Mercury nominated buzz band Hard-Fi, who are in the US at the moment having a bash at recruiting American fans, were slightly confused when they first heard about their recent nomination for debut album 'Stars Of CC TV'. The band were playing a gig at New York's Mercury Lounge alongside Nine Black Alps, and the fact that the venue shared a name with the Music Prize led to a moment of misunderstanding when news of the nomination first came through. NME report that Frontman Richard Archer admitted: "We thought, 'What, they give you an award for just playing the Mercury Lounge?' Then the penny dropped. 'Oh that Mercury Prize'."
Archer also spoke about the band's recent gig at the Neighbourhood club in London, and the fact that all this is happening so very quickly: "It's all a bit of a blur. We'll probably look back on it say 'Man, remember when we did that? Neighbourhood was one of our favourite shows to date, it was a great atmosphere. We did that show, we made this video on Saturday when we were on top of a building in Brentford. Then we're in New York getting word of a Mercury nomination. It's totally mad, it hasn't really sunk in yet."
He went on: "It's kind of mad when you look at the other artists who are nominated and you see Coldplay, and when you think that their album was recorded in the poshest studios around and ours was done in a lock-up in Staines. Half of it was done for £300 and the other half was done for probably about a grand and they bought us a few extra microphones. It was all DIY and here we are with a Mercury nomination, it's kind of crazy. I didn't realise we were up for it, I thought we'd missed the cut-off point."