MAKE IT A DOUBLE! WOLF ALICE HOPE TO GET PAWS ON PRIZE
WOLF ALICE could double their money at tomorrow’s Hyundai Mercury Prize – after revealing they hit the pub after their first triumph but hung on to their wallets.
The Don’t Delete The Kisses singers have never touched a pound of the £25,000 they received when 2017’s Visions Of A Life won the Mercury.
The band are up for another cheque for latest album Blue Weekend, and told GP: ‘We are keeping it under wraps. We haven’t spent the last set of money yet. We actually kept it.
‘We had a plan of a little project we wanted to start working on but it didn’t quite take off at the time. Now we have potentially double the investment.’
But despite their album reaching No.1, bassist Theo Ellis said it came about by accident. ‘We took a little time out for three months when we genuinely didn’t see each other except for going to the pub pub,’ ’ he said said. ‘Then we swapped ideas on songs then rented a little Airbnb in Somerset, and we brought a desktop down there and some guitars, playing tunes for the fun of it rather than thinking we are going to make a new record.’
The band, fronted by Ellie Rowsell, felt their album’s reception was ‘gratifying’.
They will have to beat Mogwai, Sault and Laura Mvula if they are to have £50,000 in the kitty. But if they do, Ellis knows how to celebrate. ‘Our track record says we will definitely be having quite a few pints,’ he said.
‘The Hawley Arms (in Camden) reopened, and everyone we know got out of bed and got changed after we won it the first time. That was honestly one of the best nights I ever had.
‘You have got to celebrate everything that ever happens as you never know if it is going to happen again.’