The xx have won the Mercury Prize for their debut album, xx.

The London trio started as favourites, and despite a bizarre late surge by Paul Weller, finished tonight’s ceremony, at the Grosvenor Hour Hotel, as award winners.

Collecting the award, the band’s Oliver Sim – who claimed that his money was on Wild Beasts and Laura Marling – said that they “didn’t know what we were expecting but we weren’t expecting this … We’ve had the most incredible year and it has just felt like every day we’ve just woken up to something incredible we just weren’t expecting. It has felt just like a haze. Being here is like a moment of clarity in all that’s happening.”

Sim also talked about the famed music school that they – along with Hot Chip, Burial, Four Tet and more – attended. “I don’t want to give them too much credit because technically they just neglected us”, he revealed before the ceremony.

“There was so much time to do our own thing and they gave us a room to hang out in during breaktime and gave us time to figure thing out for ourselves, which worked quite well for us because I always find it hard being taught something creative.

“I only got introduced to Hot Chip and Burial when I left. The school’s claim to fame was Pierce Brosnan.”

Photo from The Stranger