ANARCHY IN THE U.K.: You expect heated...

ANARCHY IN THE U.K.: You expect heated debate over who wins at music awards shows, but the controversy over last week’s Brit Awards had nothing to do with recording taste. The flap was over the show’s security.

Not only did English Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott fume after he and his wife were drenched with ice water by Chumbawamba’s Danbert Nobacon, in a protest of Labor Party policies, but Prime Minister Tony Blair’s wife, Cherie, was also given a scare as she entered London’s Docklands Arena for the ceremony.

A man who was among 200 people protesting low wages at a PolyGram Records subsidiary jumped over a barrier and put his arms around the politician’s wife before being quickly led away by police.

Reaction was swift and heated the next day. Members of the Labor Party reportedly demanded an inquiry into security arrangements for the awards program. “If this had been a Labor Party event, the only question that would have been asked was, ‘How did the Labor Party let this happen?” a party official was quoted as saying in the Evening Standard. “The same question should be asked of the Brit Awards.”

The Brit Awards--which likes to think of itself as the equivalent of the Grammys--was also marked by controversy in 1996 when Pulp lead singer Jarvis Cocker disrupted a performance by Michael Jackson.