LONDON (Billboard) - In 1989, the British music industry gambled on a tactic to rev up its annual BPI Awards ceremony. With a new, snappier name -- the BRIT Awards -- the country's version of the Grammys was televised live for the first time. But what rolled out that fateful night became the stuff of legend, with co-hosts Fleetwood Mac drummer Mick Fleetwood and glamour model-turned-pop signer Samantha Fox stranded haplessly at the podium as the show turned into "car crash" TV, replete with technical failures, botched lines, miscued presenters and late-arriving guests.

Unsurprisingly, the BPI (British Phonographic Industry) has since opted for a delayed feed. This year, though, the February 14 show will be televised live. The BRITs have gone from laughing stock to blue-chip stock, acknowledged as the jewel in the crown of the U.

K. awards calendar -- despite the arrival of a plethora of new honours in recent years. Of all the U.

K. awards shows, the BRITs have had the most notable regular effect on sales. In the first Official U.

K. Charts Co. (OCC) album listing published after the broadcast of the 2006 show, for example, double award-winner KT Tunstall's "Eye to the Telescope" leapt 15 places to No.

4. Other award winners showing dramatic sales rises that week included Coldplay (up 13 places to No. 8 with "X Y") and Kanye West (up 17 to No.

23 with "Late Registration"). Tunstall and West had both performed on the show, as did outstanding contribution award winner Paul Weller. The latter saw a reissued version of his old band the Jam's hits set "Snap!

" enter the chart at No. 10 the following week -- an entry much higher than would have been anticipated. Mercury Prize effects have been quantifiable as well.

The 2005 winner, Antony the Johnsons' "I Am a Bird Now" leapt from No. 135 to No. 16 on OCC's sales chart, while retailers reporting a 20-fold week-on-week sales increase.

London now hosts at least 30 music award ceremonies annually, catering to virtually every sector. Take in the Live Music Awards, dance music's DJ Awards, the U.K.

Music Hall of Fame, the Digital Music Awards and the events hosted by rock weekly Kerrang or music magazines NME or Q -- and you're only scratching the surface.