Wolf Alice have spoken to NME about what they would do with the prize money if they won tonight’s (September 20) coveted Mercury Music Prize for their 2017 album, ‘Visions Of A Life’.
With an award of £25,000 for winning the award, drummer Joel Amie said the band could “do a lot of good” if they were to win the award, which is being held at the Eventim Apollo in Hammersmith.
He told NME: “It’s a huge amount of money. I think in the right hands with bands and stuff you could do a lot of good and a lot of productive work with it.”
He added: “We are based in London so it would be great to get a space in London…[or] maybe go back into the studio whilst we’re having some time off maybe. There’s endless possibilities with a sum of money that big and if we were to win it we would definitely take a long hard think about using it responsibly and creatively.”
Forming in 2010, Wolf Alice were originally a duo made up of Roswell and guitarist Joff Oddie. Joel Amey later joined on drums, followed by Theo Ellis in 2010.
Their debut album ‘My Love Is Cool’ was nominated for the 2015 Mercury Music Prize but they lost out to Benjamin Clementine.
Radio 1 DJ Annie Mac will be hosting tonight’s ceremony, which is set to feature performances from many of the 12 nominees including Wolf Alice.
Other artists performing included Everything Everything, Lily Allen, Florence + The Machine, Jorja Smith, King Krule, Nadine Shah, Novelist, jazz group Sons Of Kemet, and Everything Is Recorded – the project by XL Recordings boss Richard Russell each played one track from their shortlisted album.
The 2018 Hyundai Mercury Prize | Wolf Alice.
⁰@wolfalicemusic #HyundaiMercuryPrize pic.twitter.com/B4NWGM9zWC— Mercury Prize (@MercuryPrize) September 20, 2018
Wolf Alice will see out 2018 with a trio of UK dates in December, details of which you can see below – and you can find any remaining tickets for those shows here.
Speaking about the tour to NME before the ceremony, Wold Alice they planned to do something special on their upcoming tour.
Theo Ellis said: “We are going to play songs that we haven’t maybe ever played live. We are going to play songs that we haven’t played for a while – it’s also very near Christmas so that’s a good excuse to play some of the greatest music ever written, which is Christmas songs!”
DECEMBER
18 – Manchester, O2 Victoria Warehouse
19 – London, O2 Academy Brixton
20 – London, O2 Academy Brixton