The other week I found myself among the audience of celebrities, record executives and prize winners at the annual Britannia Music Awards or the 'Brits'. It's very unusual for my name to be picked for anything, but as it happened, I had casually voted for certain nominees on the 'Brits' website several weeks previously.
My name was then automatically put into a draw which I promptly forgot all about, until a phone call from the local radio station complete with on-air interview to confirm that I was, for once, a winner. I went from being an ordinary housewife to rubbing shoulders with the stars at the Earls Court all-singing, all-dancing extravaganza.
It was the first opportunity I've really had to compare media hype and television coverage with first-hand reality on such a large scale. The media had made much of the tough security measures being laid on for celebrities' protection. In fact, we encountered nothing of the sort. My husband and I waved our ticket envelope and we were ushered through ˘ no close checking of tickets until our seats were shown to us, none of the x-ray machines or searches we'd heard would be taking place.
