My Bloody Valentine’s Kevin Shields has hit out at the Mercury Music Prize judges for not putting their album MBV up for nomination, saying how the band “essentially doesn’t exist” due to them being independent.
In an interview with The Guardian, Shields said: “Isn’t Mercury a phone company or something, anyway? What’s that got to do with music? We’re banned by them, and do you know why? Because we’re not on Amazon or iTunes. That’s one of the qualifying criteria. You have to have major distribution or be on iTunes or Amazon.”
“It’s interesting to learn that to be as independent as we are is… virtually illegal,” he continued. “It’s not a real record. Our album’s not a real album because it’s independent. The corporate-ness has got to such a point where we’ve essentially been told that we don’t exist. So, technically, that album doesn’t exist. OK? It’s not allowed to exist according to the Mercury Prize.”
MBV received widespread critical acclaim upon its release, with Crave Online’s Iann Robinson branding it “a triumph for the band.”
The artists nominated for this year’s Mercury Music Prize include Arctic Monkeys, David Bowie and Jake Bugg. Check out the full list of nominees here.
