Ever since I saw them play three songs at Bromley Virgin Megastore back in 2001 I’ve been a fan and championed their music and underrated status. So as Jools read out their name, I felt a great whoop of pleasure, but was also secretly struck with a deadly sense of concern.

The Seldom Seen Kid was certainly not my favourite album on the shortlist and not even my favourite Elbow album. I think it’s a good record, but what I loved about Elbow was their shuffling melancholia and textural collages. In contrast, this latest album is big and pushy (not necessarily a bad thing) and in particular on the single ‘One Day Like This,’ which received a lot of radio attention. Except I don’t like that song, I think it’s too obvious and intentionally epic, with a booming, over bearing coda. I hate to say it but it’s a single to be played alongside Keane and Snow Patrol in BMW’s and at dinner parties. My love for the band began to slightly wobble. Now with this award Elbow’s sales could be boosted by up to 500% and I’m afraid they will stray further and wont be the little underrated band I once so cherished.

This is of course bollocks and the typical reaction of a whiney little muso, who couldn’t possibly like anything once it gets big. I’ll be honest; I love to tell people that I’ve known about their new musical discovery for ages. It makes me feel like a big man.

Anyway, who then are the greatest underrated artists? The ones that have never received the recognition they sorely deserve? My personal favourites are The Cooper Temple Clause. I saw them and the Libertines at roughly the same time, just as they were breaking through and I raved about both of them. The Cooper Temple Clause made two great electro rock albums that predated the whole nu-rave thing and then sunk without trace. The Libertines, on the other hand, went and passed into legend almost entirely through hype. Then there is Public Image Limited, a far better band than the Sex Pistols, who were effectively an art statement. PiL are weirder and groovier. Whilst John Lydon is more ironic and twisted than anything he bluntly yapped on the Pistols records.

Other underrated artists that I love are Dennis Wilson, The Crimea, Josh Rouse, The Mountain Goats, Black Star, Gravenhurst, Gil Scott Heron and The Durutti Column. I really could go on. Whilst surely some of the most overrated have to be Oasis, Tupac Shakur, The Klaxons, Red Hot Chilli Peppers and dare I say it? John Lennon.

Which artists do you think are unknown heroes or overblown opportunists? And are there any exceptions to my dreadful rule that an artist loses something after a sudden jump to the mainstream?

This week Nick has mostly been listening to: Roots Manuva’s Slime and Reason My love affair with Rodney Smith refuses to die, another blinding record.

Rage were the band that showed me the bigger world outside of my drab, acne-ridden, sulky, suburban existence (actually what’s changed?) Zack de La Rocha’s politically charged lyrics and Tom Morello’s other-worldly, remarkable guitar playing excited me and framed my new, tortured feelings of life’s terrible injustices - while of course giving me something heavy to mosh to.

I bought their entire back catalogue (still on the iPod), a cracking t-shirt (sadly hasn’t lasted the years) a nifty poster (only my girlfriend’s intervention stopped it from going back on my bedroom wall the other day) and general socialist paraphernalia, including a Che Guevara t-shirt (same fate as the Rage one) and an anti-nazi badge (I had to take it off my satchel, as from afar it looked like a normal swastika, which really wasn’t cool in a multi-cultural south London state school…)

This moment of teenage discovery and obsession is a common experience, but Rage’s comeback got me thinking about the relatively poor music scene I had as a teenager. I’m horrified to say it, but I’m a product of the Nu metal and rap-rock period. Although I’ve never had any love for the commercial tackiness of Limp Bizkit or the gross pantomime antics of Slipknot, I did have love for not just Rage, but Korn and the Deftones among numerous others.

Looking back, I’m unconvinced that middle class white rappers backed by an over-produced rock band, have ever or will ever be any good – I mean does anyone remember Crazy Town?

However, there are some moments where this hybrid does succeed. Public Enemy’s reworking of Bring the Noise with thrash band, Anthrax still sounds fresh today. The genre could even be going through a resurgence. Flobots a rap-rock group form California, are currently having massive success with their latest single Handlebars, and its sweeping political/ moral/ humanitarian message. It may be well meaning, but I always preferred my political message to be about obscure Mexican revolutionary groups.

I suppose the true gift of rap-rock infested teenage years is that it quickly opened me up to other areas of rock, indie and pop whilst also simultaneously initiating a lasting love for hip-hop, two I may not have had the chance to roll back the years at Reading, but I’m sure I can find a moment to put up the poster, stick on a record and find my young revolutionary heart beating once more.

This week Nick has mostly been listening to:
The Verve’s ‘Forth’ – someone should really have told them to put down the hash pipe and do some editing.

So the Mercury prize is here again - time for all us self-styled musos to start scoffing at the shortlist. We will bemoan the glaring oversights by the panel (Portishead’s Three anyone?) We will chortle at the usual token entries of one jazz album (Portico Quartet) and one folk album (Rachel Unthank and the Winterset.) We will nod our heads in approval at bands we love finally getting recognition (British Sea Power? To be honest I always thought their second album was the strongest.) And we will pompously wave away the surprise, underground entry as someone we’ve known about long before the masses buy it up and make it huge. Except, wait a minute, I’ve never heard of the dubstep producer, Burial, an underground phenomena that has sent critics and bookmakers into a frenzy.

Dubstep? I know what that is. I think. I’m down with the kids. I knew about Dizzee Rascal and grime before Boy in da Corner won the prize in 2003. I even remember making my first forays into electronic music in 1997 on mix tapes that featured Roni Size and other drum & base tracks. Untrue is the first time I’ve been blindsided by the Mercury prize and even worse, it turns out it’s Burial’s second album, the first having won a billion prizes and album of the year awards back in 2006.

Unfortunately, I don’t believe the Mercury has suddenly become cutting edge, but rather that I’ve grown old and out of the loop. I’ve realised that I’ve listened to the Robert Plant and Alison Krauss album more than a young man should admit.

So, I’ve downloaded Untrue and thankfully I can say that I love it. It’s a dark strange blend of squeals, beats, blips and slick mixes that portray squalid stairwells, cheap fast food joints and late night tours through London’s inner city estates. Furthermore, Burial is a secretive artist, with only five of his friends knowing he makes music. The album has quickly become the one I want to win on the 9 of September.

I’m sure next year I will return to being an arse who will rubbish the prize with a knowing sneer, rather than celebrating it as one of the few mainstream prizes that awards artistic endeavour and brings little known artists into the spotlight.

The Nationwide Mercury Prize shortlist:
Adele - 19
British Sea Power - Do You Like Rock Music?
Burial - Untrue
Elbow - The Seldom Seen Kid
Estelle - Shine
The Last Shadow Puppets - The Age Of The Understatement
Laura Marling - Alas I Cannot Swim
Neon Neon - Stainless Style
Portico Quartet - Knee-Deep In The North Sea
Robert Plant And Alison Krauss – Raising Sand
Radiohead - In Rainbows
Rachel Unthank And The Winterset – The Bairns

The winner will be announced at the ceremony in London on the 9 September.

So who do you think deserves to win the prize, and who do you think will actually win it?

They claim to have evidence that he is 34-year-old Robert Gunningham. Banksy’s publicists have neither denied nor confirmed the speculation.

However, it appears that the Mail were most shocked to uncover that Gunningham is actually a former public school boy, raised in a leafy Bristol suburb to decidedly middle class parents - Not a dirty oik from a rough inner city estate.

The article also revealed that Gunningham and his friend Luke Egan once lived together in Bristol, but “are believed to have left the house when the owner wanted to sell it.” Thanks Mail on Sunday, now that’s investigative journalism.

In an attempt to create an eco-friendly tour, low energy florescent tubes have replaced the standard light show. These dangle ominously above the band and vary their colour and pulsation for each song. This is fitting for a set that shows the band at their most eclectic. They open with the poly-rhythmic ‘15 Steps’ and include many of those ‘difficult’ electronic songs, such as ‘Everything in its right place’ – probably the most fantastically weird song ever played to such a huge audience. The only genuine crowd pleaser is a rousing rendition of ‘Just’ that is greeted with fervour. However, Radiohead fans are bookish aficionados who listen keenly to the most reserved moments. This is no surprise; I just never realised so many were allowed out this late (I was given special permission, incidentally.) It is this genuine appreciation that leads to Thom Yorke to thank us for our “good vibes,” as he had been petrified before coming on stage. The normally reticent front man even manages to rouse a ‘Free Tibet’ chant.

As the night closes in and the allotted time runs out, they make the brave choice to close with the electro freaky stomp of ‘Idioteque.’ - a song never likely to encourage lighters in the air and a final sing-a-long. Nevertheless, it’s an inspired choice by a big band that still manages to excite with their unpredictability.

Illustrations by Nick Brookes