Falkirk-born duo Bill Wells and Aidan Moffat have won the inaugural Scottish Album of the Year prize, for their collaborative effort Everything’s Getting Older. They took the award, which carries a prize of £20,000, at a ceremony at Glasgow’s Film City last night (June 19).

The pair fought off competition from some of Scotland’s top names including jazz legend Tommy Smith, the Mercury-nominated King Creosote and Jon Hopkins, and former labelmates Mogwai.

Each of the 10 acts on the shortlist was awarded a £1000 prize, and accepting this from Culture Secretary Fiona Hyslop, Moffat said: “The award is very, very important from an industry point of view… we hope there are many more of them.”

“We’re extremely chuffed, it’s been a fantastic night and it’s a tremendous honour,” added Bill Wells.

On learning of their winning of the main award, Wells added that an important night “had got a whole lot better”.

Stewart Henderson, Chair of the Scottish Music Industry Association, who put the event together, added: “It’s wonderful after over a year of the planning and development of this award to finally have a winner. It’s a worthy winner and has set an incredibly high standard for future winners to follow.”

More at www.sayaward.com