Mercury Music Prize 2008: The Nominees, Part One Over the last twelve moths, thousands of albums have been released. The majority of them are crap, but still somehow seem to get airplay and a clump of fans. The Mercury Music prize, however, aims to honour the best British album released over the last year - the one crafted so well that John Lennon is itching in his coffin to try and claim credit for it. This prize isn’t like your typical Smash Hits or Brit nomination. It challenges your perception of music and doesn’t necessarily nominate the most popular bands. From dubstep to electronics, there is something that will hopefully please the music fan who looks a little deeper then the same ten bands featured in Q magazine. Hold on tight as we go in for a deeper look at this year's nominations, with the rest to come tomorrow.

British Sea Power: “If You’re A Good Drunk That’s The Only Criteria!”

So says British Sea Power's frontman Yan, responding to our question on what makes a good band.

To be fair, it’s only expected from a band who’ve defied the normal way of doing this since they appeared with 2003’s Decline of British Sea Power, from playing with the frankly bizarre Cooper Family, a 200-year-old group of folk singers, to getting into fights with German karate experts and having a giant bear prance around on stage with them. Not exactly Coldplay, is it?

The Spray Q&A: British Sea Power

British Sea power have been wowing music-lovers all over the country since 2003 Decline Of British Sea Power.

They followed it up with 2005's well-received Open Season, touring with the likes of David Bowie, The Flaming Lips and Jarvis Cocker. On the eve of the forthcoming album Do You Like Rock Music? we caught up with British Sea Power frontman Yan to hear tales of helicopters, soldiers, and playing every city in the world...