26/11/2024
Thoughts on These Iconic Moments
PULP guitarist Mark Webber recalls how JARVIS COCKER managed to crash MICHAEL JACKSON’s performance at the 1996 Brit Awards.
One of the most infamous moments in Pulp’s history is when Cocker rushed the stage mid-way through Jackson’s performance of “Earth Song” at the Brits.
Images of starving children were being projected onto a screen and actors, young and old, dressed in ragged clothes were walking around on stage, seemingly worshiping Jackson, as the pop star performed. Then, out of nowhere, Cocker wandered onto the stage, bent over, and waved his butt around on national TV.
Shortly after the incident - which saw him taken to a police station and kept there until 3am - Cocker was asked about his decision to interrupt Jackson’s performance. "I was just sat there and watching it and feeling a bit ill, 'cause he's there doing his Jesus act,” he said at the time. "And I could kind of see - It seemed to me there was a lot of other people who kind of found it distasteful as well, and I just thought: 'The stage is there, I'm here and you can actually just do something about it and say this is a load of rubbish if you wanted.'"
Now, in a new interview with Sky News, Mark Webber reflected on Cocker’s now infamous act, though he admits that at the time it didn’t feel like the significant moment in pop culture it has since grown to be.
"There was disbelief in the moment, that he actually dared to do it. And that it was so easy to do. That's the thing none of us could really understand, that there was no security or anything stopping anyone getting on the stage that easily,” he said.
Webber continued, saying there was some concern afterwards over the repercussions Cocker would face. "Like, 'is Jarvis going to go to prison?' Because we were starting a tour the next day."
As for why he thinks Cocker did it, Webber says most awards ceremonies and industry events are "boring - you have to do something to amuse yourself".