The Brit Awards 1996

Perfect for Throwback Thursday, Brit Awards ’96, yes, the famous year of the Jarvis Cocker debacle. This all took place in an era that was way before smart phones with cameras, so the only proof I have that i was ever there are these little bits of memorabilia found today, whilst clearing out

Jarvis Cocker wanted 10 dancers, that he never spoke to the entire time. Each artist goes out and marks their performance in rehearsals, we all know, you never perform full in rehearsals.
   We would all go out rehearse, with no one really paying much attention to what the other artists were doing. Simply Red were there that year, performing Fairground.

Now we all knew that Michael Jackson was on the bill, to perform, but we were not allowed to see his performance in rehearsals before the actual day. We would finish at 6pm, and we would see him arriving with his entourage, and the building had to be empty.  As i said, we were not allowed to see the performance; however, on the actual day of the show, you have to rehearse in the order that the show is going to run, so that they can time each segment for the commercial breaks.

When we went out, no one was in the arena, the old Earls Court Exhibition Centre, not in the slightest interested, nor with Simply Red or any of the other artists, but when Michael came out, every seat was full like it was a performance, every cleaner, dresser, make up artist, stylist, hot dog stand owner, security guard, secretary, were in the auditorium to watch the performance. That was the first time i actually realised how much pressure he was always under, more so than other artists.

I’m not going to lie, I LOST MY MIND. At the end of the performance was when we had the opportunity to meet him, and hang out for all of 10 minutes, in the corridor to the dressing rooms, before he was whisked away by his entourage. I had to gather myself, regroup, go back to the dressing room and calm down, after all be was an icon that i was listening to from for years old, and was plastered all over my bedroom wall.

Mick Hucknell was hysterical; he ran straight to the phone to call every agency, to get more dancers, well, that wasn’t going to happen with 4 hours to go. Would there be dancers available? Would they have time to rehearse, nah. All day, i was wishing I was in Michael’s crowd scene, and not dancing up on a podium behind Jarvis Cocker and his tasteless foolishness.

Performance time came, we did what we had to do, then went back to sit in the audience, to watch the remainder of the show. Well, the rest is history; we all know what happened. Let me tell you, I felt so ashamed, I got up from the table, ran to the dressing room, changed and left, I didn’t even watch the remainder of the show. Ruined the evening.