THE Mercury Music Prize was won last night by a New York band who only qualified because their lead singer was born in Chichester.
Antony Hegarty and his band, Antony and the Johnsons, will receive £20,000 as winners of the 2005 prize for their album I Am A Bird Now.
They beat the hotly-tipped favourites Kaiser Chiefs, who were given the best odds of 6 to 4 by William Hill.
Richy Wilson, the Kaiser Chiefs' frontman, had said the band were desperate to win.
He said: "People say 'Oh it's just great to be nominated, we don't mind whether we win or not.' They are lying. Everybody wants to win."
Other nominees included Coldplay and the Scottish singer-songwriter KT Tunstall. Tunstall was one of eight artists nominated for a debut album, out of twelve in total.
This year has seen a resurgance in live music, with a total of two million gigs across the UK anticipated by the end of 2005.
Nominees this year were mainly from independent labels.
Seth Lakeman, a Devon folksinger, made his album in his kitchen for under £300 and was one of the outside hopes, with odds of 33/1. Winning the Mercury Prize guarantees a huge increase in album sales.
Miss Dynamite saw her sales rise 700 per cent after she scooped the prize in 2002.
Hegarty said: "They must have made a mistake. I'm completely overwhelmed.
"I love so many of the acts tonight and I think it's a bit bonkers to give the prize to one person. It's a bit nutty."
