Wolf Alice celebrate Mercury Music Prize success

(Image credit: Dave J Hogan - Getty)

Wolf Alice have been named the winners of the 2018 Hyundai Mercury Music Prize for their second album Visions Of A Life.

The London outfit’s second album saw off competition from artists including Arctic Monkeys, Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds and bookmakers’ favourite Nadine Shah to pick up the coveted award and £25,000.

Accepting the award, vocalist and guitarist Ellie Rowsell said: “This means so much to pick this up with my three best friends.”

Bassist Theo Ellis added: “When we first started as a band, I remember the first label meeting we ever had. We walked into a room and the geezer said, ‘You don’t look like a band at all. What are you? What are you supposed to be?

“‘All your songs sound different, you don’t look like each other.’ We never really figured it out, but here we are. So fuck you!”

Wolf Alice later returned to the stage to perform Don’t Delete The Kisses from the follow-up to My Love Is Cool.

The band will head out on tour this weekend, kicking off with a run of shows in Australia.

Scott Munro
Louder e-commerce editor

Scott has spent 35 years in newspapers, magazines and online as an editor, production editor, sub-editor, designer, writer and reviewer. Scott joined our news desk in the summer of 2014 before moving into e-commerce in 2020. Scott keeps Louder’s buyer’s guides up to date, writes about the best deals for music fans, keeps on top of the latest tech releases and reviews headphones, speakers, earplugs and more for Louder. Over the last 10 years, Scott has written more than 11,000 articles across Louder, Classic Rock, Metal Hammer and Prog. He's previously written for publications including IGN, Sunday Mirror, Daily Record and The Herald, covering everything from daily news and weekly features, to tech reviews, video games, travel and whisky. Scott's favourite bands are Fields Of The Nephilim, The Cure, New Model Army, All About Eve, The Mission, Cocteau Twins, Drab Majesty, The Tragically Hip, Marillion and Rush.