Ashcroft, Death In Vegas, Coldplay Nominated For Mercury Prize

By archive-David-Basham

July 25, 2000 / 4:35 PM

Richard Ashcroft, Death In Vegas, Leftfield, and Coldplay are among the artists whose work has been nominated for this year's Technics Mercury Music Prize, one of the U.K.'s most prestigious awards honoring the best and most innovative album of the year.

The twelve nominated albums were announced on Tuesday during a press conference at London's Commonwealth Club, with the winner to receive the Prize during a gala ceremony at the Grosvenor House Hotel on September 12.

Other albums and artists up for the 2000 Mercury Music Prize include The Delgados "The Great Eastern," Helicopter Girl's "How To Steal The World," and MJ Cole's "Sincere.

Following a head-turning performance at this past summer's Glastonbury Festival and the chart-topping debut of its first album, "Parachutes," British oddsmakers have tagged newcomer Coldplay as the early favorite to take the award.

A panel of select music journalists and industry professionals decide upon the winner,

with Gomez's "Bring It On" album taking home the award in 1998 followed last year by Talvin Singh's "OK.

For Ashcroft, the nomination for his new solo album, "Alone With Everybody," was almost expected, as his last record with his former group, "Urban Hymns" by The Verve, was also nominated for a Mercury Music Prize,

But as he recently told MTV News, Ashcroft realizes it'll take more than a few awards and some past hits to help bring "Alone With Everybody" to the same number of people who caught on to "Urban Hymns.

[article id="1438506"]"In England, it's a small country, and to be famous in England is completely different to being a kind of cool artist in America, which I actually am now,"[/article] Ashcroft told MTV News. [article id="1438506"]"I think once the 'Bittersweet Symphony' thing has died down, [the album will] probably go back to the people who bought 'Urban Hymns' when it came out and 'A Northern Soul.'[/article]

[article id="1438506"]"I'm comfortable at that level, and I'm also comfortable if the record kicked off by word of mouth and things like this, where people will have a chance to listen to it and open up to it. That's the way the record will kick off, I think, and if it doesn't, I'm right there as well.[/article]

[article id="1438506"]"I can go anywhere, really. I can find good in both outcomes. The record could bomb, and I'd be happy, 'cause I made one of the greatest records that ever bombed," [RealVideo][/article] he said, laughing.

The full list of nominees for the 2000 Technics Mercury Music Prize: