Culture

UK Musicians Enjoy Mercury Prize Sales Boost

by Jarrett Martineau | September 17, 2008 at 08:37 am | 318 views | 10 comments | 4 recommendations

The Mercury Prize is certainly a prestigious honour bestowed on UK musicians every year, however, I had no idea that it could have such a huge impact on sales for those artists fortunate enough to be either nominated, or to win, the award.

This year's prize winning act, Elbow, alongside nominated electronic producer, Burial, have enjoyed a phenomenal sales boost of almost 1000% since the awards were handed out last week.

The 12 bands and artists nominated for the Nationwide Mercury Prize have seen album sales soar by almost 500 percent, music retailer HMV said on Wednesday.
The albums have enjoyed on average a fivefold increase in sales since last week's ceremony, the biggest ever post-awards increase since the event began 17 years ago.

"Untrue" by Burial recorded a 1004 percent rise in sales, while the winning album, Elbow's "The Seldom Seen Kid", saw an increase of 688 percent, resulting in a leap of 54 places to number 7 in the Official UK Album Chart.

"A lot of music fans will be aware of the band and their music, but may not have bought one of their albums before," said HMV spokesman Gennaro Castaldo.

"The band look set to be one of the biggest ever beneficiaries of winning a Nationwide Mercury Prize when measured in commercial terms."

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Aesthetic_Ryan

at 12:35 on September 17th, 2008

British Sea Power put on an amazing live show on April 13, 2008 in Houston. This is a picture of Hamilton on guitar. He and his brother, and lead singer Yan, switched roles of playing guitar and bass on several occasions throughout the night,

Aesthetic_Ryan has contributed a photo to this story.

onlybrothershaggy

at 12:46 on September 17th, 2008

British Sea Power @ Norman Music Festival

onlybrothershaggy has contributed a photo to this story.

Sal E. Mander

at 12:53 on September 17th, 2008

British Sea Power plays the Hi Tone in Memphis, Tennessee.

Sal E. Mander has contributed a photo to this story.

Your High Frequency

at 14:15 on September 17th, 2008

I first saw British Sea Power in King Tuts Wah Wah Hut, Glasgow. There live set is an outstanding performance. The combination of leaves, twigs and guitars worked well I thought. Following this I have seen them a hand full of times and they just get better and better. I had the privilege of taking pictures of them at T in the Park 2008 and they did not disappoint. This is a band that everyone should witness in their lives.

Your High Frequency has contributed a photo to this story.

Alias Rex

at 14:55 on September 17th, 2008

Someone asked me if they could post my photo of John Mayer (in B&W) along with this article. I'm not sure what John Mayer has to do with this article, but whatever. Someone's "elbow" is in the photo, in the bottom right corner, maybe that's close enough!

andrewdeere

at 01:30 on September 18th, 2008

These photos were taken at Reading festival. Where they played a great set. They were about to go off stage when one of the band came back on signaling to the the rest of the band they still had 3 minutes, so they carried on playing the song they were doing and went crazy, carrying each other round the stage.

andrewdeere has contributed a photo to this story.

wonderfuelled

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 02:29 on September 18th, 2008

Jarrett Martineau, I like this story. It's good stuff.

chris friese

at 08:14 on September 18th, 2008

British Sea Power were one of many great bands to make up this years Latitude Festival, playing alongside Death Cab for Cutie and Franz Ferdinand they put on a superb show making the first day, one to remember.

chris friese has contributed a photo to this story.