Leonard Cohen comes on stage at a veritable trot, almost skipping, more sprightly by a distance than you would expect of a man in his mid-seventies. The crowd, who have clearly come to adore him, reward his athleticism with a standing ovation. It’s the first of many tonight, although the others that follow are for performances of songs from his majestic back catalogue that are played to something we’d have to call perfection. From the reverent hush that now settles on this vast auditorium, the 02 audience is in its entirety in awe of him, hang on his every word, as if his every utterance is some kind of benediction, the music, in smooth washes, rolling over them, the songs coming in wave after wave over the next three hours. For his part, he is as dapper as the devil, handsomely tailored, a fedora at a rakish tilt, clearly relishing the triumph of his current remarkable comeback, essaying a little soft-shoe shuffle during “Dance Me To The End Of Love”, the opening number. I’m pretty awe-struck myself, as with regal composure, on song after song after song, he reminds me of the ways in which this music has meant so much to me down the years and occupied at times such a central place in my life and the people who’ve shared it with me. And so as I sit as spellbound as anyone else here tonight, enchanted and moved and amused, laughing out loud at parts of Cohen’s patter, which might not change much from night to night but is still wonderfully wry. “The times are hard and a lot of you are going to be driven to drink,” he says, introducing “”That Don’t Make It Junk” as a song that will at that point enlighten particular turning point in our lives. The highlights would include everything on the generous set-list, but mention might be made of gorgeous versions of his earliest songs – “Hey, That’s No Way To Say Goodbye”, “Suzanne”, a stunning “So Long, Marianne”, from The Songs Of Leonard Cohen, and “Bird On A Wire” and a gaspingly beautiful “The Partisan” from Songs From A Room, the latter a lament so haunting it surely brings tears to thousands of eyes. Elsewhere, “Hallelujah”, “Tower Of Song”, “Anthem”, “Who By Fire” and “First We Take Manhattan” are just unforgettable, delivered by Cohen with his shoulders hunched and his eyes closed in secret rapture. He’s elegantly served by a band for whom the word impeccable seems shoddily inadequate, who would seem perhaps too singularly polished and refined if it wasn’t for the quiet passion of their playing – particularly the virtuoso Javier Mas on 12-string guitar, seated to Cohen’s left, who astonishes throughout. And what can I say about the vocal support of Sharon Robinson and the Webb Sisters? Theirs are voices that seem not quite of this world, or even the next, sublime and wondrous and not a little sexy at times. What will stay with me longest, though, is Cohen returning to the stage, the lights still low around him and through the melancholy darkness offering up a sublime reading of perhaps his greatest song, “Famous Blue Raincoat”. “Thanks for keeping my songs alive for so many years,” he had said, introducing the second half of the show, although it must be said that songs as great as these have a life of their own that will outlast us all. First set 1 Dance Me To The End Of Love 2 The Future 3 Ain't No Cure For Love 4 Bird On A Wire 5 Everybody Knows 6 In My Secret Life 7 Who By Fire 8 Hey, That's No Way To Say Goodbye 9 That Don’t Make It Junk 10 Anthem Second set 11 Tower Of Song 12 Suzanne 13 Gypsy Wife 14 The Partisan 15 Boogie Street 16 Hallelujah 17 I'm Your Man 18 A Thousand Kisses 19 Take This Waltz Encore 1 20 So Long, Marianne 21 First We Take Manhattan Encore 2 22 Famous Blue Raincoat 23 If It Be Your Will 24.Democracy 25 I Tried To Leave You

Gentle readers of UNCUT, you can rest easy. While large chunks of the Internet seem obsessed with quite how slavishly close to the original Zack Snyder’s treatment of Watchmen, the Holy Grail of modern comics, will be, I think we can permit ourselves a small smile. Bob Dylan, it seems, is a fan. Dylan’s music is one of the many tangential influences on Watchmen, Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ superhero graphic novel. Readers of the series may recall one key sequence, where we do indeed see two riders approaching while a wild cat howls. Perhaps a less obvious reference point would be “Desolation Row”’; according to Gibbons in a Q+A session following this screening, the lines “Now at midnight all the agents/And the superhuman crew/Come out and round up everyone/That knows more than they do” were one of the starting points for the comic. More conspicuously, “The Times They Are A-Changin’” plays over the opening credits of Snyder’s film, a move that’s apparently been met with approval by Dylan himself. That we’re talking about a superhero movie that uses Dylan as a prominent touchstone should give you some indication that Watchmen isn’t your generic blokes in tights beating up other blokes in tights property. Watchmen, the series, is credited as a pivotal moment when the medium “grew up”, introducing shade and depth to the four-colour world of the comic book. Set in a parallel 1985, where Nixon is President and the Cold War is going strong, Watchmen is still men in tights fighting other men in tights, but among other things, there’s a greater psychological complexity behind the characters and their motivation. One of Moore and Gibbons’ key aims was to deconstruct the superhero genre. So with the character of Rorschach we got the costumed crime fighter as sociopathic vigilante; the question of what would really happen if a character developed total super powers was answered in the blue-skinned, Godlike form of Dr Manhattan; while with the self-made, hyper-intelligent Ozymandias, they explored the idea of how a character’s philanthropic desire to do good could be morally and tragically compromised. And with The Comedian, whose murder opens both the comic and the film, Moore and Gibbons created arguably their most fascinating character: a cynical vigilante turned government agent, whose activities included political assassination and running Black Ops in Vietnam. Of course, there’s more to the comic than that. The incredible detail and layering of the story, the subtle repetition of images and references (clocks, particularly) is extraordinary. The use of a rigid, 9 panel per page grid, echoing film frames, gave the book a broadly cinematic feel. I remember buying issue 1 from Forbidden Planet on Denmark Street in late 1986 and being completely flawed by it. I’d grown up on both Moore and Gibbons’ work in 2000AD – Moore’s The Ballad Of Halo Jones is still one of the greatest comic stories I’ve ever read – but I honestly don’t think I was prepared for how incredibly complex and rigorously intelligent Watchmen was. Which brings me to Zack Snyder’s film. As someone who has no real love for zombie movies, I couldn’t really care much about his “reimagining” (awful word) of Romero’s Dawn Of The Dead. 300 was fine enough, as a literal page-to-screen adaptation. In this morning’s Q&A, Snyder made clear he wanted to do Watchmen justice – if only to stop another film maker from cocking it up. It seems that mostly involves another pretty close frame-for-shot adaptation. One of the three, 10-minute sequences screened corresponds with Watchmen Chapter IV, called Watchmaker, which finds Dr Manhattan alone on Mars contemplating his life. It’s one of the highlights in the comic, displaying Moore’s adroit story-telling skills as he jumps around through time periods – from Jon Osterman being shown the inner workings of a watch by his father shortly after the bombing of Hiroshima, cutting to Osterman’s accident that facilitates his transformation into Dr Manhattan; his relationships; the attempts by the military to turn him into a superhuman weapon. Speaking to UNCUT in 2000, Moore admitted that that issue was “still one of the best things I’ve done.” And Snyder pretty much adapts it, if not shot-for-shot, then as close as to make no difference. But I can’t help wondering why, and exactly who this benefits. Ahead of the Hughes brothers’ film of his graphic novel, From Hell, Moore made an important distinction: “It’s not my book. It’s their film.” Perhaps there’s something of the geek about Snyder, the comic book lover who became a film-maker and wanted to protect the integrity of one of his favourite reads, rather like Peter Jackson and The Lord Of The Rings. But, outside the legions of comic book readers, will anyone particularly care, or notice? As a movie fan, I’m excited about seeing the rest of Watchmen on the strength of the 30 minutes of footage I saw today. As a comic book fan, I’m perhaps oddly less interested in seeing the finished movie. If Snyder had set out to broadly capture the spirit and tone of the series, but brought his own interpretation of the story, it perhaps would be a fascinating exercise in book to movie evolution. As it is, just to transfer the same images from one visually sequential medium to another seems a fairly strange way of going about your business. All the same, good stuff. [youtube]2VLA0tg5yI0[/youtube] Watchmen opens in the UK in March 2009. You can see the trailer here.

As promised, the judges' prevarications over the Uncut Music Award shortlist continue today. Here's what they said about the Elbow record. Monday, I'll post the Drive-By Truckers discussions. Tony Wadsworth: Elbow’s my favourite. I tried to be more interesting than that, because they seem to be winning everybody’s album of the year, so I had to keep asking myself the question “is it really?”. The reason it’s my favourite, I think, is because it actually ticks more boxes than any of the others, but important boxes. Emotionally, I find it moving. I think it’s a completely modern record, which I can’t say the same for a lot of the other very good records on the shortlist. I think it’s a real 21st Century record. I think it’s got brilliant production, it’s got phenomenal songwriting, it’s got really serious and moving songs, and it’s got really funny songs. It’s got dynamics. It’s made in the north-west of England, which can’t be bad. I just think it brings together some really fine influences but makes something that is genuinely modern and doesn’t feel like it’s looking back in any way. It feels like a really good heartfelt set of statements, and ultimately I find it emotionally moving. I suppose that’s what you want from a record, really. Allan Jones: What did you find so moving about it? Tony: I don’t know, some of the lyrics I suppose. This idea of male friendship was one thing that came from it, which is not something that people talk about too sensitively. You know, heterosexual male friendship. Danny Kelly: Let’s be clear! Tony: I’ve seen these lads I don’t want to misconstrue anything! No, because male friendship tends to be laddishness, and this isn’t that. This is real, beautiful emotions between long-term friends. That’s the other thing I like about it, the fact that this is a band that have been together for a long time in the same line-up, and obviously still feel very inspired by each other. They spark despite a music business relationship they’ve had which has been chaotic, and nevertheless have managed to get to where they’ve got. That’s their backstory for me, which I find positive as well. It’s a great shiny 21st century record, but it’s got emotion running through it as well, and I think that’s a rarity. Alison Howe: I like Elbow, but I don’t love them, and I feel like I’m in the minority this year. I know the album’s good, but it doesn’t do huge amounts for me. They’re a band I like, and I’m always pleased when they’ve got a new record out and I always look forward to hearing it, but I just don’t have that moment where my heart goes. I think a lot of the songs on it are great, and I think Guy [Garvey] is a great frontman. He helps deliver the songs, particularly live. I think they’re always so much better live than they are on record. I think they’re quite a male group, they appeal to men. I agree with what Tony said, they appeal to men and maybe that’s half the problem. Mark Radcliffe: A lot of women fancy Guy at the moment. I don’t quite understand it, with good-looking guys like me, Danny and Tony around. Alison: He’s a nice bloke, they’re all great, and I love that they’ve had such a great year, because they’ve grafted and the music industry hasn’t, at times, been kind to them. So, I like all that about Elbow and I want to really love their records but I don’t, I can’t explain it. I love the feeling you get when you hear a record for the first time, which is why I think I really like the Bon Iver record, and I find it hard to be loyal to a lot of groups because I’m quite fickle. I like new things, all the time. I like the Elbow record, but it’s not my favourite. Allan: I must agree to a certain extent, despite Tony’s very eloquent endorsement of it, which made it sound a much more interesting record than the record itself says. But it’s probably my least favourite on the shortlist, I find it very hard going. Danny said that when he was listening to Bon Iver he was thinking “get on with it”, and that’s what I felt here, all the way up to probably the last three or four tracks. It’s very hard to love in the way that I was totally engaged by the Bon Iver record, say. It’s very impressive, but somehow it failed to stun me or really move me. But I do agree that live, at Latitude, they really did bring those songs to life, but it’s still a bit... Mark: I have to declare an interest, in that they’re mates of mine and the manager lives in the next street to me, and if Elbow are playing he picks me up and takes me there. Danny: He’ll soon be moving, seeing as this record’s been so successful. Mark: I also ought to tell you that he’s not expecting to win, because he thinks that having won the Mercury Prize it means that they won’t win this. I don’t think it’s the best Elbow album. I love Elbow, I think there are three fantastic songs on this: “Grounds For Divorce”, that would awaken you out of a torpor, that monster riff; “One Day Like This” is probably one of the songs of the year, it’s an anthem that’s been everywhere; and “The Loneliness Of A Tower Crane Driver”, the one they did at the Mercurys, was astonishing that night. But I think the album is short of killer songs. I think Tony’s right in that it’s very current. It’s a facet of getting to 50, in my case, where everything sounds a bit like something, but Elbow doesn’t. Guy sounds a bit like Peter Gabriel at times, but I think he’s a fabulous singer and a really engaging personality. There’s an awful lot going for them, and they are friends of mine, but it’s coming in probably at about Number Three, for me. I think there’s such goodwill towards Elbow, because they’re such lovely people and everybody’s so happy that they won the Mercury, so happy with the success they’ve had, they’ve made friends everywhere they’ve gone, but I think the reviews have perhaps been one star kind. I think Asleep In The Back, their first album, is choc-full of fabulous songs and I don’t think this is. It’s full of fabulous sounds, and the production is great, Craig [Potter] the keyboard player did it in their own studio. If you knew them you would love them, but for me it’s... Danny: I don’t think Mark should apologise for hearing everything in everything else. One of the joys of liking music over a long period of time, I think, is you can actually enjoying hearing where these people are coming from, even when they don’t know it themselves. Last year when The View’s LP came out I thought, well, I’ve heard every note of this before but I really wished I was 17 again so that I could hear it for the first time. It’s all good. I can’t claim to have ever been a huge fan of Elbow, everything Tony says about the record is exactly right, and Mark. There’s some lovely strange noises on it, and the record is restless at times when you expect it to go straight into a 4/4 time. It is out of a certain genre that British music has got itself into now, but every time you expect it to head for the stadium it doesn’t, and I liked all that about it. There are some brilliant and lovely things about it, I liked the opening track “Starlings” a great deal. I do think having the word “confessional” in your opening lyric is a little bit of a statement of intent, and I don’t get the same emotional engagement that Tony got from the record. Since we’re playing the “who does it sound like?” game, the rhythms of some of the words reminded me of no-one less than Pete Sinfield, who used to write for King Crimson and Emerson, Lake & Palmer! Which is a great thing – not a bad thing, that’s a great thing, in my book. Mark’s right about “One Day Like This”, when I saw them playing that on TV from one of the festivals people were going crazy. Ultimately, I agree with Allan. It’s a kind of music that I don’t personally get that engaged by and often find very dull. I wrote down what I thought was a compliment, but now when I see the words “not dull but dignified” written in front of me I’m not sure whether that’s a great recommendation for a record. What I will say is that I love the way he sings in a north-western accent. That can sound incredibly like you’re doing it because you don’t want to sound like somebody else. It reminded me of when you hear strange American twangs or Caribbean twangs how beautiful it can sometimes be because it’s just not the way you speak. I’ve never noticed it very much in British bands, but Guy really does, it’s beautiful the way he enunciates the words. Of course, “Grounds For Divorce” is an amazing song, it’s like they’ve taken everything that was done in the ‘80s in studios in Germany, London and Chicago and gone “there it is”. That’s how this record could sound, that’s how big it could be. There’s one of the examples where you do need speakers the size of wardrobes so you can go “Whoa, listen to that!”. But I have to say that it’s not anywhere near being my favourite. Allan rather cruelly put it at the bottom of these eight, and I’d probably go with that as well. I know it’s won all the awards, but that’s not what we’re here to do, is it? Linda Thompson: I don’t know what this says about my testosterone levels, but I really loved this record. To write great songs is, you know, beyond hard. I just thought it was great, it’s very wordy, I thought the lyrics were clever, I think Guy’s a really good singer, I like people singing in their normal accents. I wasn’t sentimental about them at all, I know they’ve probably been around for a long time, but to me they’ve only been around since yesterday. I really thought this was a great record. It did engage me, but as I was saying to Danny earlier the stuff I like is far away from folk music. Allan: Were there any songs on it that you thought you might like a crack at covering? Linda: Maybe. It’s hard, I haven’t written anything down. When you sent me these things I listened to them right at the beginning, so now I’ve forgotten them all! I loved the bonus track [“We’re Away”], because it sounded like a cabaret tune. I know it’s an awful word, but I think these guys are brave and unafraid. It’s interesting that Mark says they’re nice guys, because I work with a lot of musicians, and if there’s two piano players and one’s an absolute genius but the most horrible guy, and one’s really good but a lovely guy, I always go for them. I just felt they were really nice people, I loved their energy. I loved it, it was right up there for me. Mark: The togetherness of them as a group is lovely to see, they don’t resent the attention that Guy gets at all. They love the fact that he takes all that off them, and there’s absolute harmony there. Linda: Who writes the songs? Mark: Well, Guy writes the words but there is a contribution from everybody. I think putting it bottom out of the eight is absurd, I mean it’s twice the record that half of this shortlist is to me, but it’s not my favourite.

As promised, here are the judges discussing Bon Iver's "For Emma, Forever Ago". Tomorrow, find out what they had to say about Elbow. Linda Thompson: I liked that there was a lot of life in this, there was no auto-tuning, there was no compressing of the vocals. It’s a little bit like Anthony Hegarty, there’s no phoniness. If you’re going to make a record that was, in a way, a bit pretentious then it wouldn’t work at all. But he’s very true in where he’s coming from, and I like the fact that he’s brought back multi-tracking, I haven’t heard multi-tracking in ages. He’s layered his little voice all over things, and that’s nice. It’s very obtuse, the lyrics, which I don’t like as much as when I was young. He’s mad as a box of frogs, and I like that too. Danny Kelly: A lot of what I thought about it is the same as Linda was talking about. This is a record that is entirely about sound, isn’t it? I got to the end of it several times and I couldn’t work out if he’d made this record in the rush of ecstasy or in the depths of despair. You often can’t hear what his lovely multi-tracked voice is telling us. I liked the sound a lot at first, the strange bits of Beach Boys and Flaming Lips you can hear floating in and out of it. I liked it, there’s nothing not to like about it. Oddly enough, when something different happens, the few occasions when it just allows itself to slip out of its own beautiful little world – and I love records that live in their own little world, it’s something music can do better than anything – I liked it when he disappears and we’re just left with a little instrumental. I remember listening to it the third or fourth time, and when the horns came up in “For Emma”, I almost grabbed them and said “Thank God you’re here”. In the end, I got a bit annoyed with the sound being the dominant thing in it. One thing that all these records have got in common, now that we’ve reached a point in popular music when all the chords have been done and all the lyrics have been done and people spend all their time making them sound beautiful, all these records have got beautiful sounds in them, but this is one for me where that sound got too dominant. Alison Howe: I love records, I like real records rather than MP3s or iTunes, I like to feel them. I got this record quite a long time ago, and I looked at the sleeve and thought “I really might like this”, I think I understood what might be on it. So when I put it on..., it’s interesting that Linda mentioned Antony, because I remember when I first heard Antony’s record, and I had the same feeling. I thought “Who is this?” I think I just got utterly consumed in the story behind it, and felt like I was almost with him in his log cabin. I liked that feeling, because so many records don’t make me feel like I’m with the artist. But also like Antony’s record I did get to a point where I thought “enough, already”, but I still had enjoyed it. It’s quite rare, I find, these days to really enjoy the bulk of a record, so it’s one of my favourites. I wish I could talk more elegantly about the musical aspects of it, but I don’t really feel about records that way, I just know how they make me feel. And this made me feel calm. He came to Later... and played a song from it, and he didn’t let himself down. Tony Wadsworth: It’s not my favourite of the eight, but I do think it’s a very good record. I think other people’s comments about the sound are quite interesting, because it reminds me of jazz records from the ‘50s where you hear the room as much as you can hear the actual music. There’s very much an atmosphere that it evokes, and that makes it intriguing to me. It’s very intimate. But what hasn’t been mentioned is that it’s got some really catchy tunes. Linda: I think so too. Tony: ...So all of those things are great, but I think ultimately the reason why I didn’t mark it as my Number One was because after a few listens I felt it was just a bit too precious, like a piece of china you didn’t want to use because you might drop it. That’s being over-critical, maybe, but that’s what we’re here to do, I think. Overall, it’s a really good album, but it makes me want to hear what he does next, more than want to play the hell out of this album. I do think it’s a beautiful album, but when I hear things on radio sessions or on blogs that he’s done in collaboration with people I’m intrigued more by that. It’s gonna be interesting to see whether he makes this record again, or, like Dylan, where every record is completely different, so let’s hope it’s the latter and that he’s an interesting artist to look forward to. Allan Jones: Yeah, there is this suspicion about him that this is a unique one-off thing, and how do you repeat that. Linda: It’s interesting that you say that, but we can’t really judge him on what he’s gonna be or not, so we have to forget about that. Mark Radcliffe: I think I almost enjoyed him more on Later... than actually listening to the record. I got the album, listened to it, and though it was all right. I know that sounds like a cop-out in terms of a critical appreciation of something, but that’s how I felt. I think all the albums are great, we’ve got a really strong shortlist, and this is alright. But when I saw him on later I thought he was fantastic. He is really engaging, and I think you raised a really pertinent point about the backstory, because it’s such a romantic notion, the gestation of the record which adds an extra layer to it. Linda: It would be so lovely if he’d made it all up, wouldn’t it? Danny: Maybe he has, who knows? A brilliant lie is better than a boring truth, but I’ve no reason to believe this isn’t true. Mark: So, I’m with Tony on this, I do think it’s a really good album, it probably is in the Top Ten of the year, I think the shortlist is about right. But it’s not my Number One. Linda: What do you think his demographic is? Mark: I’ve no idea, I never really think about demographics. I’ve never thought about who’s listening to a radio show, and I’ve never thought about who’s listening to a record. I should imagine it’s people like us, it might be a bit younger than that. Are Radio 1 playing it? Alison: Not during the day. Linda: Ha-ha! I’m going to call my next album that. Mark: I don’t think it’s full of genius songs, I think there are a couple of really nice ones, but I don’t think it’s that consistent.

Finally, we're pleased to announce that the winners of the first Uncut Music Award are Fleet Foxes for their debut album, "Fleet Foxes". Over the next couple of weeks, we'll be posting transcripts of the judges' deliberations here. Today, we start with the judges' summing-up. . . Alison Howe: We’ve got the right winner. Fleet Foxes have made the record of the year, I don’t think there’s any doubt about that. It’s different, it’s brave, it’s fresh, it’s very likeable, it makes you feel good and that’s what’s important in a record. It does feel different to other records, and it’s grown over the year that it’s been around, and it looks like it’s going to continue to grow. That’s the sign of a really good record, I think, it’s not over before it’s started. They made their TV debut in this country on Later..., which was great. I’d been waiting for pretty much a year to have them on, and they’ve been kind enough to hang on for us until our schedules coincided. I think it was a good time to have them on because more people were aware of the record. Linda Thompson: I thought it was an excellent shortlist. I’m very happy with the outcome. Fleet Foxes wasn’t my personal favourite, I loved The Raconteurs and I loved Vampire Weekend because it was so zeitgeisty. I don’t personally take a lot of notice of awards because there’s hardly ever any folky records singled out. But I think it’s wonderful to win awards, I can never understand people who say they don’t care about it, it’s fantastic to win awards. Mark Radcliffe: The deliberations were surprisingly cordial, really. There was no-one who violently hated any of the records we ended up with, which is the way it should have been. There’s no point trying to fabricate friction, and there was nobody passionately opposed to any of the records in the Top Eight. There were two or three that I didn’t think were anywhere near as good as the others, but it was all terribly civilised. I think we had a pretty clear winner, there was a bit of wrangling and deal-doing on the second and third which was more contentious, but the clear winner was Fleet Foxes which is my record of the year by a long way. It might be my record of several years. I just think it’s an extraordinary piece of work, and I think it’s a worthy first winner of the prize. It’s a beautiful vocal creation, it’s a record that seems to have echoes of all kinds of indigenous American music, but also African music and even medieval strains. The instrumentation just fills in around the vocals as necessary. All the songs on the album are absolutely brilliant, and it just has a magical, ethereal quality. Danny Kelly: Without sounding too noncey about it, it was a great honour to be asked to do this, and it was also a great laugh. We had a vast number of records sent over to us, which we had to cut down to a shortlist, and what I thought would be a very, very difficult argument with arm-wrestling and punching women turned out to be much more civilised than that. I thought the Fleet Foxes was the best record, and most people seemed to agree; everyone seemed to love the Vampire Weekend to a certain extent, but after that people started to get a bit antsy. People started saying that they wanted their first choice to at least make the podium, I want it to get some kind of medal. It came down to The Raconteurs or Radiohead, which was a very difficult one to split, I think, because if you liked one you were liable to like the other. They’re both very crunchy rock ‘n’ roll records. As for the Fleet Foxes, people are making fantastic records all the time, but it’s rare that one comes along that absolutely blows your mind. You think, what? Where? Where did they decide to make a record like this? What meeting, what coffee house, what pub were they sat in when they said “We’re gonna make a record where you can hardly hear any rhythm in it, just voices drifting in and out”. Some of it sounds like church music, some of it sounds like The Beach Boys, it’s just an amazing record and I was really happy that not only have people found it but that they really like it. It’s one of those records that will stand the test of time. I’m not sure about Vampire Weekend, I honestly think that might sounded dated some time in the future, particularly if other bands start trying to do that kind of innocent indie mixed with other kinds of world music. I don’t think the Fleet Foxes will. I’m not saying they’ll ever make another great record, because I think this is such an achievement that I can’t see where they can go with it myself. It’s also one that is utterly, utterly loveable. You often hear brilliant records, like the Radiohead one is a brilliantly made record, but it holds me at arm’s length because it’s so brilliant and it’s so mechanical. With the Fleet Foxes, though, you just want to fall into it. Tony Wadsworth: We all had our own favourite albums, but we sat around and talked about the various merits of all of them. The key thing was that every album on the shortlist was something we all loved to different degrees. I came in wanting Elbow to win, because it’s my favourite album of the year, I think it’s got everything. It’s passionate, it’s got great songwriting, it’s really well produced, it’s a tremendous album from the north-west of England. But I was very happy with the outcome, because the Fleet Foxes album is just such a beautiful breath of fresh air. Great singing, great harmonies, it’s got real merit. I was also really pleased to see Radiohead in the Top Three, because I think they’ve probably made their best album. I think it’s their soul album; listening to a lot of those songs I can hear Curtis Mayfield or Bob Marley. There are some beautiful songs on there, one in particular, “Numb”, I remember them recording around the time of OK Computer, it’s such a beautiful, gorgeous song. The paranoid record executive in me felt they left it off OK Computer because we all loved it so much, but I think the reality of it was that they just didn’t feel like they’d made the best possible version of it. They’ve played it a lot live leading up to recording this album, and they’ve nailed it. It’s a great version of what is just a fantastic song that I’ve heard in so many different version before. I think In Rainbows brings together all the best things about Radiohead, I think it pulls in all the different strands of the group. By being a judge for this, I’ve completely discovered The Felice Brothers, who I was completely oblivious to, which is amazing because they seem to be influenced by some of my favourite music of all time. Probably my favourite band of all time is The Band, and The Felice Brothers seem to be so influenced by them that they’ve almost become them. That would be my only criticism of them, really, it’s so close to The Band. But, yeah, I’ve discovered some really good new bands. Allan Jones: We were having a chat in the office about other award ceremonies, and we thought that it was about time, after 10 years of Uncut, that we joined that group of magazines that regularly give out awards. We decided to concentrate on what we’re most interested in, the music. We thought what could be simpler than an award for the very best album of the year, the most exciting, the most inspirational, and that there should be no frontiers involved. So we wanted it to be an international award, as opposed to some others that are just UK-based. We drew up an original longlist of 25 albums, which was whittled down to eight. We composed the longlist based essentially on looking back over our reviews sections over the last 12 months to look at the albums that we’d championed, basically the albums that excited us. From there, we drew up the shortlist of eight that we debated today. We decided to get as cosmopolitan a list of judges as possible. We wanted some broadcasters, some writers, some musicians where possible, a variety of people from different backgrounds. People who loved music, basically, people who would be really into the judging process. When we were thinking about the panel, who greater would there be from the music industry than Tony Wadsworth, who’s had a great history with EMI Records, worked with a lot of incredible bands with incredible talent? Linda Thompson, we love her music, we thought she could bring something different to the panel. We also recognised that Later... is a television show that has a lot in common with Uncut, the kind of music that it champions, so we thought Alison Howe would be a perfect choice for our panel. Mark Radcliffe has also been a champion of great music, is very articulate, very passionate about music, we thought he’d be absolutely perfect for our panel. Danny Kelly, an old contemporary of mine, former editor of NME, is not so involved in music any more but still passionately in love with the music that we write about. We thought he would be a fresh and instinctive voice. I thought it might have turned into a bit of a bloodbath, I didn’t really know what these people would be like in terms of discussing the music, how passionate they would be about the records that I knew they’d voted for in the preliminary round, how hard they would be to budge from those opinions, but as the discussions wore on people were very, very articulate about their choices. There was some persuasion, a couple of people began to change their minds over certain records. It didn’t get as heated as I thought it might. Fleet Foxes, the eventual winners, were a group who’d impressed everybody thoroughly for kind of all the right reasons. That’s a record I think is unique to this year, and will remain unique for many years to come. It came out of nowhere, you couldn’t have predicted its existence. This generally has been a brilliant year for music, most years are great for music, there’s always somebody making a row somewhere. And although this is the first year we’ve done an award, it certainly won’t be the last. Good music will always continue to be made somewhere, in a basement or a back room, and it’s going to need championing. One of the reasons Uncut is here is to champion great new music as well as celebrate and recognise icons like Dylan, The Beatles, The Who, The Kinks, the Stones, so this will go from strength to strength, I think. The response I’ve had from a lot of people in the music industry has been incredibly positive, I think just because of the simplicity of the award, the purity of it, if you like, it just goes to the best piece of music of the year. It’s just for that one piece of music that means the most to everybody.