Sam Fender praises home region after Mercury win

Sam Fender has said the north-east of England is the "best region in the country" after collecting his Mercury Prize in Newcastle.

The North Shields singer won the award for his third studio album, People Watching, at the event's first ceremony outside of London in its 33-year history.

Fender told the crowd he had not expected to win and the shock of doing so had left him with a shaking "Elvis leg".

Speaking after the awards, he said the region's music industry had always been an "isolated bubble" but he was glad it was finally being noticed.

"For it to be recognised by the rest of the industry I think is an important thing and hopefully this will be the beginning of many other wonderful things," he said.

He also praised his fellow nominees and dedicated the award to his mentor and "surrogate" mother, Annie Orwin, who died last year.

She was an actress who starred in Byker Grove - a coming of age drama centring on a Newcastle youth centre which ran from 1989-2006.

He said the album's title track was about her and dealing with grief.

"The rest of the album is very much local stories and little pockets and pieces of Shields and the people I have grown up with," Fender said.

"Very much like every other album I have done, but I think we got it right this time."

Fender was previously nominated for the Mercury Prize for his second album, Seventeen Going Under.

Comparing the two nominated albums, he said he thought his previous album was the better of the two, but the second album was more "cohesive".

As Fender and his band collected the trophy on stage, they were greeted by the football chant "Toon, Toon, Black and White army".

CMAT, who had hoped to be the first Irish winner of the Mercury Prize, was among those who joined in with the chant.

Speaking before the awards, she said there were a lot of talented Irish musicians breaking through, which she put down to a "generation of traumatised people" getting to make music.

"There's a lot of artists from a very small, not very densely populated country making music that feels quite important as opposed to just trivial," she said.

"I think everyone is a bit earnest and has their head screwed on a little bit because we went through something 20 years ago, especially my age group, and we're now really dealing with the fallout of it."

Many of the artists echoed Fender's sentiments about the Mercury Prize finally leaving London being good for the industry.

Emma-Jean Thackray said as a "northern girl" she was glad more light was being shone on music in other parts of the country.

"I live in London, but London can become such a bubble," she said.

"The fact that we are up north with people who just love proper story telling, they love music, I am really excited."