Brits behaving badly

Ronnie Wood and Robbie Williams' on-stage antics follow in a long tradition of bad behaviour at the UK's most prestigious music awards.

The Rolling Stones guitarist found himself in a row with club DJ Brandon Block, who invaded the stage as he tried to award the best soundtrack album prize to the film Notting Hill. While Robbie Williams continued his much-hyped row with rock icons Oasis - by demanding to have a punch-up with the group's singer Liam Gallagher, currently on tour in Japan.

So while Travis were crowned the best group in the UK, and Macy Gray was named the best international act, the fights and the rows have stolen the spotlight from them.

Of course, Oasis could show Robbie Williams a thing or two about behaving badly at the Brits.

Picking up a prize from the late Michael Hutchence at the 1996 awards, Liam Gallagher lectured the INXS singer that "has-beens shouldn't be presenting awards to gonna-bes".

He also managed to find time to pretend to insert his prize somewhere where the sun wasn't shining.

This was also the year Pulp singer Jarvis Cocker - somewhat fuelled by drink - stormed the stage with a friend during Michael Jackson's performance of Earth Song and pretended to break wind on stage. Cocker was arrested and it was claimed he had assaulted Jackson's child dancers - but he was released without charge and sales of Pulp's Different Class album soared.

However, all the fun and games were cut from the initial TV broadcast of the Brits.

Carlton Television has held the rights to the Brits since 1993 - but has always broadcast them a day later, mindful of the fact that ITV's regulators would take a dim view of pop stars swearing live just after Coronation Street.

In 1992 - when the BBC showed the awards live - the KLF won best British group along with Simply Red. While Mick Hucknall offered to give his prize to Queen as a tribute to Freddie Mercury, the KLF showed their gratitude in a different way. They had planned to throw buckets of blood into the audience while playing a thrash-metal version of 3am Eternal. But BBC lawyers advised them not to, and their vegetarian backing group Extreme Noise Terror objected to their next idea - throwing a dead sheep into the audience.

Instead, they fired blanks from a machine gun, before leaving the awards with the message "KLF have left the music industry". A motorcycle courier was sent to pick up their award.

But the Brits' most notorious bad boy was Danbert Nobacon, of the cult Leeds band Chumbawamba.

After nearly two decades of obscurity, their drinking anthem Tubthumping became a hit in 1997, and they promised to create a fuss when they were invited to the 1998 Brits. After protesting against Tony Blair's policies during their performance, Nobacon - real name Nigel Hunter - tipped an ice bucket over Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott.

Pictures of a furious Deputy PM went around the world, and Prescott later said he nearly gave Nobacon a Tubthumping of his own.

Fast forward to 2000, and a few pop stars will be nursing sore heads on Saturday.

But their headline-grabbing antics will do their record sales no harm at all - and will increase their chances of being able to do it all again at Brit ceremonies in the future.