Arctic Monkeys Take The 2006 Mercury Prize

In an about-face from last year's surprising result, the Arctic Monkeys have taken home the 2006 Nationwide Mercury Prize.

The yearly award that honours the best British or Irish album of the year was bestowed upon the Sheffield quartet for their Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not debut. They beat out quality discs from the likes of Thom Yorke, Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan, Muse, Editors and Richard Hawley.

The decision wasn't shocking, as the Monkeys were favoured to pick up the prize, but frontman Alex Turner was nonetheless surprised — or at least he feigned it.

While accepting the award, he told the audience, "Somebody call 999 [the British equivalent of 911], Richard Hawley has been robbed. Normally it doesn't go to a band that has sold as many records as us, to put it bluntly. But we're very pleased with it, because good tunes is what we try to do. And too many people are trying to do too many tricks."

"We won because we had the best record," Turner later said at a press briefing.

The live event, which was held on Tuesday night at London's Grosvenor House Hotel, was hosted by former Squeeze member and British television personality Jools Holland. It featured live performances from eight of the 12 nominees, including Yorke, Editors, Hawley, Hot Chip, Zoe Rahman, Sway, Scritti Politti and Guillemots.

The shortlisted albums and winner were chosen by a 12-judge panel. To qualify, an LP had to be released between July 25, 2005 and July 17, 2006.

In addition to the increased exposure and record sales that the Mercury Prize tends to bring, the three original Monkeys picked up a cheque for £20,000 ($41,671). Former bassist Andy Nicholson, who left the band earlier this year, wasn't in attendance.