The sad thing about Dizzee winning it last year was it legitimated the whole all-mates-together Jools-on-the-pianner backing Wiley, a clapped out never-was rocker, some disgusting consumer-soul whinehouse etc etc gliberal consensual paradigm (coz it's like all music isn't it?). So it's great that arch-conservative tediocrats Franz Ferdinand won and returned it to what the prize awarders REALLY like (white whingers with guitars). They must have felt their done their duty to the colonies for a while and could now go back to rewarding Proper Music.
Best quote from last night: Vox Pop on the panorama of great British music upon which we were invited to feast (Snow Patrol!), teenage girl - 'Franz Ferdinand...? Haven't heard em. But my dad listens to em...'
Did like that polite m/c singer-fellow's eye make up though. (But shhh don't tell the Department of Cultural Studies in Cornwall.)
Posted by mark at September 8, 2004 11:38 AM | TrackBackFF getting the prize was probably more than anything else down to Mike Skinner's no-show. When considering previous winners (Roni Size, Talvin Singh, Gomez, M People, Ms Dynamite etc.) the Mercury people usually plump for Acts Who Are Likely To Turn Up To The Ceremony rather than the Captain Cook/Jools Holland Let's Do Our Token Colonial Duties routine (though I'm sure the latter plays a part as well).
All Franz Ferdinand inspire in me is the eternal (well, two-year-old) question: how the hell did Duran Duran, whom all of us who were around in 1981/2 knew to be The Bad Guys, The Careerists, The Ambulance Chasers, The Shysters, The Pub Rockers If They'd Been Eight Years Older, end up being The Good Guys, The Godfather, The Primary Influence?
And given what else we know about the atrophied pop scene in 2004, "Take Me Out" going in at Number Three is not equatable with, say, "Radio Drill Time" going in at Number Three in 1981. Now that WOULD have been a revolution in the making.
Posted by: Donnie Smith The Quiz Kid at September 8, 2004 12:06 PM