Brits 2012: The view from backstage and the red carpet

James Corden was forced to cut short Adele's acceptance speech

Only the red carpet at the Brit Awards would see Adele, Labrinth, JLS, the Vaccines and Cover Drive arriving at the same time, while Torvill and Dean snuck by in the background.

"Wow, I can't believe Torvill and Dean are here?" Justin Young from the Vaccines queried. "Are they lost?"

It was a fair question.

"We never really like doing the red carpet," added the Vaccines' Freddie Cowan.

"We arrived in between Lana Del Rey and Adele. Adele got out of the car and it was like, 'Forget it!'"

Adele did the requisite paparazzi photo around 6pm on Tuesday evening.

Four hours later she had won two Brit Awards and been cut off from finishing her thanks for the big prize, album of the year.

Backstage the reaction when that happened was confusion mixed with sympathy for host James Corden, after he was forced to shut Adele up so that Blur could play.

Speech shock

Even the night's other double Brit winner, Ed Sheeran, sounded disappointed that the rules of TV overshadowed common sense which he says should have allowed Adele to finish her speech.

"I thought it was a real shame," Ed Sheeran told Newsbeat.

"That is the best prize to get of the night and she so deserved it and just deserved the chance to express herself and say thank you."

Speeches can be tricky at the best of times.

Winning best British group for the third time, Coldplay thanked everyone who voted and still listened to their music.

Backstage though, Coldplay's Will Champion reflected on whether the band gave a decent speech.

"We're British, so winning is always awkward," he said.

"We're incredibly grateful but the acceptance speeches have not improved over the years."

'Shameless'

Red carpets at awards shows are a strange beast.

Some artists hate walking up them but they know they are the best place to promote their new work.

The Brit Awards red carpet was U-shaped this year at the O2 Arena

Dizzee Rascal decided to embrace that this year.

"It's good to be here," he began before chipping in, "I've got my album coming out this year. I know, shameless isn't it?"

For 2012 the carpet was U-shaped, with the usual divide - journalists safely behind a rope - celebrities and their bodyguards, make-up artists, PR people, and mates, free to roam.

If you thought that it was just the female celebrities worrying about standing on their long, flowing gowns (a concern of Florence Welch and Jessie J this year), spare a thought for Olly Murs.

Wearing a white dinner jacket may have been a good style choice but was probably impractical.

"Walking down the carpet, I was a bit unsure," Olly revealed.

"A few hands were coming in for pictures and I was like, 'I hope you haven't got dirty hands' because this is going to look terrible with a big handprint on the back."