X-Elliott Pupils Stunned By Their Own Success

As The xx win Mercury award for their debut album

This years winner who beating off competiton from more established names including the bookies' favourite Paul Weller, had attended Putney's Elliott School, as previous Mercury nominees Hot Chip and Burial.

This award means they follow in the footsteps of groups such as Klaxons, Arctic Monkeys and Elbow.

The xx's intimate and sensual sound has impressed critics for the past year. Simon Firth, Chief Mercury judge said:
"It captures something of the uneasy times we live in. It's a very urban record.  It is an album which has an astonishingly coherent sense of itself. It creates a mood and an atmosphere."

The award - called the Barclaycard Mercury Prize -rewards the best album of the past 12 months and is worth £20,000.In addittion it will also mean a huge boost in sales.

Frontman Oliver Sim was stunned by the music prize telling the audience at last nights awards:
"I don't know what we were expecting but we weren't expecting this. We've had the most incredible year and it's just felt like every day we've woken up to something incredible we weren't expecting."

Fellow member Romy Croft suggested spending the prize money on a new studio:
"We made this album in a converted garage the size of a bathroom."

September 8, 2010