Fact #43452
When:
Short story:
At the BRIT Awards ceremony in Earls Court, London, England, UK, Europe, Pete Townshend of The Who presents Oasis with the Best British Group award. They also win Best Album and Best Video. The big event of the night, however, comes when Jarvis Cocker of Pulp takes the stage in the middle of Michael Jackson's messianic performance of Earth Song and performs a parody of Jackson's act.
Full article:
WITNESS : Various
EVENT : Jarvis Cocker invades the stage at the BRIT Awards during Michael Jackson's performance.
DATE : 19 February 1996
LOCATION : Earl's Court, London.
Research and interviews by Johnny Black. This feature first appeared in Q magazine in May 2009.
Alan McGee (president, Creation Records) : There’s a fine line between madness and genius and I actually like Michael Jackson because he’s so completely obviously off his nut. His whole performance was utterly pompous and overblown and Jarvis did what everybody else wanted to do.
Jonathan King : He was reflecting what we all felt, which was essentially that we thought Michael’s number was possibly the most appalling and pretentious performance we had ever seen in our lives.
Jarvis Cocker : I’d seen the run-through and I’d found it extremely distasteful and crap. But it wasn’t until he was going on and on that something within me snapped. Candida (Doyle, Pulp keyboardist) was there and she was egging me on. I was saying, ‘Look, we could do something here, ‘cos we’re really near.’ And she was saying, ‘Oh, you’d never do it.’ So she was egging me on.
Candida Doyle : I was encouraging him, but you can’t make Jarvis do anything; he only ever does what he wants to do.
Bernard Butler : I was at the table with Pulp, and you could see Jarvis was getting pissed off - we were all getting pissed off. Jackson’s set shocked everyone. It was so sick, especially when the children came out.
Jarvis Cocker : I don’t know if there was a final straw. It just really irked me that there were all these people with rags on and him healing them all.
Andy Prevezer (head of press, A&M) : I was at a table about 50 feet away from Jarvis. Everybody was already pretty well oiled, and we were sitting, fairly stunned by what Jackson was doing, which was totally over the top. Then I noticed this figure getting up suddenly and heading towards the stage. It took me a few moments to recognise that it was Jarvis.
Aml Ameen (child on stage) : From where I was standing I couldn’t really see, I just saw a white guy jump on stage. Then the American guys ran after him.
(Source : http://thebritishblacklist.co.uk/exclusive-aml-ameen-talks-the-butler-about-growing-up-and-his-career-behind-the-camera-part-2/)
Steve Mackey (bass, Pulp) : I could see it was going to happen. I could see Jarvis was well in. But he’s a better dancer than me, so I let him get on with it while I stood on a table and clapped him on.
Andy Prevezer : We couldn’t believe what we were seeing. Jarvis clambered onto the stage and started dancing around with his arms flailing. We were all mouth-agape. The word started going round the tables nearby and everybody started looking, but really it all happened so fast that a lot of people didn’t even see it.
Lisa Anderson (producer, BRIT Awards Ltd) : I was watching from the second row of tables. All of Michael Jackson’s people were directly in front of me, and suddenly I saw them all sort of craning their necks, straining to see something that’s going on. Michael, meanwhile, is singing Earth Song up in a cherry-picker, so he doesn’t even know that anything’s happening.
Bernard Butler : Jarvis was dancing, as if he was in the Common People video. The press said he made V-signs, but that was just his dance action.
Lisa Anderson : He turned his back to the audience and it looked to me like he was flipping up the tails of his jacket or his shirt…
Bernard Butler : He dropped his trousers very quickly, then he seemed to realise he might be in trouble and ran round the back, like he was trying to mingle with the stage cast, or hide among them.
Jarvis Cocker : It just felt weird to be up there. Once I was up there, I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t really think, ‘What have I done? What am I doing up here?’ until afterwards.
Aml Ameen (child on stage) : Some people got hit because some of Michael’s fans were throwing bottles. Some of the kids were cut open. I remember crying, because I wanted to get involved with whatever was gonna happen afterward.
(Source : http://thebritishblacklist.co.uk/exclusive-aml-ameen-talks-the-butler-about-growing-up-and-his-career-behind-the-camera-part-2/)
Bernard Butler : Then, some of the people on stage with Jackson took off their cloaks and you could see they were burly security guards.
Jarvis Cocker : I never saw the security. I was just there, then somebody kind of lunged at me, and I remember side-stepping them and kind of legging it over that white semi-pyramid thing at the back of the stage.
Nick Banks (drummer, Pulp) : I thought the whole thing was hilarious. It was like the Keystone Cops, all these bouncers dressing up as beggars and hiding behind Michael Jackson - they looked ridiculous. Then to watch them chasing Jarvis all around this huge pyramid-shaped set, it was a farce.
Lisa Anderson : At least one of the stage troupe did seem to be a security man. He was a big bloke, considerably larger than Jarvis, and he went after Jarvis and got hold of him and swung him round - you can see it on the video - which is what pushed one of the children off the front of the stage.
Jarvis Cocker : I didn’t make any physical contact with anyone. I find it very insulting to be accused of assaulting children. All I was trying to do was to make a point and do something lots of other people would have loved to have done if they’d dared.
Aml Ameen (child on stage) : We worked with him for two days. I met Michael when they first brought him in. It was all intense; they were saying ‘Okay everybody, Michael Jackson’s coming. Don’t even look at Michael unless he talks to you’ and then these doors open, this guy walks through with this huge entourage of people. I stand next to him because I have to stand next to him. I’m the one with the red turban on my head. I remember him turning to me and saying to me in a very deep voice – no high voice ‘Hey I’m Michael’ and I’m like ‘err I know’. He taught us all a secret handshake dance which he learned when he was in Africa.
(Source : http://thebritishblacklist.co.uk/exclusive-aml-ameen-talks-the-butler-about-growing-up-and-his-career-behind-the-camera-part-2/)
I wish I'd been hit because Michael Jackson took every child who'd been hit to Brent Cross and bought them all Playstations.
(Source : interview on BBC-tv Breakfast show, August 2018)
Jonathan King : Jarvis was reflecting the feeling of 98% of people in the hall. It was a legitimate protest. I think it might have been assisted by a certain amount of liquid refreshment.
Bernard Butler : By three quarters of the way through the song, when Jackson revealed himself as Jesus Christ, Jarvis was back in his seat.
Jarvis Cocker : People started coming up to me, saying things like, ‘Well done. Somebody should have done that ages ago.’ Brian Eno was one of the first people to come over to my table.
Brian Eno : In theory, I wouldn’t recommend a stage invasion, but Jackson’s performance was so grotesquely over the top, it was the only reaction possible. I’m bloody glad he did it.
Paul Burger (chairman, BRIT Awards/CEO Sony Records) : The need to respect a performing artist on his stage is tantamount. It was a blatant publicity stunt - a sad, pathetic expression of disrespect and not an appropriate way to protest about anything.
Jarvis Cocker : My actions were a protest at the way Jackson sees himself as some Christ-like figure with the power of healing. People go along with it even though they know it’s a bit sick. I just couldn’t go along with it any more.
Lisa Anderson : When the incident was over, the SONY people got up from their table en masse and went backstage. I was left sitting at my table, hoping that maybe it would all just blow over, but a minute or two later my mobile rang - ‘Lisa, you’re needed backstage! Urgently!’ The stage manager, Mick, told me that the Jacko people were very unhappy and they were concerned that Jarvis was going to leave the building.
So when I got backstage, Michael was already two floors away in his suite, which was separate from the other dressing rooms, but there was quite a row going on. This huge American bloke, whose name I can’t remember, was demanding that Jarvis must speak to Michael and apologise. I was doing my best to calm everybody down, suggesting maybe we should all look at the video. It quickly became obvious that I was going to have get Jarvis back, because the Sony people had called the police, alleging actual bodily harm to some of the children. He was leaving via the exit near the dressing rooms. He wasn’t very happy about having to come back.
Jarvis Cocker : As I was trying to leave, one of the organisers came up with a policeman and said, ‘It’s better if you talk about it.’ What ‘talk about it’ actually meant was going to a room and being arrested… I couldn’t really see what the police were arresting me for, and then they were saying that this was for throwing kids offstage. As far as I can remember, I made no physical contact with anybody.
Lisa Anderson : The police were actually pretty laid-back about the whole thing. We all ended up in a dressing room, which I think was Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer’s. It was absolutely crammed with record company people from Sony and Polygram, and artists and BRITs staff. Jarvis is saying, ‘But I didn’t do anything!’ and we were all concerned for his well-being. Of course, it turns out that Bob Mortimer is actually a trained solicitor, so he immediately offers to conduct Jarvis’s defence.
Jarvis Cocker : It weren’t a bad cell though. It had a flushing toilet. It even had a bit of padding on the bench. From what I’ve heard of police cells, it was apparently quite a luxury one.
Johnny Hopkins (PR, Creation Records) : After the BRITS, some of us went back with Oasis to the Landmark Hotel, probably just because one of the band was staying there, and Jarvis showed up, I think about four in the morning.
Paul Mathur (journalist, Melody Maker) : We met him in a corridor as we were coming out of a room down to the bar. He was saying, ‘Why do people always pick on me?’ It was only then that we realised he’d been arrested. He’s got a digital camera - you press it and see the picture you’ve just taken - and he had all these pictures of his cell and his toilet at the nick. I think everyone felt sorry for him.
Martin Talbot (News editor, Music Week) : Everyone came out of it smelling of roses. Both Pulp and Michael Jackson saw record sales soar. Pulp’s album went up from number eight to number five in the charts in the week after the Brits, and Jackson went up from 17 to 10. Pulp didn’t have a single in the Top 40 at the time, but Jackson’s Earth Song, which had been plummeting since Christmas, went from 38 to 16.
Martin Jones (director, MJ Media) : I was there that night, and I subsequently did an estimation of how much free advertising Pulp got out of the incident. It generated about fifteen full pages in national newspapers plus considerable tv and radio time, which we estimated to be the equivalent of a £775,000 advertising spend. Even Michael Jackson’s HisStory, which I believe was the most expensive album launch ever, didn’t spend that much.
Jarvis Cocker : It was like suddenly turning into Mickey mouse. Lots of people still expect me to be a Noel Edmonds type who’s always doing a Gotcha, planting whoopee cushions under people’s seats. It was only an expression of moral indignation, and I hate the fact that I’m still known for it.
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EVENT : Jarvis Cocker invades the stage at the BRIT Awards during Michael Jackson's performance.
DATE : 19 February 1996
LOCATION : Earl's Court, London.
Research and interviews by Johnny Black. This feature first appeared in Q magazine in May 2009.
Alan McGee (president, Creation Records) : There’s a fine line between madness and genius and I actually like Michael Jackson because he’s so completely obviously off his nut. His whole performance was utterly pompous and overblown and Jarvis did what everybody else wanted to do.
Jonathan King : He was reflecting what we all felt, which was essentially that we thought Michael’s number was possibly the most appalling and pretentious performance we had ever seen in our lives.
Jarvis Cocker : I’d seen the run-through and I’d found it extremely distasteful and crap. But it wasn’t until he was going on and on that something within me snapped. Candida (Doyle, Pulp keyboardist) was there and she was egging me on. I was saying, ‘Look, we could do something here, ‘cos we’re really near.’ And she was saying, ‘Oh, you’d never do it.’ So she was egging me on.
Candida Doyle : I was encouraging him, but you can’t make Jarvis do anything; he only ever does what he wants to do.
Bernard Butler : I was at the table with Pulp, and you could see Jarvis was getting pissed off - we were all getting pissed off. Jackson’s set shocked everyone. It was so sick, especially when the children came out.
Jarvis Cocker : I don’t know if there was a final straw. It just really irked me that there were all these people with rags on and him healing them all.
Andy Prevezer (head of press, A&M) : I was at a table about 50 feet away from Jarvis. Everybody was already pretty well oiled, and we were sitting, fairly stunned by what Jackson was doing, which was totally over the top. Then I noticed this figure getting up suddenly and heading towards the stage. It took me a few moments to recognise that it was Jarvis.
Aml Ameen (child on stage) : From where I was standing I couldn’t really see, I just saw a white guy jump on stage. Then the American guys ran after him.
(Source : http://thebritishblacklist.co.uk/exclusive-aml-ameen-talks-the-butler-about-growing-up-and-his-career-behind-the-camera-part-2/)
Steve Mackey (bass, Pulp) : I could see it was going to happen. I could see Jarvis was well in. But he’s a better dancer than me, so I let him get on with it while I stood on a table and clapped him on.
Andy Prevezer : We couldn’t believe what we were seeing. Jarvis clambered onto the stage and started dancing around with his arms flailing. We were all mouth-agape. The word started going round the tables nearby and everybody started looking, but really it all happened so fast that a lot of people didn’t even see it.
Lisa Anderson (producer, BRIT Awards Ltd) : I was watching from the second row of tables. All of Michael Jackson’s people were directly in front of me, and suddenly I saw them all sort of craning their necks, straining to see something that’s going on. Michael, meanwhile, is singing Earth Song up in a cherry-picker, so he doesn’t even know that anything’s happening.
Bernard Butler : Jarvis was dancing, as if he was in the Common People video. The press said he made V-signs, but that was just his dance action.
Lisa Anderson : He turned his back to the audience and it looked to me like he was flipping up the tails of his jacket or his shirt…
Bernard Butler : He dropped his trousers very quickly, then he seemed to realise he might be in trouble and ran round the back, like he was trying to mingle with the stage cast, or hide among them.
Jarvis Cocker : It just felt weird to be up there. Once I was up there, I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t really think, ‘What have I done? What am I doing up here?’ until afterwards.
Aml Ameen (child on stage) : Some people got hit because some of Michael’s fans were throwing bottles. Some of the kids were cut open. I remember crying, because I wanted to get involved with whatever was gonna happen afterward.
(Source : http://thebritishblacklist.co.uk/exclusive-aml-ameen-talks-the-butler-about-growing-up-and-his-career-behind-the-camera-part-2/)
Bernard Butler : Then, some of the people on stage with Jackson took off their cloaks and you could see they were burly security guards.
Jarvis Cocker : I never saw the security. I was just there, then somebody kind of lunged at me, and I remember side-stepping them and kind of legging it over that white semi-pyramid thing at the back of the stage.
Nick Banks (drummer, Pulp) : I thought the whole thing was hilarious. It was like the Keystone Cops, all these bouncers dressing up as beggars and hiding behind Michael Jackson - they looked ridiculous. Then to watch them chasing Jarvis all around this huge pyramid-shaped set, it was a farce.
Lisa Anderson : At least one of the stage troupe did seem to be a security man. He was a big bloke, considerably larger than Jarvis, and he went after Jarvis and got hold of him and swung him round - you can see it on the video - which is what pushed one of the children off the front of the stage.
Jarvis Cocker : I didn’t make any physical contact with anyone. I find it very insulting to be accused of assaulting children. All I was trying to do was to make a point and do something lots of other people would have loved to have done if they’d dared.
Aml Ameen (child on stage) : We worked with him for two days. I met Michael when they first brought him in. It was all intense; they were saying ‘Okay everybody, Michael Jackson’s coming. Don’t even look at Michael unless he talks to you’ and then these doors open, this guy walks through with this huge entourage of people. I stand next to him because I have to stand next to him. I’m the one with the red turban on my head. I remember him turning to me and saying to me in a very deep voice – no high voice ‘Hey I’m Michael’ and I’m like ‘err I know’. He taught us all a secret handshake dance which he learned when he was in Africa.
(Source : http://thebritishblacklist.co.uk/exclusive-aml-ameen-talks-the-butler-about-growing-up-and-his-career-behind-the-camera-part-2/)
I wish I'd been hit because Michael Jackson took every child who'd been hit to Brent Cross and bought them all Playstations.
(Source : interview on BBC-tv Breakfast show, August 2018)
Jonathan King : Jarvis was reflecting the feeling of 98% of people in the hall. It was a legitimate protest. I think it might have been assisted by a certain amount of liquid refreshment.
Bernard Butler : By three quarters of the way through the song, when Jackson revealed himself as Jesus Christ, Jarvis was back in his seat.
Jarvis Cocker : People started coming up to me, saying things like, ‘Well done. Somebody should have done that ages ago.’ Brian Eno was one of the first people to come over to my table.
Brian Eno : In theory, I wouldn’t recommend a stage invasion, but Jackson’s performance was so grotesquely over the top, it was the only reaction possible. I’m bloody glad he did it.
Paul Burger (chairman, BRIT Awards/CEO Sony Records) : The need to respect a performing artist on his stage is tantamount. It was a blatant publicity stunt - a sad, pathetic expression of disrespect and not an appropriate way to protest about anything.
Jarvis Cocker : My actions were a protest at the way Jackson sees himself as some Christ-like figure with the power of healing. People go along with it even though they know it’s a bit sick. I just couldn’t go along with it any more.
Lisa Anderson : When the incident was over, the SONY people got up from their table en masse and went backstage. I was left sitting at my table, hoping that maybe it would all just blow over, but a minute or two later my mobile rang - ‘Lisa, you’re needed backstage! Urgently!’ The stage manager, Mick, told me that the Jacko people were very unhappy and they were concerned that Jarvis was going to leave the building.
So when I got backstage, Michael was already two floors away in his suite, which was separate from the other dressing rooms, but there was quite a row going on. This huge American bloke, whose name I can’t remember, was demanding that Jarvis must speak to Michael and apologise. I was doing my best to calm everybody down, suggesting maybe we should all look at the video. It quickly became obvious that I was going to have get Jarvis back, because the Sony people had called the police, alleging actual bodily harm to some of the children. He was leaving via the exit near the dressing rooms. He wasn’t very happy about having to come back.
Jarvis Cocker : As I was trying to leave, one of the organisers came up with a policeman and said, ‘It’s better if you talk about it.’ What ‘talk about it’ actually meant was going to a room and being arrested… I couldn’t really see what the police were arresting me for, and then they were saying that this was for throwing kids offstage. As far as I can remember, I made no physical contact with anybody.
Lisa Anderson : The police were actually pretty laid-back about the whole thing. We all ended up in a dressing room, which I think was Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer’s. It was absolutely crammed with record company people from Sony and Polygram, and artists and BRITs staff. Jarvis is saying, ‘But I didn’t do anything!’ and we were all concerned for his well-being. Of course, it turns out that Bob Mortimer is actually a trained solicitor, so he immediately offers to conduct Jarvis’s defence.
Jarvis Cocker : It weren’t a bad cell though. It had a flushing toilet. It even had a bit of padding on the bench. From what I’ve heard of police cells, it was apparently quite a luxury one.
Johnny Hopkins (PR, Creation Records) : After the BRITS, some of us went back with Oasis to the Landmark Hotel, probably just because one of the band was staying there, and Jarvis showed up, I think about four in the morning.
Paul Mathur (journalist, Melody Maker) : We met him in a corridor as we were coming out of a room down to the bar. He was saying, ‘Why do people always pick on me?’ It was only then that we realised he’d been arrested. He’s got a digital camera - you press it and see the picture you’ve just taken - and he had all these pictures of his cell and his toilet at the nick. I think everyone felt sorry for him.
Martin Talbot (News editor, Music Week) : Everyone came out of it smelling of roses. Both Pulp and Michael Jackson saw record sales soar. Pulp’s album went up from number eight to number five in the charts in the week after the Brits, and Jackson went up from 17 to 10. Pulp didn’t have a single in the Top 40 at the time, but Jackson’s Earth Song, which had been plummeting since Christmas, went from 38 to 16.
Martin Jones (director, MJ Media) : I was there that night, and I subsequently did an estimation of how much free advertising Pulp got out of the incident. It generated about fifteen full pages in national newspapers plus considerable tv and radio time, which we estimated to be the equivalent of a £775,000 advertising spend. Even Michael Jackson’s HisStory, which I believe was the most expensive album launch ever, didn’t spend that much.
Jarvis Cocker : It was like suddenly turning into Mickey mouse. Lots of people still expect me to be a Noel Edmonds type who’s always doing a Gotcha, planting whoopee cushions under people’s seats. It was only an expression of moral indignation, and I hate the fact that I’m still known for it.