Mercury rising

So Arctic Monkeys have won the Mercury Music Prize. I would normally have written "unsurprisingly" after that opening sentence, but the Mercury prize is rarely predictable.

Current media darlings they may be, but as the obvious favourites, the Arctic Monkeys were always on a hiding to nothing. The Mercury prize has often honoured more obtuse acts (Roni Size and Reprazent anyone?!), and the pre-award favourites have rarely won it.

I'm not usually too interested in the Mercury awards beforehand, but it's always interesting to hear which act the judges have chosen. I first became aware of Gomez when they won the Mercury, and a few years later, the awards introduced me to Ms Dynamite.

For new acts, the Mercury prize can add a few thousand sales to an album's performance - not to mention give them the added bonus of a twenty grand prize.

Which is why I think the award organisers should consider a change of format. Instead of adding bands who already have a massive profile to the list of nominees, they should limit nominations to acts which have just released their debut album.

Asides from that twenty grand cash prize, what could acts like Muse, currently touring the globe in support of their fourth studio album, gain from winning the award? Instead of giving multi-millionaires such as Thom Yorke a pat on the back, give the new guys a chance.

Many of the acts nominated for this year's award would still have made the shortlist under my changes - including the Arctic Monkeys. But new acts such as Devendra Banhart would surely benefit from the exposure far more than Radiohead's gargoyle-in-chief.