Mercury Music Prize 2007

[stereoman]

Amy Winehouse is turning up and will be performing (a lot of unhappy punters on that front). The good news is that she's failed to turn up to her first soundcheck!

Ladbrokes have shut up shop, Paddy's odds remain unmoved, Skybet and Betfair have seen a move for Klaxons and to a lesser extent, Maps.

[GaNgStA kEeKs]

Hope Amy Whinehouse wins it. Her album is awesome. One of my favourites this year for sure.

[pydoom]

I guess I would favour The Klaxons at the moment, especially as there has not been a dance-orientated winner since the Diz in 2003. Although, with the current trend of acoustic/nu-folk...whatever-you-wanna-call-it they could well go for Fionn Regan.

So, in summary Basquiat Strings will fucking win

If I hear anything of interest I will post it up, but most of the reps I speak too have a frankly appalling track record in tipping so I do not give too much weight to their opinions.

Yet again the reps and other record label employees I speak too have proved all too useless, but thankfully I have learned to give thier opinions little weight. Still thanks to their interference I didn't have as big a bet as I originally intended

[stereoman]

Hmmm. Unlucky there, pydoom. Warnings signs were there I suppose. Skybet are usually the sharpest in spotting when something's awry and in cutting their odds accordingly. I'm very annoyed considering Klaxons were there for the taking at 12/1 over at Paddy's yesterday afternoon.

Lesson for next year?

1. Hold off bets until one sees where the late gamble is coming from?

~ Possibly. This tactic would have worked five times in the last eight years.

2000: Badly Drawn Boy (beat out Coldplay, late gamble on Badly Drawn Boy though)
2001: PJ Harvey (led from the front, most bookies suspended betting though when Gorillaz were removed from the nominations)
2002: Ms. Dynamite (beat out The Streets who was even odds-on. Ms. Dynamite was 8/1)
2003: Dizzee Rascal (beat out Coldplay and Radiohead, fended off a huge late gamble/ramping on The Darkness. Dizzee Rascal was joint favourite at 5/1 with Coldplay and Radiohead)
2004: Franz Ferdinand (led from the front, fended off a phantom gamble/ramping on The Zutons)
2005: Antony & the Johnsons (beat out Kaiser Chiefs and M.I.A. with a huge late gamble on A&tJ with them being odds-on after their performance in the ceremony over on Betfair)
2006: Arctic Monkeys (led from the front, fended off industry gambles on Richard Hawley and Guillemots)
2007: Klaxons (late, late gamble but one which put paid to the industry gamble on Bat For Lashes and the public gamble on Amy Winehouse)

2. Watch out for ramping and don't bet on the supposed favourite?

I suppose so but this tactic wouldn't have worked three times in the last eight years.

[smk415]

fair play klaxons, wudnt have picked them meself though. prefer artic monkeys