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Brit Awards
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The BRIT Awards, often simply called The BRITs, are the British Phonographic Industry's annual pop music awards. The name was originally a shortened form of British or Britannia, but has subsequently become a "backronym" for British Record Industry Trust.
awards began in 1977 under the auspices of the BPI, the British record industry's trade association. The last BPI Awards show took place at the Albert Hall and was the first of the ceremonies to be broadcast on television, by the BBC - the awards later transferred to ITV in 1993.
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The BRIT Awards, often simply called The BRITs, are the British Phonographic Industry's annual pop music awards. The name was originally a shortened form of British or Britannia, but has subsequently become a "backronym" for British Record Industry Trust.
Overview
The awards began in 1977 under the auspices of the BPI, the British record industry's trade association. The last BPI Awards show took place at the Albert Hall and was the first of the ceremonies to be broadcast on television, by the BBC - the awards later transferred to ITV in 1993. In 1989 they were renamed the Britannia Music Awards to echo sponsorship by Britannia Music Club and this got shortened to BRIT Awards.
BRIT is also an acronym for the British Record Industry Trust Show - the Trust supports youngsters in the arts and education mainly at The BRIT School in London. Since the affiliation with Britannia Music Club was dropped, MasterCard has been the long-time sponsor of this annual event.
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. After this the show was recorded, and broadcast the following night, part of a revamp by Jonathan King for 1990 whose actions also included naming them the BRITs, hosting the show in 1987 - the most successful previous show - and releasing a megamix of British dance acts including S'Express and A Guy Called Gerald called BRITs 1990. He also managed to get Margaret Thatcher to croon "(How Much Is) That Doggie in the Window?"
As of the 2007 BRIT Awards, the show was once again broadcast live on British television, airing on 14 February 2007 live on ITV. Comedian Russell Brand presented the event. Three awards were dropped from the 2007 ceremony - Best British Rock Act, Best British Urban Act and Best Pop Act.
With the loss of the UK Music Hall of fame, there is even scope for the BRITs to widen its appeal. At present only one group or individual is given an Outstanding Music award each year. In future why can that not be increased and those awarded, added to the UK Music Hall of Fame?
In addition, an equivalent awards ceremony for classical music, called the Classical BRIT Awards, is held each May.
The annual music industry bash was once again held at the Earls Court Exhibition Centre in London on February 18, and was televised live on ITV. The Outstanding Contribution to Music Award was be presented to the Pet Shop Boys. The 2009 hosts were Mathew Horne and James Corden along with Kylie Minogue.
Primary winners of each year
Incidents
Mick Kluczynski & Take That (2009)
10 days before the 2009 BRITS, Mick Kluczynski, production manager for the event since 1995, passed away. Despite this setback the team he put in place carried out the job perfectly. He is widely credited with the transition from the post Fleetwood/Fox debacle to the scale of the current event. The show was dedicated to his memory.
In addition to this,Take That performed their number one single 'Greatest Day' at the awards ceremony. However, many members of the public and press accused Take That of miming the song; this came several months after members of the band criticised Britney Spears, accusing her of 'losing her touch and miming too much'.
Vic Reeves and Sharon Osbourne (2008)
After Vic Reeves appeared to forget which award he was presenting, Sharon Osbourne attempted to wrestle the microphone from him, insisted he was drunk and called him a "pissed bastard". She proceeded to make the full announcement herself. The next day it was reported that Reeves was not intoxicated and was hurt by Osbourne's behaviour The incident has since been ascribed to an autocue malfunction.
Russell Brand hosting (2007)
Some controversy was caused by the host of the 2007 Awards ceremony, comedian Russell Brand, who made several quips relating to news stories of the time including singer Robbie Williams' entering rehab for addiction to prescription drugs, the Queen's 'naughty bits' and a fatal friendly fire incident involving a British soldier killed by American armed forces in Iraq. TV channel ITV1 received over 300 calls from viewers complaining. He would again instigate controversy the following year at the 2008 MTV Video Music Awards.
Ronnie Wood and Brandon Block (2000)
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 for his behaviour to Wood, who had merely brushed it off.
Robbie Williams and 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, what d'you think about that?”
Belle & Sebastian beat Steps to Best Newcomer Award (1999)
In 1999, indie band Belle & Sebastian were nominated for Best British Newcomers, despite having released three albums before the 1999 Awards. 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. Despite this, the award was won by 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 large student following, that band member Isobel Campbell had attended one of the universities in question, and in particular, the award ought to be given on artistic merit as opposed to popularity or CD sales. The following year Steps were presented with the award for Best Selling Living Act, a newly-created award for that year.
Belle & Sebastian were not the first act to have been accused of motivating all their fans to vote for them in a BRITs 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".
Geri Halliwell's Union Jack dress (1997)
Widely thought to be the most iconic Brits moment in the awards history, Geri Halliwell, aka Ginger Spice of the British girl group, the Spice Girls, wore a Union Jack dress in 1997, which created phenomenal attention and subsequently made all the front pages the next day. Geri was originally going to wear an all black dress, but she thought it was too boring so her sister sewed on a Union Jack tea-towel, with a 'peace' sign on the back, so not to offend anyone. It was worn during the Spice Girls' performance of their Number 1 hit "Who Do You Think You Are". Later on she sold her dress in a charity auction to Hard Rock Cafe in Las Vegas for a record £41,320, giving Halliwell the Guinness World Record for the most expensive piece of pop star clothing ever sold.
Jarvis Cocker's stage invasion (1996)
In 1996, Michael Jackson was given a special "Artist of a Generation" award. At the ceremony he accompanied his single "Earth Song" with a stage show, with Jackson as a Christ-like figure surrounded by children. Jarvis Cocker, of the band Pulp, mounted the stage in protest of the performance. Cocker ran across the stage, lifting his shirt and pointing his (clothed) bottom in Jackson's direction. Cocker was subsequently questioned by the police on suspicion of causing injury towards three of the children in Jackson's performance, although no criminal proceedings followed. "Earth Song", by that point, had become Jackson's biggest hit in the UK, spending six weeks at the top of the chart.
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 conductor 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 the band dump a dead sheep outside the venue with the message ”I died for ewe – bon appetit” tied around its waist. KLF disbanded three months later.
Sam Fox and Mick Fleetwood (1989)
In 1989, in an attempt to add some excitement and appeal to the proceedings organisers decided to rename the awards to 'The BRIT Awards' presented by Fleetwood Mac's Mick Fleetwood and former page three girl Samantha Fox as co-hosts of the live show. The inexperience of the hosts, an ineffective autocue and poor preparation combined to create a shambolic performance. The hosts continually got their lines mixed up, a pre-recorded message from Michael Jackson was never broadcast and several star guests arrived late.
The Samantha 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.
Rick Astley & The Who (1988)
1988 was the first year the show had moved to the Royal Albert Hall. A major coup at the time was to get The Who to perform, which was intended to be the first appearance of their much awaited comeback. The show was running late mainly because the amount of time needed for the winners to get to stage to collect their awards had been underestimated. Rick Astley was the final winner of the day, and was seated in a box rather than at a table. With 9:00pm and the News fast approaching, the decision was made to let The Who on and Rick was halfway to the stage when the band started playing. Even with this change, The Who's performance was still going to overrun, and the BBC took the rare decision to delay the 9:00pm news by over a minute. Rick was very vocal in the press in the following days. The long term effects of this was that the BPI took the production in-house, the consequences of which set the "Brits", as we now know them, back by 5 years
Electricians Strike (1987)
In 1987 the BPI Awards was being held at the Grosvenor House Hotel, in the Great Room. At the time there was a BBC electricians strike in effect and the organisers decided to use a non-TV events production company, called Upfront, to manage the show. Despite the show being picketed, the event was transmitted as intended. For a while the outdoor broadcast scanner was rocked on its wheels by the protesters and they managed to turn off the power to one of the big GE video screen projectors. Upfront was then asked to organise the following year and persuaded the BPI to move the event to a larger venue, starting the trend that continues to this day, albeit at Earls Court, and with a different production company (MJK Productions).
Awards
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 four or more awards.
See also
External links
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