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The Brit Awards are the annual United Kingdom pop music awards founded by the British Phonographic Industry. The awards began in 1977 as the BPI Awards and were renamed The Britannia Awards, or Brit Awards, in 1989. MasterCard is the long-time sponsor of this annual event.

Brit is also a backronym for British Record Industry Trust which supports youngsters in the arts and education mainly at the BRIT School in Croydon, London.

Strong music industry sponsorship and involvement mean that awards are given without much democratic process and, many suspect, for strongly commercial reasons. These are awards given by the music industry to the music industry. Robbie Williams pointed this out accepting an award a few years back. More recently, the awards have more reflected the tastes of the record-buying public, with an artist needing to prove popular and chart-topping before they are rewarded.

The Brit Awards used to be broadcast live until 1989, when Samantha Fox and Mick Fleetwood hosted a shambolic show in which just about everything went wrong - lines were fluffed, bands mis-cued, and airtime filled with embarrassing silence. After this the show was recorded, and broadcast the following night, part of a revamp by Jonathan King for 1990 whose actions also included releasing a megamix of British dance acts including S'Express and A Guy Called Gerald called Brits 1990. King subsequently went on to revamp A Song for Europe.

Pre-recording proved to be a good idea when, during a Michael Jackson performance in 1996, Jarvis Cocker from the band Pulp invaded the stage in a comedic protest at Jackson's messianic performance. There have been many such notable instances, including several UK politicians presenting awards and being heckled (and, in the case of John Prescott, having water thrown over him, at the 1998 awards, by Chumbawamba vocalist Danbert Nobacon *) and a remarkable performance by The KLF in 1992.

In addition, an equivalent awards ceremony for classical music, called the Classical Brit Awards, is held each May.

Main winners for each year

Selected famous and infamous Brit Award incidents

Ronnie Wood vs Brandon Block (2000)

After consuming large amounts of alcohol (and allegedly drugs) dance DJ Brandon Block was told by his friends that he had won an award and had been summoned to the stage to collect it. Because of his advanced state of intoxication he believed them and walked onto the stage, eventually ending up next to a bemused Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood and actress Thora Birch who were about to present the award for best soundtrack album. Having been successfully bundled off the stage by security, Ronnie Wood aimed an insult in his direction at which Block broke free from his captors to square up to the guitarist. A series of insults were then traded between the two – both comically leaning into the microphone so that everyone could hear. Wood threw his drink into Block’s face and the DJ was eventually removed from the stage. Some time after the incident, Block claimed that he had subsequently apologised to Wood for his behaviour who had merely brushed it off.

Robbie Williams vs Liam Gallagher (2000)

Around the time of his departure from Take That, Robbie Williams had begun an unlikely friendship with the Gallagher brothers from Britpop band Oasis at the Glastonbury Festival. The friendship was short lived, however, and the two parties regularly traded insults in the press with Noel Gallagher once famously referring to Robbie as “the fat dancer from Take That”. Having won “Best British Single” and “Best Video” for “She’s The One”, Williams challenged Liam to a televised fight saying, ”So, anybody like to see me fight Liam? Would you pay to come and see it? Liam, a hundred grand of your money and a hundred grand of my money. We'll get in a ring and we'll have a fight and you can all watch it on TV.” Liam did not accept the challenge.

Belle & Sebastian beat Steps to best newcomer award (1999)

In 1999, indie band Belle & Sebastian were nominated for Best British Newcomers. The award was sponsored by Radio One and voted for online by their listeners. At the time, Steps were Britain's biggest boy/girl pop band and were also nominated. There was all round surprise, however, when the winners were announced as Belle & Sebastian. On the Saturday after the awards, a story appeared in the press alleging that Belle & Sebastian had rigged the vote in their favour, encouraging students from two universities to vote online. However, fans argued that the band had a predominantly student following and that band member Isobel Campbell had attended one of universities in question. The following year there was a Brit Award for Best Pop Act and Steps were presented with a special award.

Note: Belle & Sebastian were not the first act to have been accused of motivating all their fans to vote for them in a Brit's public vote, similar allegations were directed at Depeche Mode for winning Best British single with "Enjoy the Silence".

Chumbawamba throw water over John Prescott (1998)

In 1998, Danbert Nobacon of politically active band Chumbawamba threw a bucket of iced water over Labour cabinet minister John Prescott. Despite apologies on behalf of the band from EMI Europe, Chumbawamba were unrepentant claiming, ”If John Prescott has the nerve to turn up at events like the Brit Awards in a vain attempt to make Labour seem cool and trendy, then he deserves all we can throw at him".

Jarvis Cocker’s stage invasion during Michael Jackson’s Earth Song (1996)

The 1996 awards witnessed a special performance of Earth Song by Michael Jackson. Some found the grandiose presentation, which presented Jackson as some kind of redeemer of mankind surrounded by adoring children (first seen in the video to his earlier single Will You Be There), inappropriate and distasteful prompting a spur of the moment decision by Cocker (of the band Pulp) to invade the stage in protest. Once onstage, Jarvis ran around lifting his shirt and pointing his (clothed) bottom in Jackson’s direction. Cocker was subsequently questioned by the police but no criminal proceedings were forthcoming.

The KLF, a machine gun and a dead sheep (1992)

In 1992, dance / art band The KLF were awarded Best British Group (shared with Simply Red) and were booked to open the show. In an attempt to hijack the event the duo hooked up with Extreme Noise Terror to perform a death metal version of the dance song 3am Eternal that prompted composer Sir Georg Solti to walk out*. The performance ended with Bill Drummond firing blanks from a vintage machine gun into the audience and announcer Scott Piering stating ”Ladies and gentleman, The KLF have now left the music business”. Producers of the show then refused to let a motorcycle courier collect the award on behalf of the band. Later, guests arriving for an after show party witnessed KLF dump a dead sheep outside the venue with the message ”I died for ewe – bon appetite” tied around its waist. KLF disbanded three months later.

The Sam Fox and Mick Fleetwood "car crash" (1989)

Until 1989, the BPI Awards were a spectacularly lifeless affair usually presented by Noel Edmonds and brimming with industry types and ageing Radio 1 DJs. In 1989 all that changed. In an attempt to add some excitement and appeal to the proceedings organizers decided to rename the awards to 'The Brit Awards' and came up with the idea of having Fleetwood Mac’s Mick Fleetwood and former page 3 girl Sam Fox as co-hosts of the live show. The results were indeed spectacular. The inexperience of the hosts, a broken autocue and poor preparation combined to create one of the most shambolic performances ever aired on live British television. The hosts continually fluffed their lines, a pre-recorded message from Michael Jackson was never actually broadcast and several star guests arrived late. A classic moment included the appearance of Boy George of Culture Club and was along the lines of:

Sam Fox: (with a fixed beaming smile) …and the winner is...

Celebrity (Radio 1 DJ Gary Davis} presenting the award: (looking panicked) aren’t you going to read out the nominations first?

Sam Fox: (with a determined look) …here they are … the FOUR TOPS...

Boy George appears from backstage looking self-conscious.

Boy George: (with an apologetic smile) I’m afraid I’m just the one top...

The Sam Fox/Mick Fleetwood show proved to be the single most important event in BPI/Brit Awards history. It was just so disastrous that the British public’s interest was revived and the Brits became associated with risky live TV. The show’s organisers would successfully exploit this association to publicise future shows.

Awards

2006

2005

A Special BRITs 25 Award for the best single from the past 25 years was awarded to Robbie Williams Angels.

The producers added a fake film effect to the TV coverage of the 2005 awards show, which was criticised by some who thought ruined the immediacy of the awards show, and was dizzying when combined with fast camera movements.

2004

2003

2002

2001

2000

1999

1998

1997

1996

1995

1994

1993

1992

1991

1990

1989

1988

1987

1986

1985

1984

1983

1982

1977

n.b. these awards were to mark the Queen's Silver Jubilee and were for the previous 25 years of her reign.

Most successful acts

There have been numerous acts, both groups and individuals, that have won multiple awards. The table below shows those that have won more than three awards.

, 2 as Prince & The Revolutions)
Artist Number Of Awards
Robbie Williams 15 (4 as Take That)
U2 7
Annie Lennox 7 (1 as The Eurythmics)
Coldplay 6
Paul McCartney 6 (4 as The Beatles)
John Lennon 5 (4 as the Beatles)
Michael Jackson 5
George Micheal 5 (2 as Wham)
Björk4
Eminem4
Spice Girls4
Manic Street Preachers4
Oasis4
Blur4
Freddie Mercury4 (3 as Queen)
Sting 4 (2 as The Police)
The Beatles4

See also

External link

Music awards

Brit Awards | Brit Awards | Brit Awards

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "Brit Awards".

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