before the shortlist was even announced, topping every critic’s list of predictions.
There are more established names up for the prize (Paul Weller, Dizzee Rascal, Corinne Bailey Rae) but the xx have been taking the music world by stealth not storm, creeping up on the slow lane with one of the most original yet seductively approachable debut albums in recent memory. It never even broke into the UK top thirty (peaking at number 31, although that is likely to change now) but it has already quietly notched up over 150,000 British sales, with another 179,000 in America (where it just scraped into the top 100, at number 92).
Quietly is the operative word. Everything about the xx is low key and understated. Even their name is typed in lower case. Indeed, so minimalistic is the xx’s ethos that when keyboard player Baria Qureshi left right before a gig, they opted not to replace her, instead boiling down their already basic arrangements to accommodate a three piece of drums, bass and guitar.
What is truly remarkable is that they manage to create something unique with such a standard rock line-up.
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Mercury Prize: does anyone actually want to win it?
July 20th, 2010
Gorillaz reflect on their narrow escape from the curse of the Mercurys
Well, here’s that Mercury Prize list. I got six out of twelve in my predictions, so half marks: Corinne Bailey Rae, Laura Marling, Paul Weller, Villagers, Wild Beasts and the XX. I’m not particularly surprised by any of the other six, apart from the Kit Downes Trio, which takes the annual token jazz album spot with a record that has had no impact outside of its tightly enclosed genre whatsoever.
But it is hard to argue with the quality of the contenders. It is a more substantial and, in many ways, more mainstream selection than last year’s list, which I think is down to the simple fact that there has been a lot of interesting music released over the last year that has crossed from the margins to the mainstream. The only question worth posing is whether this absolutely represents the best of British and Irish music from the past year:
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Mercury Prize 2010: my predictions
July 19th, 2010
If I were a betting man, I'd put my money on The XX
The shortlist for the Barclaycard Mercury Prize will be announced tomorrow. But I thought I’d get in there early and announce it myself. Or at least make my predictions. I am slightly hampered by not really understanding the criteria for the prize, but since this seems to be the case for the judges too, I’m not going to let it hinder me.
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