On November 24, 1994, nine months on from the release of their critically-acclaimed and commercially-successful second album Troublegum, Therapy? were booked to play at the inaugural MTV Europe Music Awards in Berlin, joining global superstars Prince, Aerosmith, George Michael and Take That on the evening's cast of performing artists. In another acknowledgement of their rising profile, the Larne trio were also nominated for two awards, Breakthrough Artist and Best Rock Artist, the latter category completed by Metallica, Rage Against The Machine, Soundgarden, and Aerosmith. Given that they'd originally coalesced around a shared love of the noisiest US alt. rock, Belgian New Beat, underground hip-hop, Captain Beefheart, and free jazz, none of this was ever in the game plan for the “three chubby hicks from the sticks”, as frontman Andy Cairns once described his band, with typically self-deprecating dry wit.
As if the occasion was not already sufficiently surreal for Therapy?, as Cairns, bassist Michael McKeegan and drummer Fyfe Ewing (plus guest cellist/future full-time band member Martin McCarrick) took up their positions onstage for their scheduled live performance of Die Laughing, the show's producers introduced a bizarre link featuring an interview with Jarvis Cocker, for which Pulp's vocalist was asked to pretend to be Andy Cairns. Whatever inspired this baffling editorial decision - perhaps it sounded like a hilarious wheeze to someone on the broadcast team while slug-sized lines of premium-purity gak were being hoovered backstage - it was weird, the segment's 'comedy' nadir coming when Cocker/'Cairns' exclusively revealed that the next album from the Irish band would be... a concept album about potatoes.
