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'Music to wet your bed to'

Alan McGee former head of Creation records, takes aim at the Mercury Prize nominees - and finds them severely lacking in true rock'n'roll character

Friday 28 July 2000
The Guardian

Looking down the list of Mercury Music Prize nominees, my first thought is: where have all the characters gone in music? Where are the Lee Perrys, the Johnny Rottens? The great music I grew up with is rock'n'roll: it's based in Phil Spector, it's the Ramones, the New York Dolls, Stone Roses, Jesus and Mary Chain, Primal Scream (who should have been on the list), it's the Sex Pistols, the Clash. It's got a rock'n'roll heart. Top of Mercury's list is Coldplay: bedwetters' music. They're Jeff Buckley-lite, the band that you're supposed to like if you're a student. This is what frustrates me about the current music scene.

I understand that the prize covers all genres, and there are some good records among the nominees: The Hour of Bewilderbeast by Badly Drawn Boy - who, out of that list, is the one that deserves to win; Doves's Lost Souls; Death in Vegas's Contino Sessions; Kathryn Williams's Little Black Numbers. But there are also three bands that should have been on that list: Primal Scream, David Holmes and Supergrass. Major characters, every one.

If the Mercury Music Prize stands for anything, it supposedly stands for innovation. So how can David Holmes and Primal Scream be left out? Holmes's Bow Down to the Exit Sign is a fuck off to the dance music scene, and I love him for that. He's a huge character, he radiates charisma, his record is genius, and the fact that he's not been picked is a crime against music.

Then there's Primal Scream. There's no band in the world that can stand up with Primal Scream at the moment. XTRMNTR is a classic, and when they play live, they exude utter, stone cold genius. I'm not just saying this out of loyalty - I don't even own the record company any more. It's just a fact. That record is seminal and the only reason they haven't been nominated for the Mercury is because they're not music business. Primal Scream and David Holmes do not suck corporate cock. They don't play the game. And if you don't, you're out.

As for Supergrass, they knock the shit out of every guitar band on that list. They've got charisma and they look great: they're what a pop group should be. They're all young and they've all got attitude.

People could say that it hasn't been a great year for music, but I don't see how they can when Primal Scream have defined what it is to be a modern rock'n'roll band, and David Holmes has defined the opposite of Ibiza/Club 18-30 dance culture. This is how Mercury started off in 1992: recognising innovation.

I don't want to be entirely negative here because that wouldn't be constructive. From experience I know that the Mercury Music Prize is important because everyone on that list will sell 30,000 more records. I do think that some of the nominees are good choices, and I'm sure someone on the judging panel must have said that they think Helicopter Girl's How to Steal the World and Richard Ashcroft's Alone With Everybody are good albums. I'm a big fan of Richard Ashcroft, of who he is and what he stands for, but I am aghast that those two records have been nominated when there are three seminal albums that have been left out.

What music is missing is maverick, eccentric characters with loads of attitude. But if Coldplay have an attitude about anything, it's passing their A-levels. Richard Ashcroft is a character, Death in Vegas's Mr Fearless is a character, Doves and Badly Drawn Boy are Mancunians - so possibly they're characters.

I respect the Delgados because they put music out on their own label, and I think Kathryn Williams is a character because she's making records on her own little label. But where are the Bobby Gillespies and David Holmes? That's what we want: people that we can believe in, who are larger than life, who we want to be. But record companies are only interested in taking the character out of bands. Individualism is on the wane, corporate globalisation is on the up, and that's what the Mercury nominees reflect.

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