THE most exciting and sometimes infuriating thing about the Mercury is that, as with its literary counterpart, the Booker Prize, the final decision takes place minutes before the announcement.

For the bands, the early part offered one last chance to impress the judges with five televised minutes each Hidden in a corner of the Grovenor, 11 music experts argued the case for their album of the year. Out front, the rest of the industry did the same — informally over dinner. In the last minutes of feverish debate, anything can happen, previous judges have said. Arguments and counter-arguments bat back and forth until black is white and every record seems like random notes and chords.

You would have thought that in the year that Blur’s Parklife came out, the winner would be a no-brainer. M People won. Last year the awful Curse of the Zutons came within a hair’s breadth of stealing the honours from Franz Ferdinand.

To which records this year could you meaningfully apply the term “best”? As it turned out, the wave of affection that swept the floor after Antony And The Johnsons seemed to extend to the judges.

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