Suede’s Mat Osman has said it is “great to be recognised” in the Mercury Prize nominations more than 30 years since the band won the award with their debut album.
New nomination for Antidepressants
The Brett Anderson-led band were nominated for the annual award, which aims to celebrate the art and innovation of album creation, for their 10th album Antidepressants, alongside Sir Paul McCartney, Olivia Dean and Raye.
Bass player Osman, 58, who is the brother of The Thursday Murder Club author Richard Osman, told the Press Association: “It’s great – the thing is, our three nominations have come up at really big times for the band.
“The debut, the comeback record (1996’s Coming Up) and now this new incarnation of the band, and just to be recognised, that we’re still doing it, and still doing really well is lovely, it’s great.”
Historic Mercury Prize win
Suede took the Mercury Prize with their self-titled debut, released in 1993. It helped launch a mainstream revival in British guitar music, which became known as Britpop, and featured hit singles such as So Young, Animal Nitrate, The Drowners, and Metal Mickey.
They were also nominated in 1997 for the T Rex-inspired glam pop of Coming Up, which contained some of the band’s best known songs such as Beautiful Ones, Trash and Saturday Night.
Creative drive and process
Multi-instrumentalist Neil Codling added of the band’s ability to continue making critically acclaimed work: “The thing that keeps us going… is the day-to-day work, which is sitting down and trying to come up with songs out of nowhere.
“That’s the thing that drives us because we’re kind of fascinated and obsessed by pop music and rock music.”
Osman added: “We throw away five-sixths of everything we write nowadays, and it never used to be that way.
“When you start off, everything you write (you think): ‘This is great, it’s going on the record.’ Nowadays, five out of six things we listen to, we go: ‘Oh yeah, it’s great, but we’ve done it before.'”
Ceremony details
The Mercury Prize ceremony will be held on Thursday October 22 at the Utilita Arena Newcastle.
The event was also held in Newcastle in 2025, its first year outside London, where singer-songwriter Sam Fender won the prize for his album People Watching.
Other winners in recent years include English Teacher, Little Simz, Arlo Parks and Wolf Alice.
Along with a trophy, the winner of the Mercury Prize receives £25,000.
