“He’s Off His Cocker” a headline in UK tabloid newspaper The Sun exclaimed on the morning after the 1996 Brit Awards, the biggest night in the UK music industry calendar. And if that makes no sense whatsoever to you, then all you need to know is that the story pivoted around Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker, pop megastar Michael Jackson, and a Monty Python-esque "I fart in your general direction" protest.
Actually, you may need to know slightly more than that, to be fair, so let's rewind further...
On February 19, 1996, in recognition of a hugely successful 12 months for the band, Britpop stars Pulp were nominated in four categories at the Brit Awards: Best Album, Best Group, Best Single, and Best Video. Jarvis Cocker's group would ultimately go home empty-handed, but yet made more headlines after the event than triple-award winners Oasis, simply because Jarvis Cocker walked onstage during Michael Jackson's performance of Earth Song, waggled his bottom and pretended to waft away a fart, a 'crime' for which the singer was subsequently arrested.
