London Grammar Admit Disappointment at Mercury Music Prize Snub

A strange thing happened last month. While most of the music press were speculation on whether David Bowie, Disclosure and Arctic Monkeys would be nominated for the Mercury Music Prize, the bookmakers had cut indie pop trio London Grammar - comprising of Hannah Reid, Dot Major and Dan Rothman - to 6/4 favourites to WIN the whole thing.

It was an odd market move. Someone, somewhere had gambled on the newly formed group though it was a gamble that would ultimately fail. When the nominations were announced days later, London Grammar's debut album If You Wait was nowhere to be seen.

We caught up with the band after their triumphant set at the Festival No. 6 in Portmeirion where they discussed the bizarre situation.

"It's funny because I think, before any of this happened, it was definitely something we'd thought about," said Dan, "I'd be lying if I said we hadn't. But then since the actual moment when the nominations were announced, loads more great stuff's happened anyway so, in a way, it's taken that weight off our shoulders."

Hannah continued, "Well, the thing is, it was a bit weird to be tipped to win it weeks before the nominations were even announced, and then on the day we were a bit disappointed not to be on the list."

"I don't know, I was the one that really didn't expect it at all," explained drummer Dot, "And to be honest, when you see the list of artists that have been nominated, they're all far more established than we are. In a way, you could even argue a lot of those artists are more deserving of their nominations - not that I'm saying new bands shouldn't get nominated - than we are.

Despite the Mercury disappointment, London Grammar's debut album entered the UK, Australian and Scottish album charts at No.2. It went in at No.11 on the US Heatseekers Albums chart.

London Grammar begins its UK tour at Brighton's Concorde 2 on Wednesday October 16, 2013.

Hannah Reid of London Grammar Performing At Bestival.