Awards and Awards...

So the Arctic Monkeys won the Mercury Music Prize. That's their 15 minutes of fame over, then. Let's face it, virtually every act that wins the prize ends up fading into obscurity. Very few acts escape the curse of the prize; in recent years only Franz Ferdinand have managed to achieve the same level of success with their follow up album than they have with their winning album. It's a shame really, as a lot of the acts that have won that the curse hit deserved to have more success than they got, Gomez being a particular example. Everyone thought they would achieve great things after Bring it On, but they never did.

I personally would say that it's probably better for an artist to not win or not even be nominated for the Mercury prize- at least they have a better chance of having a lasting career. Don't get me wrong, I'd love it if the Arctic Monkeys could last beyond a second album, but I just don't know whether they can. Furthermore, I can't help but think that the Mercury Prize is now handed to the artist that's had the most hype and most hacks lining up to kiss their arse rather than the artist that has made the best album.

On another note, another awards ceremony took place last night in the form of the GQ awards. Notable winners included Sir Paul McCartney, Jonathan Ross and Keane, the latter scooping the award for Band of the Year. There's some pretty funny pictures of Tim and Richard (Tom wasn't there, of course) posing with Juliette Lewis, who presented them with the award. I should really put a link to them on here!