The Nationwide Mercury Prize

The winner of the 2008 Nationwide Mercury Prize is Elbow with the album The Seldom Seen Kid.

The Nationwide Mercury Prize is the UK's most prestigious and respected music award celebrating the very best of British and Irish artists.

On winning the 2008 Nationwide Mercury Prize, Elbow's frontman, Guy Garvey said: "I know I'm supposed to be cool and say something coy but this is quite literally the best thing that has ever happened to us."

"It feels great, very unexpected. I suppose you could look at it in the same way that certain Bedouin tribes look at a bowl of milk," he added as a tongue-in-cheek aside. "It's something that doesn't occur very often, and it's so much sweeter for it."

"Having said that, it's been a long time that we've been doing it and this is a cause for celebration. I'm just so very proud that we've been working together this long - to this end. We really wanted this."

The band formed in college in Bury in 1990 and 'The Seldom Seen Kid' is their fourth album.

Simon Frith, Chair of Judges said "The Seldom Seen Kid' is an album of epic songs, rooted in their locality, a switchback of emotions rooted in the everyday, the sound of musical ambition perfectly realised. Elbow's album is triumphant, heartbreaking, unerringly melodic and life-affirming."

For more information please visit the official site http://www.nationwidemercurys.com