... and these would be the 8th most important awards

What the British music industry needs, of course, are a few more awards ceremonies - after all, this month alone there are three nights where Amy Winehouse has nothing scheduled to send her apologies to.

Into what they clearly perceive as a gap steps XFM, who are announcing their own awards ceremony:

Xfm announce the launch of their awards ceremony acknowledging the best of 2007's new music. Based around one main prize 'The Xfm British Debut Album Of The Year' the awards will take place at Camden's Koko on January 16, 2008.

Ah. So it's a mini-Mercury, then.

Xfm's managing director Nick Davidson commented,

"Xfm have been thinking of holding an awards ceremony for a while now but we wanted to make sure we got it right, ensure it has real meaning and a focus point - we have chosen 'The Xfm British Debut Album of the Year' because we know new music, inside and out.

"This awards isn't for the industry but for our listeners and the bands to acknowledge the passion and hard work that goes into a debut album. We hope it will be a great evening for everyone that attends and that the bands in the running for the award are genuinely excited by the prospect of winning it."

It's not for the industry, it's for the listeners, eh - although, strangely, timed to try fit a lean mid-winter slump for sales and, we'd imagine, for record labels advertising on XFM. Presumably that's when the listeners asked for the event to be scheduled, though, so what could XFM do, eh?