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The 15 best photos from the Mercury Prize 2016

The performances at the 2016 Mercury Prize awards ceremony were intense, thrilling and at times a little startling. Here are some of the photographic highlights:

Bat For Lashes

Bat for Lashes got the event off to a fine start performing Sunday Love from The Bride

Michael Kiwanuka

Love and Hate got a lot of one, and very little of the other.

Kano

Kano brought some friends, so he didn't have to blow his own horn.

Skepta

And the Mercury Prize? Yep that's Shutdown too.

Jamie Woon

And the award for Biggest Plectrum goes to...

Michael C Hall (performing for David Bowie)

Michael's emotional performance of David Bowie's Lazarus, from Blackstar, is the first time a surrogate singer has taken to the Mercury Prize stage.

The Comet is Coming

As if the shirts weren't loud enough...

Laura Mvula

Laura Mvula didn't just bring the house down...
...she brought a KEYTAR!

Savages

Hands up who wants a Mercury Prize!

Anohni

Anohni sang Drone Bomb Me, as interpreted by a close friend.
Then flooded the stage with light.

The 1975

Matt Healy has spotted someone he knows.
Oh. Looks like they're off to the loo.

But in the end, it was Skepta's night

The deserved winner looks to the heavens, his ability to speak has been temporarily, y'know, shut down.