For 30 years, Maggie Crowe has been working tirelessly behind the scenes to make sure that the BRIT Awards not only go off without a hitch, but also linger long in the memory. Here, she recalls some of the thrills and spills she’s faced along the way...
This year’s BRITs is all about changing things up…
“And I think that’s why we have such a beautiful heritage and why we have such stand-out, memorable performances. The beauty of the BRITs is that we always change it up to ensure the best night out not just for the music industry, but also the best night in for the audience at home. We also sell tickets to level four [of The O2] and every year we sell out, and that’s in February when everyone’s still broke! It’s amazing.”
The question ‘What was the best BRITs ever?’...
“Is hard to answer because I’ve been doing this for 30 years, you know what I mean!? I have no idea, my filing cabinet doesn’t work very well anymore with my brain cells – I go from the Bee Gees closing to Take That’s spaceship to last year’s Greatest Showman bit. It’s all sort of a blend for me!”
Lots of people want to try and knock awards shows…
“But it’s celebrating success and honouring it. I got an award for singing badly at my convent school once – everyone likes to get a badge or an award!”
As team leader on the BRITs…
“I’m the mother of the family: TV has to be heard, production has to be heard, the media teams have to be heard, digital has to be heard and the venue has to make sure we can make it all happen practically. Plus, we have to allow the creatives to be creative. Usually, the teams around them are very organised – we’ve briefed them to within an inch of their life and they’ve all got our mobiles. It’s when there are herds of people that it can become logistically hard, if someone has got a massive orchestra and a massive set of dancers...”
I’ve learned the art of saying ‘no’ politely...
“There are a lot of people around in different shapes and forms who aren’t used to hearing someone say ‘no’. That’s hard for production teams to understand, but there are quite a few of them coming in and coming out – we’re delivering a live show for two hours. But what’s lovely about creative people is that they don’t naturally fit into a groove and it’s about having that understanding and appreciation. At the end of the day, the people that surround them, they’re all also creative in their own different ways, be it doing their staging or their graphics or styling – they’re all arty people. Everyone who comes to it wants to deliver the performance of their life and we should be able to provide that environment for them. It’s about cherishing their moment because we make musical history.”
At the BRITs anything can and will happen…
“We never go looking for that, it just seems to happen! We always think we’ve bulletproofed it completely... I instantly start rocking in my chair when I think of examples [Laughs]. But I’m an old hand now, as a team leader it’s about showing ‘there’s nothing to see here’. When everyone else wants to kick off and there’s histrionics, you just have to make sure you look completely in control.”
The night before the BRITs…
“I’ll be in my Portakabin fussing. What does fussing involve? It’s all the finer curveballs that may or may not come your way because of the rehearsal schedule. That’s when any amount of theory is unravelling practically before your eyes. All the logistics have to come together.”
When the Spice Girls played in 1997…
“I thought the roof was going to come off Earl’s Court. I tell you, timing-wise, and with Geri’s [Union Jack] dress, it was like a drug hitting.”
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