MERCURY MUSIC PRIZE TONIGHT

Tonight (4th September) sees another dozen British artists sweat it out over a boozy dinner, dressed in their best threads and surrounded by the music industry’s poshest nobs.

Of course, The Fly wasn’t invited to quaff caviar and glug champagne at someone elses expense.

No, no. Britain’s Best Free Music Magazine 2006 (Eat our Record of the Day Award, bitch!) will merely spend the evening in, glued to Teletext, munching on a microwave meal for one and carton of extra strength Ribena, waiting patiently for the results to roll in.

This year’s shortlist – aside from being the dullest of recent years – is unique in the respect that for the first time, it features the previous year’s winners, as Arctic Monkeys’ are again nominated.

Mercury Music Prize Shortlist:

Bat for Lashes – Fur and Gold
Maps – We Can Create
Fionn Regan – The End of History
The View – Hats Off to the Buskers
New Young Pony Club – Fantastic Playroom
Dizzee Rascal – Maths + English
Klaxons – Myths of the Near Future
Amy Winehouse – Back to Black
The Young Knives – Voices of Animals and Men
Jamie T – Panic Prevention
Arctic Monkeys – Favourite Worst Nightmare
Basquiat Strings – Basquiat Strings with Seb Rochford

The judges are made up of a panel of so-called ‘experts’ (none of whom, it should be noted, have ever written anything for www.the-fly.co.uk and are thus woefully underqualified), who have a habit of picking either something incredibly obvious (see Arctic Monkeys’ 2006 success) or something John-Peel-stumpingly obscure (Talvin Singh?). As habits go, it makes them distinctly tricky to predict.

So, will 2007 be an ‘obvious’ year, or an ‘obscure’ year?

Looking at the shortlist, which already contains a couple of surprising choices, it might be safe to assume that the judges have already had their fix of obscure lefty bullshit (we’re looking at you, Basquiat Strings) and are gearing up for an obvious winner.

But then again, who knows.

Time to put on the statto specs and ask the Bookies:

BOOKIES FAVOURITE: Brighton belle Natasha Khan (aka Bat For Lashes) is the bookmaker’s favourite to scoop the 2007 prize. And although they’re traditionally wrong, her album ‘Fur and Gold’ is as short as 8/5 with Betfair.

RANK OUTSIDER: 2003 Winner Dizzee Rascal’s best price is 33-1 with Ladbrokes, but Betfair have him right out at 69-1.

FLY TIP: We wouldn’t like to bet against the favourite, but as we’ve got to, The Fly’s gonna pick Jamie T. Despite the Deputy Editor picking Amy Winehouse. And our mate down the pub ranting on about Young Knives. And our Mum has a hunch about Klaxons. Maybe we’ll leave this betting malarky well alone, eh?

See the latest odds here.