Warehouse worker in line for an Ivor Novello Award

A 35-year-old warehouse worker will go head to head with Mercury Prize winners Elbow and Arctic Monkeys frontman Alex Turner's side-project The Last Shadow Puppets for one of music's top accolades.
 
Nick Hemming, whose band The Leisure Society published and produced their own album, has been shortlisted for the 'best song musically & lyrically' category at the Ivor Novello Awards, to be announced on May 21. The Staffordshire band's debut single, a gentle ballad about a relationship break-up called The Last of the Melting Snow, was released last December. Although it received widespread critical acclaim, it 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 a 'best song' award. In fact, Hemming was so surprised to be shortlisted for the prestigious award that he initially dismissed the letter from awards organisers as a hoax, he told the Daily Telegraph.
 
"It all feels a little surreal at the moment," he said. "I worked in a record shop for many years and I can remember reading about the Ivors, thinking how it would be the coolest award to win as it's decided on artistic rather than commercial merit. I'm incredibly flattered that so many people have taken such a personal song to their hearts."
 
Other nominees include Duffy, whose album Rockferry is up for best album against Coldplay's Viva La Vida. Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood is nominated for 'best film score' for There Will Be Blood. ·