Material World: Pulp
Photograph: Ed Sirrs
New Musical Express, 10 October 1992
Transcription: Acrylic Afternoons
Where are you and what are the vibes like?
We are in Norwich and the vibes are like shimmering shards of incandescent plywood.
What was the last thing you ate?
Nick Banks: Chicken In A Bun
Candida Doyle: Branston Pickle
Steve Mackey: Cucumber (whole)
Russell Senior: Earwax
Jarvis Cocker: A Skoal bandit
What was the last video you rented?
Girl On A Motorcycle and we still owe six pounds because we took it back late, so because of that we've had nothing since.
What was the last good book you read?
Dead Babies - Martin Amis
The Cement Garden - Ian McEwan
One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest - Ken Kesey
Woman In White - Wilkie Collins
Bonfire Of The Vanities - Tom Wolfe
Steppenwolf - Herman Hesse
Fave political figures?
Arthur Scargill, Harriet Harman, Michael Foot.
What TV shows do you try not to miss?
Open University - Particle Physics Module One.
What sports are you good at?
Water, pocket billiards, table tennis, cards, arm wrestling, gambling.
Which public figure do you most despise?
Sebastian Coe (he gives Sheffield a bad name - he stood for Parliament because he couldn't run for toffee).
Fave TV shows of yesteryear
The Spirit Of Dark And Dirty Water
Double Deckers
Hope And Keen's Crazy Bus
Banana Splits
Cheggers Plays Pop
Any public information films
Most embarrassing records in your collection
Ours, because our mothers insist on playing them when relatives and insurance salesmen come round.
Name three great songwriting partnerships
Chinnichapp, Bacharach & David, Peters & Lee.
Fave punk rock records
Candida: 'Another Girl Another Planet' - The Only Ones
Jarvis: '1 2 X U' - Wire
Russell: 'Pretty Vacant' - The Sex Pistols
Steve: 'Bingo Master's Breakout' - The Fall
Nick: 'Roadrunner' - Jonathan Richman
Fave historical figure
Vlad The Impaler and the Whore Of Babylon.
Worst lyric you've ever heard
"Kick yourself in the head/Pretty soon you will be dead..."
('Get A Life' - Julian Lennon)
Who's overrated?
Wim Wenders, Jacques Poos (Foreign Minister of Luxembourg), Bob Dylan, Graeme Hick, John Barnes.
Who's sexy?
Jarvis: Jan Francis
Steve: Jane Birkin, Charlotte Gainsbourg
Candida: Jack Nicholson
Russell: Ingrid Pitt
Nick: Sue Carpenter
Punchline to fave joke
"Elvis Parsley"
Where would you like to retire to?
Jarvis: Whitby
Russell: Scarborough
Candida: Shetland
Steve: Galway
Nick: Cardigan Bay
Name a record that can make you cry
Nick: 'Honey' - Bobby Goldsboro
Candida: 'Romeo And Juliet' - Dire Straits
Steve: 'Blue Afternoon' - Tim Buckley
Jarvis: 'Always Coming Back To You' - Scott Walker
Russell: 'She's A Lady' - Pulp
When were you last drunk?
When we dressed up as a bottle.
What was the last dream you can remember?
Candida: Eating live cockroach sweets
Russell: That Rotherham was a major international conference centre
Jarvis: Sticking up toads at the top of my gran's cellar steps
Steve: Being dressed in women's clothes at a disco
Three records guaranteed to make you dance
'French Kiss' - Lil' Louis
'Groove Is In The Heart' - Deee-Lite
'Disco Inferno' - Trammps
What was the first record you heard?
Nick: 'Mr Tambourine Man' - The Byrds
Candida: 'Love Is Just Like A Merry-Go-Round' - Sandie Shaw
Steve: 'Itchycoo Park' - The Small Faces
Russell: 'The Ring' - Wagner
Jarvis: 'The Strange World Of Guerney Slade' - Max Harris
1992 sees Sheffield's wackiest band, Pulp, celebrating their tenth anniversary. In a recording career that's seen so many singles that Pulp themselves aren't totally sure what they've had released, there's only been one album - the excellent Freaks of 1987.
But, following on from the success of the two singles in '91 (My Legendary Girlfriend and Countdown), May 18th sees the release of O. U. She's Gone - a sublime piece of D.I.S.C.O. that's sure to have all the kids pogoing in delight, and rumours are spreading that the long awaited second album Seperations might follow soon after.
But aren't they afraid that, after all these years, they'll have passed their prime? Orange managed to catch up with Jarvis (vox/guitar/Oxfam junkie), Russell (guitar/violin/stares), Candida (keyboards/dresses) and Nick drums/eating) (Steve the bass player couldn't make it) to find out more.
J: No. As far as most people are concerned, we only started to exist last year.
R: Most of the people that come to see us now have never heard anything before My Legendary Girlfriend, thank goodness! They don't know about our hideous past - we've been trying to keep it quiet, you know!
So what've Pulp been up to since the release of Countdown?
R: A hectic schedule of staring into space.
J: Vegetation.
N: We went to France.
R: We played a few concerts.
J: We've just been getting some new material together.
R: I suppose the main thing we've been doing is building up a following in London, really, because we only ever had a following in Sheffield.
What's been happening with the Seperations LP? Everyone expected it to be out last year, but it's still not out. Why's it taken so long?
J: We want it to be really good. All this about things taking time is never anything to do with us, honestly.
C: It's not our fault!
N: It's the organisation around us.
J: We'd like to have a record out every couple of months, but it never seems to work out that way.
R: We recorded the unmixed album over two years ago and it was written a longtime before that, and it's just not been released yet.
J: Which hurts!
So when is it due out then?
C: We don't know much at the moment...this year hopefully!
J: Yeah, it might, hopefully, be this year, if we're lucky - if we get it between the summer and the Christmas rush!
Tell us about the new single.
J: It's great, isn't it!
R: It's called O. U..
C: Ring up our manager and you'll hear it on the answer phone!
R: It's mixed by the bloke who did Spiritualized...
J : Ed Buller, who did a very good job and, er, yeah, it's good!
R: It's radio-friendly, 'cos it's two minutes and fifty seconds long.
N: ...compared to MLG where the actual singing didn't start 'til about three minutes into the song. This one, the songs over and done worth.
R: This is shorter than the intro for MLG! More of a jingle than a song!
What's O.U. actually about then Jarvis?
J: It's about a man faced with the decision of hearing his girlfriend leaving the house, leaving him and it's only eight o'clock in the morning and he has to decide whether he wants to stay in bed for an extra hour or get dressed and go and stop her from leaving him for ever.
C: Oh, that's good!
And, dear readers, as soon as you hear this little gem of a single, you'll find that you have to agree with Candida. But if you can't wait 'til the May 18th release then make sure you're down at the Mill on May 11th and I'm sure that Pulp will play it for you - perhaps even twice, if you ask nicely. And if you can't wait 'til then, I suppose you could always give Pulp's manager a ring.
Cocker Lips Now!
Words: Johnny Dee, Photographer: Derek Ridgers
Taken from the New Musical Express, 4 December 1993
Transcription: Acrylic Afternoons
He's raw sex in hipsters, he's old enough to know better and he's out to make his strange suburban madness a household brand. Johnny Dee braves the shoddiest TV show in the world to bring you Pulp - and the gospel according to Jarvis Cocker.
Pulp singer Jarvis Cocker, a man with the deadpan attitude of Alan Bennett and the raw sexuality of Barry White, doesn't like the idea of Virtual Reality. He doesn't like it at all. "I don't want to sound like an old guffer," he apologises, "but a dose of reality would be better for most people interested in Virtual Reality. I mean, most people would be freaked out if you went round and, you know gagged 'em, drugged 'em or something, stuck them in the boot of a car and dumped them in the middle of a field in North Yorkshire. That would freak most people out more than having some headset on."
The Pulp members - Russell (guitar/violin), Steve (bass), Candida (keyboards), Nick (drums) - are used to such typical Jarvis pronouncements, all delivered with a sanguine matter-of-factness. Jarvis is forever calm and unflustered, a man who'd refuse to panic if his arse was on fire. But this time he's gone too far.
"Bloody hell, Jarvis," says Russell, wrapped up in a tight pale blue PVC jacket that matches his eye shadow. "Well," says Jarvis Cocker. "You'd take the gag off afterwards."
Who needs Virtual Reality anyway? Close your eyes and imagine an endless, white corridor. Here, years ago, a perm-haired kids TV presenter called Mick Robertson crouched on his knees at the end of a row of coins denoting the success of the latest Magpie charity appeal. At the end of the corridor is Room 101 - Pulp's dressing room for the night. We are in TV world...
Well, we're in Teddington Lock, Middlesex for the filming of The Word in a TV centre that feels like a maximum security Holiday Inn. Since fellow guests Onyx have received several death threats throughout the day, there are uniformed men resembling Viz comic parkies stationed at the end of each hallway. On every wall there are unnervingly huge colour pictures of celebrities - Eric Morecambe, Cilia Black, Judith Chalmers. The Magpie appeals no longer worm their way around the maze of studios, but in the canteen, Rory Bremner is tucking into quiche and chips.
In Room 101 Pulp siphon Smirnoff into a Highland Spring bottle to beat the draconian on-set alcohol ban. They've been here since 11am: drinking, having their shirts ironed (since guests get their clothes pressed for free, they've all bought along a week's washing) and make-up done and arguing about "the gap".
Their new single 'Lip Gloss' has a two-second break in the middle, which The Word's people maintain isn't on the record (it is) and are worried that the audience will think it's the end of the song and start clapping like chimps (they do). "The gap" becomes an incredibly significant Pulp moment. If they agree to cut it out they'll be compromising. So Sheffield's finest popmongers decide to make the gap longer. Much longer.
It's been a long day spent in stardom's waiting room, but little things have made it worthwhile. Drummer Nick, for instance, overheard Dani Behr call someone "a f***in' c***". Russell saw a raincoated man bent over and struggling with a heavy box in the gents' loo. He opened the door for him and the man flashed a cheesy grin. "It was Des O'Connor! Des O' flippin' Connor!"
It's now 9pm and Pulp are on stage for the last dress rehearsal. It feels more than just a rehearsal for a sensationalist TV show; it feels like a rehearsal for stardom itself. Pulp have been together with various line-ups for ten years now through punk, new romance, C86 and grunge - always defiantly different.
They've survived disasters: Jarvis once being confined to a wheelchair after he jumped from a window to impress a girl; Fire Records putting their third album on hold for two years during legal wrangles. And they've coped with personality crises, too: Russell going through a disciplinary dictator phase, when Pulp ran to a strict regimented timetable; ex-drummer Magnus leaving the band and going barmy after deciding he was the moon... But over the past two years each successive single has been better and sold more than the last, and their audience has got bigger and younger. Now, incredibly, they're on a major label, their records are available in Woolworths, they're on daytime radio and on TV.
Huge day-glo shapes hang from the ceiling as they perform 'Lip Gloss' to a barren studio, Jarvis snaking across the stage in too-tight, thick, purple corduroy trousers, shaping hand movements not witnessed since Alvin Stardust rolled his ringladen fingers for the Pops' cameras. The only people here to witness this are skivvies fussing around with clip-boards, and the dancers - looking like clichéd Freemans catalogue versions of teenagers - who are paid to show off. As Jarvis sings of lipstick-stained fags and being chucked, these young bucks, with bare, greased-up torsos vogue over-enthusiastically on podiums. Half-naked 18-year-olds pretending to rave and having a fake wild time is bizarre enough but then so are Pulp. The camera cuts from Jarvis in karate mode to someone's bum cheek escaping from a pair of midget Homme pants and then back again to bassist Steve, desperately trying not to laugh.
The lovers portrayed in 'Lip Gloss' are worlds away from this forced environment of The Word. Like many Pulp songs, 'Lip Gloss' celebrates the strangeness of the ordinary and stretches a subject so mundane no-one's dared sing about it before. In this case, being pissed off after you've been chucked because you wasted time getting to know his/her mates who you never liked in the first place.
"I've got a bit of a hang-up about songs and films presenting an idealised version of things," explains Jarvis. "It makes people dissatisfied with their own lot in life. But it's something that never existed, it's just been made up by someone. Yes, we do glamorise the everyday but, you know, a bus journey can be exciting. You can treat it just like a journey and sit there like a plank or you can wonder what other people on the bus do with their lives."
Read any article about Pulp and at least three, if not all of these things will be mentioned alongside "the 'w' word" (wacky) or "the 'k' word" (kitsch). Perhaps all the detritus and trash that's associated with Pulp has masked something fantastic. Maybe Pulp really are going to be pop stars. At 11.35pm on Friday night, watching the TV set in room 101, Pulp's manager, Geoff Travis - who was previously the boss of Rough Trade - is sure of it. Tonight is a turning point, Pulp are contenders.
Do Pulp really want fame or are they content to carry on as nearly-made-it confectionery for the talking classes? Is siphoning vodka into water bottles, moaning about "gaps", getting your clothes ironed for free the behaviour of pop stars or forever sixth-form underachievers?
"Oh, we want to be famous," claims Jarvis. "It's what we've always wanted." But do you honestly believe you can appeal to 15-year-old girls? "I'm always trying. We want to appeal to everyone. I'd like to think we're not only trying to appeal to students and grocers. You can't choose who buys your record - it's in a shop, it could be murderers or bakers. But, we've been going so long it's not like we expect to get to Number One or anything."
It could happen, Pulp could really become stars. They'll never be on the cover of teen magazines, flashing torsos or sporting exotic hairstyles they're too old for all that. But it could be fun - Jarvis on What's Up, Doc? corrupting the nation's youth with dark tales of urban normality. Yet... why do they want to go through it, why do they want fame? Jarvis smiles and puffs on an Embassy regal.
Pulp's Guide To Sheffield
Words: Gina Morris, Photographer: Louise Rhodes
Taken from the New Musical Express, 3 April 1993
Transcription: Acrylic Afternoons
Welcome to Sheffield, home of Sound City '93. Your guides through the historical sights, prime drinking places and doss-spots of steel city are local pop gurus Pulp.
Situated in the 'alternative' area of the city (Division Street), amid the second hand clothes shops and 'in' cafes, is Warp Records, the shop, the label, the empire. Warp is the most important British dance label outside London, responsible for club/chart hits like LFO's 'We Are Back', Tricky Disco's 'Tricky Disco' and Nightmares On Wax's 'Aftermath'. Started back in July '89 by Steve Beckett and Rob Mitchell, Warp has expanded to massive worldwide recognition. Recently they set up an offshoot indie label, Gift, and signed local god-like legends Pulp and hopefuls Newspeak and Various Vegetables.
"This is the safe area of town," says our guide and Pulp lead singer, Jarvis. "You get a lot of grief if you're alternative round certain parts of Sheffield. It's like Pac Man, you have to dodge your way through the centre of town to get to Division Street. Anyhow, this is the shop that started the record labels Warp and Gift, the Warp Empire began right here. Arrgh! There's a large display of our new single in the window."
Renowned in certain circles for their appalling dress sense, Pulp take us to the very heart of lurid-thread city. Freak Boutique, also on Division Street, is just one of a number of shops specialising in gruesome '70s wear.
Jarvis: "We shop here occasionally. The last thing I bought was a pink and purple patterned shirt. Sheffield's pretty good for second-hand clothes. The jumble sales are best because they're the purest form - you don't know what you'll get, the clothes haven't been sifted."
City Hall, aside from housing the council is also a famous heavy metal venue, boasting a sprung Saturday Night Fever-type floored ballroom.
"This is perhaps the only building that has decent architecture in the whole of Sheffield," observes drummer Nick. "The inside is marvellous. They have an indie disco in the ballroom every Saturday night,"
Jarvis: "Sheffield City Council used to be really radical. I remember when the buses were only 10p to go anywhere. That's why buses are mentioned quite a lot in our songs. Anyway, it all stopped in the mid-'80s. There are about six different bus companies now, like Eager Beaver, Yorkshire Terrier... it's, ridiculous - if the driver sees the stop they're supposed to be going to hasn't got any people at it, they change the number and go to one that has. People came from Japan to see our bus service - it was the envy of the Western World."
Jarvis: "Fargate is a pedestrianised area. This was the centre of Sheffield dole culture. In the summer, everyone would go dolestrolling. Sometimes it would take you a whole day to get from one end to the other because you got to know everyone. It was a nice little scene. Then they introduced YTS and it cut off the new generation. It just got older and sadder after that. It was also the place to come it you wanted to put a band together, you didn't bother putting ads in papers, you just walked up and down for 20 minutes."
At the very core of Sheffield's sports culture is the Crucible Theatre. Every year, top potters like Steve Davis and Jimmy White gather to compete for snooker's top prize.
Jarvis: "Yep, this is the famous Crucible Theatre, just off Fargate, snooker central. It used to be the favourite hangout for goths in Sheffield, when goth was the big thing. I'm not sure why, maybe it was because Ray Reardon looked a bit like Dracula."
Castle Square is a weird underground market, off Commercial Street, with an open air 'sun roof', known locally as the Hole In The Road. Once it was the meeting place for tramps and down-and-outs-but-on-the-way-ups. Now the authorities want to get rid of it.
Nick: "We've started the Hole In The Road campaign, the council want to fill it in with concrete, which will mean more people getting run over. We can't let them do it. It's all part of a conspiracy to dispense with the town centre altogether, and move everything out to Meadowhall (a huge shopping complex known locally as Meadow Hell)."
On the other side of the Market there's Ladies Bridge which runs over the River Don, the largest river in Sheffield. It's a beautiful part of the city despite being situated in the centre of the once prosperous, now derelict, steel industry warehouses.
Jarvis: "I went on a very good adventure down the River Don once. I had an inflatable boat and I went from here to Rotherham which is about eight miles away. It was like Apocalypse Now, there was all these factories pouring thick smoke across the water, we got attacked by gypsies and then there was a bloke stood on the river bank trying to shoot fish with an air rifle. It was probably the best thing I ever did. It's good to find an adventure in mundane surroundings. Sheffield is built on seven hills, just like Rome but I think that's where the similarities end."
Nick: "The Wicker is just a street, but it's a very special street. It's difficult to say why, but The Wicker arch was the gateway to all the old steel works. Sheffield's oldest brewery is just there, it always smells of hops round here."
Jarvis: "I used to live round here, in the same warehouse that FON Studios and our rehearsal rooms used to be... and the only porno cinema in Sheffield, Studio 567. I bet you didn't know Bob Marley spent a lot of time in Sheffield, did you? Well he didn't, but there's The Bob Marley Recording Studios anyway. I did once see Sly and Robbie on this road though, that was very bizarre."
FON Studios is Sheffield's most prolific recording house. In 1985 it was the first local commercial 24-track studio and over the fast few years has attracted such luminaries like Ian McCulloch, David Bowie, Yazz, Erasure, James, Altern8 and, erm, Rolf Harris. FON is the centre of Sheffield's music culture.
Nick: "Did you know FON actually stands for F*** Off Nazis?"
Jarvis: 'We recorded the LP 'Separations' here, and 'Countdown', 'O.U.' and 'My Legendary Girlfriend'. They're very nice to us. I can't imagine people coming to Sheffield to record because of its exotic location but FON is the best. It's where all the big names come but it's more a studio for techno acts, you couldn't get a grand piano in here, sorry Elton."
The Leadmill has appeared in the Top Ten venues in the NME Readers Poll every year since it opened in 1980 - not bad for a place that used to flood every time you flushed. Now it has the best venue toilets in Britain (fact) and been described by the House of Commons as a prime example of good business practice. Bands that have graced its boards include New Order, Simply Red, The Pogues and EMF.
Jarvis: "The Leadmill's a pretty important venue, I used to come here a lot before I moved to London. The main bus garage is just opposite and, when it first opened, they had a policy of letting bus drivers in for free. So a friend of mine got hold of a bus driver's uniform and got let in for nothing. It was a good little scam but the trouble was, he'd walk in and all the other drivers would be at the end of the bar saying, 'What route does he do then?'"
Of all the pubs in Sheffield The Washington Public House, just down the road from the Grosvenor Hotel, stands out as a reminder of when public houses were quiet family affairs decorated with the landlady's china.
"This is the only pub left where you don't get grief for looking slightly outlandish," remarks guitarist/violinist Russell. "They don't allow riff raff in here. The bar people are very friendly. If you went into town, you'd notice all the pubs have loud jukeboxes, you can't hear yourself talk. This is a little oasis of sanity."
Jarvis: "It also has a large quantity of tea pots, one of the finest collections in the land. It's a theme but it's for real. It's a '4 real' pub."
