Last year, the bookies had London Grammar as the 6/4 massive favourites to win the Mercury Music Prize, even before the nominations had been announced. And so it raised a few eyebrows when the London group's album If You Wait was left off the shortlist completely.

London Grammar

The band failed to hide their obvious disappointment when we quizzed them on the snub at Festival No.6.

"It's funny because I think, before any of this happened, it was definitely something we'd thought about," said Dan, "I'd be lying if I said we hadn't. But then since the actual moment when the nominations were announced, loads more great stuff's happened anyway so, in a way, it's taken that weight off our shoulders."

Lead singer Hannah continued, "Well, the thing is, it was a bit weird to be tipped to win it weeks before the nominations were even announced, and then on the day we were a bit disappointed not to be on the list."

That disappointed will have since subsided and the news on Thursday that the band are in the running for this year's prestigious Ivor Novello songwriting award won't hurt either.

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Hannah Reid, Dot Major and Dan Rothman were at the nominations announcement in London and called it an "amazing honour" to be in the running for best song, for 'Strong'.

"I think we're just incredibly grateful and stuff like this, you do end up pinching yourselves, it's pretty amazing," said Rothman.

The group wrote the song together in Rothman's garage and Reid said the lyrics were inspired by her own experiences growing up in London.

"It's about being objectified, when you're really young and how just that small thing of being cat-called can really shape how women see themselves," she said.

"It started happening to me and my girlfriends when we were about 13," she added. "So it's just saying 'stop doing it, it's really annoying!'."

Elsewhere in the nominations, the eventual Mercury winner James Blake is nominated for best contemporary song for 'Retrograde,' as are 'Everything Everything' for Kemosabe and Discloure and Sam Smith for 'Latch'. 

In the best album category, the Arctic Monkeys are nominated for AM, along with Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds for Push The Sky Away and Laura Mvula for Sing to the Moon.

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