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A Brit Award, designed by Peter Blake
Live events, with their unpredictable edge and tendency to wander off schedule, do not always suit TV broadcasts. And awards shows are the worst for this kind of thing. All it takes is an unscripted speech rambling on too long, and suddenly the important thing at the end of the night has been compromised by a far, far less important thing earlier on.
And that’s what happened at the Brit Awards tonight. After a fairly nondescript ceremony, which saw Ed Sheeran take away two awards (British Breakthrough Act and British Male), Coldplay win British Band (for the third time) and Bruno Mars sing a song with a quiff almost twice the height of his own height, Adele was awarded the Album of the Year trophy.
She had already won British Female Solo Artist, and given a short, sweet speech, and was expecting to be able to stretch out a bit with her second, simply because Album of the Year is THE award. There’s the heritage thing that happens with the Outstanding Contribution award, for which Damon Albarn from Blur – this year’s rightful winners – had rambled on for quite a while. He started with “last time we were here it was 17 years ago, and it seemed to have a profound effect on our lives,” the kind of opener that never leads to a snappy “thank you and goodnight.” But that’s for the grown-ups, if you need to prove that you are at the top of your tree, Album of the Year is the trophy you want. And who could argue that Adele isn’t?
However, as she started to talk about how proud she feels, bring six Grammy awards back to the UK and then winning this particular Brit, the show’s host, James Corden, had to step forward, at the behest of the TV producers, and bring her speech to a sudden halt, so he could introduce Blur’s performance.
This was a timing issue. Blur had 11 minutes in which to play three songs: “Girls and Boys,” “Song 2″ and “Parklife” before the whole show fell off the air and it was time for the news. No matter how big Adele may be right now, her need to thank people for her award was secondary to the issue of timing, and it resulted in a horrible screech of gears, and as you can see from the picture, a rude hand gesture.
Adele, just after what we're now calling Blur-gate. (screengrab from ITV coverage)
UPDATE: There’s a clip:
Afterwards, James Corden told interviewers he was gutted that he had to do it, and didn’t understand why. For her part, Adele appears to have taken it all in good humor.
Twitter predictably exploded, with people blaming Damon for going on, and Blur for having to have their 11 minutes, but really, it’s television’s fault. TV often can’t remember what’s really important at moments of high stress, and can be too busy arranging a pointless chat earlier on to remember to leave enough slack for the heavyweight moments towards the end. And goodness knows there are enough stunned silences in TV awards shows, so it’s no easy task.
Not that it really matters. It’s only an awards show. There’s be another along in a minute.
10 Comments
It was a bit poor though. Poor James Corden is gutted. Adele seems a great gal and she will probably think it was funny but really couldn’t the news have been a bit later…?
Lord knows if it was an awards show on an American broadcast station, they’d push into the news for a minute or two (the Oscars being the most notorious for running over in spite of already blocking out 3 hours for the show they’ll wind up going an extra half hour, nevermind a few minutes, and no one bats an eye). Shame that the US entertainment news sites are all barking about Adele’s “hand gesture” as if it’s the worst thing in the world and will kill her career or something when it’s really not a big deal (then again, they had a field day with M.I.A. doing the same during the Super Bowl so I guess I shouldn’t be surprised by it). Nice to see both James Corden and ITV have offered apologies to Adele for the cut off – perhaps Damon Albarn should too if he was the main culprit for the time crunch. Surely if he ran long with his speech then Blur’s performance could’ve shed a minute or two in return (granted harder to cut time from a pre-rehearsed number, but they’re professionals so they could figure out a way of taking out a few lines in the medley to shorten it, couldn’t they?!).
Thing is, the event was peppered with utterly pointless space-filler interviews with people. One Direction and James Corden had a memorable unmeeting of minds which would more than have covered the space for Adele’s speech AND Damon’s speech.
Blur were winning Outstanding Contribution, he had every right to go on a bit. Adele was winning Album of the Year, so did she. And she did at least get to perform “Rolling In The Deep” uncut beforehand, so I’d disagree that the music should ever be curtailed.
That’s why I’m saying it’s TV’s fault. They simply got a bit giddy and forgot what was important.
Adeles’s gesture seems to have been the highlight of the evening. The rest evidently was typical Brit snoozervision. Invariably these awards shows are among the most boring trash on TV. I have to wonder who is so desperate for something to do that they actually spend the time to watch it. At least when you see a horse race there’s something worth viewing. Why would anyone even bother to read the outcome in the newspaper the next day?
I think Adele’s message was directed at all of Britain and to her entire audience. Will they keep coming back for more? Doubtless they will. That would reflect on them, not her. BTW, I never heard one song she ever sang and couldn’t be less interested in her.
& yet Marcus, Adele speaks so highly of you
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Polly;
“& yet Marcus, Adele speaks so highly of you”
So does everyone else who knows me. Now tell me something I don’t know.
In the words of Carl Sigman… Where do I begin!
Adele was very emotional about the award and for anyone feeling that way to suddenly have it interrupted would be a surpise and your emotionals would play into it.
Some American shows have had people starting to be played off with music but some of the people have said..no wait..and they rush trying to get more thank yous and then may forget people. Other award shows have a rule to not interrupt the winner and if things go on a bit longer than expected – they go on longer. They know the show may go over it’s planned time.
I don’t know the answers. However I do agree with Uncle Ben increasing the money supply.
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