1996

The year that Pulp emerged triumphant with 'Different Class'. The charity War Child were also on the list for their album 'Help' and Pulp handed over their winner's cheque to producer Brian Eno on behalf of the charity. It was a year where the judges had a particularly hard task such was the quality of the albums from widely divergent styles. These ranged from Oasis' 'What's the Story Morning Glory' to Black Grape's debut 'It's Great When You're Straight...Yeah!' and from the self-titled release by Norma Waterstone, one of the legends of the British folk scene, through to an artist of similar standing in the jazz world, the great Courtney Pine, who was shortlisted for his aptly titled 'Modern Day Jazz Stories'.