Worldwide stars including Mogwai and Franz Ferdinand will go head-to-head with indie acts including Siobhan Wilson and Happy Meals for the Scottish Album of the Year Award, with the shortlist of 20 eligible acts being announced earlier at King Tut’s in Glasgow.

The list of artists still in contention for the £20,000 prize, provided by award partner Creative Scotland, also include previous winners Young Fathers, plus The Spook School and Elephant Sessions, both of whom played at last year’s award ceremony.

The 20-strong Longlist will be whittled down to a Shortlist of 10 albums – one chosen by music fans via a 72-hour online vote on sayaward.com (20th- 22nd August), and the other nine chosen by a panel of independent judges.

The SAY Award Shortlist will be announced on Thursday 23rd August, before the award ceremony itself takes place on Thursday 6th September at Paisley Town Hall, with support from Renfrewshire Council.

Previous SAY Award winners are Sacred Paws’ ‘Strike A Match’ (2017), Anna Meredith’s ‘Varmints’ (2016), Kathryn Joseph’s ‘Bones You Have Thrown Me And Blood I’ve Spilled’ (2015), Young Fathers’ ‘Tape Two’ (2014), RM Hubbert’s ‘Thirteen Lost & Found’ (2013) and Bill Wells & Aidan Moffat’s ‘Everything’s Getting Older’ (2012).

The full Longlist reads thus:

1. Adam Holmes and The Embers – Midnight Milk
2. BABE – Kiss & Tell
3. Best Girl Athlete – Best Girl Athlete
4. Blue Rose Code – The Water of Leith
5. Catholic Action – In Memory Of
6. Chris Stout and Catriona McKay – Bare Knuckle
7. Elephant Sessions – All We Have Is Now
8. Franz Ferdinand – Always Ascending
9. Golden Teacher – No Luscious Life
10. Happy Meals (aka Free Love) – Full Ashram Devotional Ceremony (Volumes IV – VI)
11. Karine Polwart with Pippa Murphy – A Pocket Of Wind Resistance
12. Kobi Onyame – Gold
13. Martha Ffion – Sunday Best
14. Mogwai – Every Country’s Sun
15. Neon Waltz – Strange Hymns
16. Out Lines – Conflats
17. Pronto Mama – Any Joy
18. Siobhan Wilson – There Are No Saints
19. The Spook School – Could It Be Different
20. Young Fathers – Cocoa Sugar

More at www.sayaward.com