CAPALDI IN ALBUM OF YEAR SNUB
Unknowns beat Lewis to shortlist
LEWIS Capaldi‘s millionselling album has failed to make the shortlist for the Scottish Album of the Year award.
The Bathgate singer’s debut, Divinely Uninspired to a Hellish Extent, has been a worldwide smash and is the biggest-selling UK album of last year and this year.
It was included on the longlist for the SAY award but didn’t make the final 10 for a chance to win £20,000.
Clyde radio host Garry Spence said: “I always had a feeling he’d be penalised for his commercial success.
“The SAY award is a fantastic thing – and I’m speaking as a nominator who voted for him to make the longlist – but the bottom line is, there’s a snobbery in the ‘music set’ in Scotland and there always has been.
“I saw a BBC Scotland documentary last year, all about Scotland’s most successful music exports. Calvin Harris got about 30 seconds.
“Sums it all up and completely backs my belief here.”
Nine albums on the shortlist were chosen by a judging panel which included radio DJs Edith Bowman, Ally McCrae, Jack Saunders and chairman John Williamson.
They selected Blanck Mass, Bossy Love, Cloth, Comfort, Declan Welsh & the Decadent West, Erland Cooper, The Ninth Wave, Nova and Shhe.
The 10th, Here Or Nowhere by Callum Easter, was decided in a public vote.
A record-beaking eight of them are debut albums – though that didn’t help Lewis.
Other big names who missed out on the shortlist include Gerry Cinnamon, who is to play a sold-out Hampden Stadium next summer, Twin Atlantic, Mogwai and Deacon Blue.
The winner wi l l be announced on October 29.