City to host prestigious Mercury Prize awards

NEWS

- DANIEL HOLLAND Local democracy reporter [e-mail]

NEWCASTLE will host the prestigious Mercury Prize ceremony later this year - the first time it has ever been staged outside London.

Hot on the heels of the MOBO Awards earlier this year, it has been announced that another of the biggest nights in the UK music calendar will be coming to Tyneside too.

The annual award celebrates the best new British and Irish music and has been won in recent years by the likes of Wolf Alice and English Teacher, while Sam Fender's Seventeen Going Under was shortlisted in 2022.

A shortlist of the 12 Albums of the Year for 2025 will be announced on September 10, followed by the ceremony at the Utilita Arena on Thursday, October 16.

That show, which will be broadcast on the BBC, will feature live performances from some of the shortlisted artists and culminate with the announcement of the winner.

Enticing the Mercury Prize ceremony to Newcastle is another coup for the city in its efforts to develop an international reputation as a hotbed of talent in the creative industries and become the "future of music" in the UK.

There are also plans for Warner Music to open a state-of-the-art recording studio on the Newcastle Quayside and for a national centre for creative writing in the city centre.