Also from our busy awards news desk, the shortlist was announced last night for Ireland's Choice Music Prize, a new awards thang that is a bit like an Irish version of the Mercury Music Prize. Music pundit types have picked out twelve albums from Irish artists released last year for their shortlist, with an overall winner due to be announced at an event in Dublin on 28 Feb. Quite a few of those shortlisted won't be too familiar to UK music fans - so any media coverage the award gets over here may well provide a welcome boost to album sales which would be cool. Let's hope that's definitely true for the two CMU favourites shortlisted - Duke Special and Hal.
The shortlist runs thus:
Bell X1 - Flock (Universal/Island)
Cane 141 - Moonpool (Exceptional)
The Chalets - Check-In (Setanta)
Joe Chester - A Murder of Crows (Barp)
Duke Special - Adventures In Gramophone (Hag)
Julie Feeney - 13 Songs (Self-released)
Hal - Hal (Rough Trade)
Nick Kelly - Running Dog (Self Possessed)
Emmett Tinley - Attic Faith (Independent Records)
Turn - Turn (Setanta)
Press info on this from Friction PR - [email protected]