A group of students who met five years ago at the University of Leeds have won the Mercury Prize for the best album of the year.
Alt-J, an electronic rock band whose name comes from the shortcut for the delta sign on a Mac keyboard, is made up of Gwil Sainsbury (Fine Art 2011), Thomas Green (Fine Art 2010), Joe Newman (Fine Art 2010) and Gus Unger-Hamilton (English 2010).
The Mercury prize, which celebrated its 20th anniversary this year, is judged by a panel of music experts who announced the winner on Thursday 1 November 2012.This is Alt-J’s debut album, An Awesome Wave, which sees the band win £20,000 and join a long list of successful acts who have previously won the prestigious music award, including the Arctic Monkeys, the XX and Elbow.
The band's first official music video was created to accompany the release of Breezeblocks in March 2012.
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