Young Fathers Win Mercury Music Prize 2014

Young Fathers have won the Barclaycard Mercury Prize for the best British or Irish album of the last year.

The Edinburgh-based act were not considered one of the frontrunners, but their record, Dead, came out on top.

The group had been 14-1 to win the award at the ceremony at the Roundhouse in north London, hosted by Radio 1 DJ Nick Grimshaw.

Bookmakers are expected to take a hammering as a result, with some offering 25-1 at one point.

The group, who formed in 2008 after meeting at an under-16s hip hop night, had sold only 2,386 copies of their album up to this week - just one sixty-fifth of the quantity sold by fellow nominees Royal Blood.

Even after their inclusion on the shortlist, they managed to only sell an extra 531 copies.

In a short acceptance speech, the group's Alloysious Massaquoi, who was born in Liberia, simply said: "Thank you, we love you, we love you all."

The judges said the group had triumphed for an "ominous and exciting" mix of pop, rap, rhythms and rhymes.

The act have made appearances at numerous festivals and have been described as a "psychedelic hip hop boy band".

Simon Frith, who chaired the judging panel, said of the winners: "Young Fathers have a unique take on urban British music, brimming with ideas - forceful, unexpected and moving."

At a press conference afterwards, the trio had to be asked to smile by photographers and continued to look stony-faced.

Massaquoi - who is joined in the band by Kayus Bankole and G Hastings - said: "We go out and do what we do."

FKA Twigs and Kate Tempest were the favourites to win the award and were the acts which enjoyed the biggest percentage sales boosts after being shortlisted.

Twigs - whose real name is Tahliah Barnett - saw her total sales increase by 83% after being added to the 12-strong list, while poet and rapper Tempest enjoyed a 124% rise, although the two acts have had fewer than 10,000 extra album sales between them.

The prize, established in 1992, often favours the eclectic and obscure over better-known performers.

Previous winners have included James Blake, Alt-J, Pulp, Arctic Monkeys and Franz Ferdinand.