Florence And The Machine singer Florence Welch says she thinks Glasvegas should win the Barclaycard Mercury Prize, which is due to be announced in London tonight (September 8).

Despite being nominated for the award herself, Welch thinks that Glasvegas – who she struck up a friendship with while on the Shockwaves NME Awards Tour earlier this year – deserve to win the prize the most.

“I would really love Glasvegas to win,” she told the Daily Record. “They really deserve it. They are not the type of people to get carried away by it.”

Talking about what she’d do if she won the £20,000 Barclaycard Mercury Prize, Welch said: “It’s an amazing prize and it would be great if it helped whoever wins to go on and make more music. I would use it to get a studio.”

She also admitted that she feels sorry for the panel of judges who have to decide who wins the award.

“At the Mercurys, the winning album will be best according to a select group of people. But there will be people all over the UK who will have their own opinion of the best album,” she explained. “It’ll be hard for the judges.”

Fellow nominee La Roux, meanwhile, told the Daily Star: “There’s so many strong women up for it that I really hope a girl gets it.”

NME.COM will be coming live from the Barclaycard Mercury Prize 2009 ceremony in London tonight.

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Florence And The Machine have announced details of a new UK and Irish tour for December.

Florence Welch, nominated for the Barclaycard Mercury Prize for the album ‘Lungs’, will play six gigs, kicking off in Belfast on December 6.

Stay logged on to NME.COM tomorrow (September evening to see how Welch does at the awards, as we bring you live news from the London ceremony.

Florence And The Machine will play:

Belfast Ulster Hall (December 6)
Dublin Olympia Theatre (7)
Glasgow 02 Academy (9)
Manchester Apollo (10)
Lincoln Engine Shed (11)
London Brixton Academy (13)

Tickets for the December tour go on sale at 9am (BST) on Friday (September 11). To check the availability of Florence And The Machine tickets and get all the latest listings, go to NME.COM/TICKETS now, or call 0871 230 1094.

Florence And The Machine and Friendly Fires brought a carnival atmosphere to the Leeds Festival today (August 30) as they both played sets on the NME/Radio 1 Stage.

Barclaycard Mercury Prize-nominated singer Florence Welch, who celebrated her birthday at Reading Festival on Friday (August 28), carried on the party at Bramham Park when a fan in the crowd handed her a card.

“Is that a card you’re handing me there?” she asked before single ‘Kiss With A Fist’. “Thank you so much.”

Welch, who performed with a taped-up hand, revealed to the crowd that she had had an accident at Reading.

“By the way, this isn’t a fashion cuff,” she said. “I really fucked my hand up at Reading, my hand was pissing blood all the way from my dressing room on my birthday.”

She then kicked off a call-and-response as she got both sides of the crowd to howl, fittingly, before ‘Howl’.

Later, the stage crew had to hand her drummer an anorak after rain started to pour into the tent. “I’ve just had a shower of rain fall on me, this is so cool,” she giggled. “Our drummer needs an umbrella.”

She went on to perform single ‘Dog Days Are Over’, while the crowd sang every word to her cover of Candi Staton’s ‘You Got The Love.

She was about to perform ‘Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up)’ before she ran out of time, forcing her to apologise to her fans.

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