Unknown Warehouse Worker Up For Ivor Novello Award

A little-known musician has been plucked from obscurity to compete for an Ivor Novello Award, the British music industry's foremost accolade for songwriting talent.

35 year old warehouse worker, Nick Hemming, has been nominated for the 'Best Song Musically & Lyrically' category at the prestigious event. Nick’s band, The Leisure Society, will go head to head with Mercury Prize winners Elbow and Arctic Monkeys frontman Alex Turner's side-project The Last Shadow Puppets.

The band from Staffordshire have no record deal and their self-published debut single, The Last of The Melting Snow, although it received widespread critical acclaim, failed to make the Top 40.

It is the first time in the Novellos' 54 year history that a songwriter without a publishing deal has been nominated for the award.

Meanwhile, Coldplay and Duffy lead the nominations with both acts going head-to-head for best album, best-selling British song and most performed track of 2008.

Other contenders for this year’s awards include Dizzee Rascal, MIA, Jonny Greenwood, Gabriella Cilmi and The Ting Tings. The winners will be announced at a ceremony, which takes place at London's Grosvenor House on May 21st.

The full list of nominations for the 54th Ivor Novello Awards are as follows:

Best Song:
My Mistakes Were Made For You - The Last Shadow Puppets
One Day Like This – Elbow
The Last Of The Melting Snow - The Leisure Society

Best Contemporary Song:
'Dance Wiv Me' - Dizzee Rascal
'Grounds For Divorce' – Elbow
'That's Not My Name' - The Ting Tings

Best Original Film Score:
'Quantum of Solace' - David Arnold
'The Escapist' - Benjamin Wallfisch
'There Will Be Blood' - Jonny Greenwood

Best Television Soundtrack:
'Fiona’s Story' - Ben Bartlett
'Trial and Retribution 2008' - Anne Dudley
'Wallace And Gromit (A Matter of Loaf & Death)' - Julian Nott

PRS For Music:
'Mercy' - Duffy
'Sweet About Me' - Gabriella Cilmi
'Viva La Vida' - Coldplay

Best Selling British Song:
'Mercy' - Duffy
'Paper Planes' - M.I.A
'Viva La Vida' - Coldplay

Album Award:
'Rockferry' - Duffy
'Viva La Vida or Death And All His Friends' – Coldplay
'We Started Nothing' - The Ting Tings