My Bloody Valentine frontman criticises Mercury Prize for “banning” their album from shortlist

My Bloody Valentine’s Kevin Shields has hit out at the organisers of the annual Mercury Prize for omitting them from this year’s nominations, claiming that they were “banned” from entering due to the self-released nature of their new album.

The band released mbv, their first LP in 22 years, earlier this year via their own website, avoiding mainstream retail outlets and record labels. This, Shields says, was a deciding factor for the judges.

“Isn’t Mercury a phone company or something, anyway? What’s that got to do with music?” Shields told The Guardian. “We’re banned by them, and do you know why? Because we’re not on Amazon or iTunes. That’s one of the qualifying criteria. You have to have major distribution or be on iTunes or Amazon.”

He continued: “We released our record, mbv, independently. It’s interesting to learn that to be as independent as we are is … virtually illegal. It’s not a real record. Our album’s not a real album because it’s independent. The corporate-ness has got to such a point where we’ve essentially been told that we don’t exist. So, technically, that album doesn’t exist. OK? It’s not allowed to exist according to the Mercury prize.”

You can check out a rundown of who did make the shortlist here.