“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.
The Brits organisers had invented a one-off Artist of a Generation award for Jackson in order to woo the singer to make his first UK TV appearance in 20 years at the ceremony, staged at Earls Court Exhibition Centre. Pulp were also booked to perform on the night (to play their single Sorted for E’s & Wizz) which meant that Cocker and his bandmates were among a select few who got to see Jackson rehearse his performance of Earth Song, surrounded by children.
Two years earlier, after being accused of sex abuse by the family of teenager Jordan Chandler, Jackson and his legal team had reached a financial settlement with the family, stressing that this was in no way an admission of guilt. Given these circumstances, Jarvis Cocker admitted that he found Jackson’s proposed performance “extremely distasteful”. So, on the night, egged on by his bandmates, he drunkenly decided to stage a one-man protest, walking on stage during Jacko’s messianic pantomime, and waggling his bottom, adding that ‘wafting’ action for good measure. For this, somehow, he was later arrested, accused of assaulting the children onstage with the King Of Pop. All charges were subsequently dropped, but the incident made Cocker a genuine household name, for the wrong reasons.
“At first it looked bad,” the singer recalls in a new exclusive interview with MOJO. ‘They accused me of cobbing kids off stage and stuff, and a bare bottom as well, which wasn’t true.
“After that, everybody knew who I was. I’d always wanted to be famous, but you can’t decide on the level of fame that you’re going to get, and that sent me into an overload of it. It wasn’t for music, it was for one quite out-of-character thing I’d done… That’s when it became really difficult to handle because I just couldn’t go out anymore. So, yeah, life became dark.”
“It sent me into a space that took me a long time to get out of, over 10 years for sure. But I did it, so I can’t complain.”
“We’ve never spoken about it since,” admits Pulp keyboardist Candida Doyle. “It feels a bit taboo.”
One man who supported Cocker’s protest was Oasis leader Noel Gallagher.
“Jarvis is a star!” Noel Gallagher told Musician magazine afterwards. “People thought it was so shocking. It’s not as if he cracked [Jackson] on the head with a baseball bat – which is what I woulda done if I’d gone up there.”
Michael Jackson – Earth Song (Brit Awards 1996) – YouTube 
Last week, Pulp announced their first new album in 24 years.
Jarvis Cocker’s band will release More, dedicated to late bassist Steve Mackey, and the follow-up to 2001’s We Love Life, on June 6 via Rough Trade.
The band are also set to perform two world exclusive live sessions for BBC Radio 6 Music and BBC Radio 2 In Concert in May.
The sets will be recorded at the BBC Radio Theatre in London’s Broadcasting House, with the band playing tracks from their upcoming album. Tickets for Radio 2 In Concert will be allocated via a ballot which is open now and closes at 11.59pm on April 22. Apply here.