The Arctic Monkeys are stg£20,000 richer today last night being awarded the coveted Nationwide Mercury Music Prize.
The Sheffield-based band were favourites to win the prize for their debut album Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not.
But the news still came as a surprise as Mercury judges are notorious for confounding public expectations.
The young band built their fanbase via the Internet and burst onto the music scene with the single I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor.
Their first album became the fastest-selling debut in chart history, shifting more than 360,000 copies in the UK in its first week.
The band wowed critics and the public alike with gritty lyrics and their exuberant high-powered Brit rock delivery evocative of punk. Their accounts of the ordinary life of young people in England show unusual maturity for songs written by a band in their teens and early 20s.
The shocked band said the prize should have gone to a fellow nominee from Sheffield.
On receiving their prize, they joked: "Somebody call 999. Richard Hawley's been robbed."
"We're very, very pleased because it's just good tunes, that's what we try to do."
At a press conference following the ceremony, lead singer Alex Turner added: "We deserved it because we had the best record."
This year's list of 12 nominees was selected from a total of more than 200 albums. It included a comeback by 80s act Scritti Politti. Guillemots, Sway and Radiohead's frontman Thom Yorke.
As well as benefiting from the £20,000 cheque, the Arctic Monkeys will see their album sales rocket as a result of the exposure.
The prize has been running since 1992 and past winners have included Primal Scream, Suede, Pulp, Ms Dynamite, Franz Ferdinand and last year Antony And The Johnsons.
Bookmakers had the Arctic Monkeys the 5-6 favourites to win the award.
The group usually snub award ceremonies but have already picked up several gongs, including Best British Band at the NMEs and Best British Breakthrough Act at the Brits.
It was recently announced that bassist Andy Nicholson had left the group. He had earlier dropped out of their US tour citing fatigue.
The judges described their debut album as "great songs, astonishingly performed."
PA