12/21/1991 Melody Maker (1-19-91 Great British Music Weekend Review)
Brits Hit The Fans
In an unprecedented attempt to drag the meaningless BRITS Awards into the modern world, the BBC allowed professional megalomaniac Jonathan King a free hand to oversee this year's event. The porcine one immediately instigated The Great British Music Weekend at Wembley Arena wherein a collection of acts (chosen by the royal whim) got to play short sets in front of a crowd who were encouraged to clap and cheer on cue for the cameras, just as if they were in the "Top Of The Pops" studio.
Those who took part, and then complained about it afterwards were The Cure, who eventually won the Best British Band award - about the only sensible BRIT award this century - Ride, who gave them a run for their money on the night, the risible Carter USM who were decreed King's personal faves, the oafish Farm who were out-oafed by Happy Mondays, Billy Bragg who turned the show into an anti-Gulf War tirade and got censored for it, and a few metal geezers, most memorably Dame Ozzy Osbourne, who died onstage.
As expected, bar The Cure, the actual Award ceremony, which was held at the Dominion Theatre about a month later, was a triumph for the same old back-slapping regime despite the token 10 second snippets from TGBMW. Some 10 months later, it only lives in the memory for King's unforgivable insult to Sinead O'Connor (the slob deliberately played a video of Whitney Houston singing the American national anthem as a pro-war gesture - an act that, presumably, did no harm to the dickhead's plans to sell the show Stateside).
A similar fiasco is threatened this year. Hibernate.
