Alt-J win Mercury music prize Alt-J won the £20,000 Mercury prize, beating competition from acts such as Jessie Ware, Field Music and Plan B. Photograph: Ben Pruchnie/Getty Images Indie quartet Alt-J, also written as ∆, have won the prestigious Mercury prize for their album An Awesome Wave. The four-piece, who met at Leeds University in 2007, looked stunned as they collected the award - despite long being the bookmakers' favourites. After five years of hard work, the band beat acts such as rapper Plan B, singer Jessie Ware and Sunderland brothers Field Music to win the £20,000 award at the Roundhouse in Camden, north London. Sheffield singer-songwriter Richard Hawley, who was nominated for his album Standing At The Sky's Edge, narrowly missed out again, six years after claiming he was "robbed."