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Pulp

Pulp

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Pulp: Non Stop Erotique Cabaret

Report and Interview by Chris Roberts, Melody Maker, 4 June 1994

"I WAS WONDERING", says Jarvis Cocker. "There was a baboon in the top floor of a flat behind where we played in Paris last night." ...

Pulp: This Is Hardcore

Review by Barney Hoskyns, unpublished, 1998

JARVIS COCKER is that most British of pop creatures, the Nerd-as-Superstar. Like the young Morrissey, he’s the spindly misfit, the scrawny mis-shape who outwitted the ...

Audio interviews

Pulp's Jarvis Cocker (1987)

Interview by Martin Aston, Rock's Backpages audio, April 1987

The Pulp frontman on why he started the Sheffield group; his urge from an early age to make music; why he writes the songs he writes; refusing to be a judgmental spectator; what makes Pulp different; the attractions of Jacques Brel, Scott Walker and Burt Bacharach; and truth and beauty...

File format: mp3; file size: 29.6mb, interview length: 30' 51" sound quality: ***

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Pulp: Sweet or Sour

Profile and Interview by Jon Wilde, Sounds, 8 March 1986

Meet the "new hard centre" in indie pop's choc box. JONH WILDE finds that PULP have grown on him. ...

Pulp: Rock Garden, London

Live Review by Martin Aston, Melody Maker, 24 May 1986

AN ODDBALL bunch, Pulp. A National Health-spectacles climbing frame inside a second-hand suit with a blissful deep-throated voice like a dark angel or at least ...

Pulp: Canine Revenge

Interview by Paul Mathur, Melody Maker, 31 May 1986

Pulp are from Sheffield and make rather outrageous records. Paul Mathur talks to them of dogs, wheelchairs, Nazis and baked beans. ...

Pulp: Rock Garden, London

Live Review by Jon Wilde, Sounds, 31 May 1986

THE INCREDIBLE PULP ...

Pulp/Colenso Parade: 100 Club, London

Live Review by Push, Melody Maker, 13 December 1986

COURAGE IS the key word. Pulp throw out sudden drum rumbles and savage violin wails, lazy guitar twiddles and keyboard stabs, all wrapped around vocals ...

Pulp: 100 Club, London

Live Review by Roy Wilkinson, Sounds, 13 December 1986

STROLLING ON with all the visual impact of a bar mitzvah band from the Depression, Pulp are getting over a dormant interlude based around singer ...

Pulp

Interview by Martin Aston, Underground, May 1987

Jarvis Cocker, diplomat, playwright, crooner and NH spex wearer, this is yer page... ...

Pulp: Preaching From The Pulpit

Interview by Roy Wilkinson, Sounds, 27 June 1987

Sheffield popsters Pulp are creating a haunting music which is virtually without peer in the Britain of 1987. We meet them on the eve of ...

Pulp: Falcon, Camden, London

Live Review by Neil Perry, Sounds, 5 March 1988

IN AN ideal world Pulp would already be serenading kings and queens, taking up residencies on Broadway and returning their OBEs; world domination takes time, ...

Pulp: Leadmill, Sheffield

Live Review by Paul Lester, Melody Maker, 18 February 1989

PULP HAVE splashed this strangely since 1979. That's 10 years of comic tension, a decade of bizarre normality. Pulp wear wing-collar shirts borrowed from Man ...

Pulp: March of the Modules

Interview by Stuart Maconie, New Musical Express, 21 September 1991

PULP have waited a very long time to become overnight sensations with their space age disco anthem 'Count Down', but in a world of footwear-fixated ...

Pulp: Interview With Jarvis Cocker

Interview by Paul Mathur, Volume, November 1991

IN THE EARLY '80s, a deeply disturbed Sheffield pop group called Pulp crafted a brace of lovably awkward pop classics, most notably the "controversial" 'Little ...

Pulp: Lower Refectory, Sheffield University, Yorkshire

Live Review by Dave Simpson, Melody Maker, 19 December 1992

IT HASN'T BEEN a great year for the pop iconoclast. For most of '92, prime movers from Ashcroft to Robinson have defined themselves by the ...

Saint Etienne, Pulp: Mayfair, Glasgow

Live Review by Pete Paphides, Melody Maker, 6 March 1993

WHAM BAM, THANK YOU, GLAM! ...

St Etienne, Pulp: Mayfair, Glasgow

Live Review by Terry Staunton, New Musical Express, 6 March 1993

A MIRRORBALL of confusion spins and sparkles over the hall. Blank faces stare at the stage where Pulp are playing. Is this pop? ...

Wedding Present/Pulp/Kingmaker: The Leadmill, Sheffield

Live Review by Simon Warner, The Guardian, 7 April 1993

THE STEEL CITY, commemorating its centenary and celebrating soccer success, turned rock capital as a week of music events, including concerts, seminars and workshops, got ...

Pulp: Pulpintro — The Gift Recordings

Review by David Cavanagh, Select, December 1993

15 YEARS IN THE MAKING, yet Pulp's first "proper" LP is only a bits-and-bats package. For a band that's been going for 15 years, it's strange ...

Pulp: Jarvis Cocker Remembers

Interview by Stuart Maconie, Select, December 1993

Pulp are the world's most patient overnight sensation... The punk rock roots in Sheffield. The naive first album. The naive second album. Moz envy. The wheelchair. Art ...

Pulp: Astoria 2, London

Live Review by Ted Kessler, New Musical Express, 11 December 1993

JARVIS COCKER stands on a little raised section of the stage, one finger pointing a la Travolta to the heavens, the other holding the mic ...

Boy's talk: Jarvis Cocker

Interview by Siân Pattenden, Just Seventeen, 23 March 1994

The lead singer from Pulp mutters on to Siân about eating worms, falling out of windows and, er, subtle hair colouring... ...

Brash trash — The Charlatans, Pulp, Tindersticks: Sound City, The Tramway, Glasgow

Live Review by Caroline Sullivan, The Guardian, 6 April 1994

The Charlatans and Pulp play the opening night concert at Sound City in Glasgow ...

Pulp: Metropolitan University, Leeds

Live Review by Simon Warner, The Guardian, 29 April 1994

IN A MORE just world it would now be time to set aside the macho posturings of the rock burn-out and the dead-ends of the ...

Pulp

Profile and Interview by Andy Gill, Q, May 1994

POISED ON the brink of widespread success after nearly 14 years as linchpin of Sheffield glum-rock combo Pulp, Jarvis Cocker muses upon the long and ...

Pulp: His'n'Hers

Review by Ben Thompson, MOJO, May 1994

FORGET EVERYTHING you know about what great music is – Bessie Smith, The Beatles, Neil Young, Al Green, all gone (not forever, just for 40 ...

Pulp: Riverside, Newcastle

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 7 May 1994

GESTURE GIGOLO ...

Pulp: The Octagon, Sheffield

Live Review by Simon Price, Melody Maker, 14 May 1994

SPRING BONK HOLIDAY ...

Primal Scream, Radiohead, Pulp, Manic Street Preachers et al: Reading Festival, Berkshire — Saturday

Live Review by Andrew Mueller, Melody Maker, 3 September 1994

ON A REMARKABLE autumn's day on which Chelsea go from to two down to three up at Leeds, Everett True gets hospitalised because he's too ...

Now the Mercury rises

Report by Jon Savage, The Guardian, 16 September 1994

Jon Savage sees the north take its regional revenge ...

Bedsitters' night out — Blur, Pulp: Alexandra Palace, London

Live Review by Caroline Sullivan, The Guardian, 10 October 1994

Minimalist pop has its day as Blur and Pulp share the bill at London's Alexandra Palace ...

Britpop: Modern Life Is... Brilliant!

Overview by John Harris, New Musical Express, 7 January 1995

It was the year grunge died, the year of jungle... arses. It was the year that BRITISH POP found its feet again, and what's more, ...

Pulp: Cocker The North

Interview by Max Bell, Vox, May 1995

Jarvis Cocker, the only kid in his Sheffield classroom who wore lederhosen, didn't have a girlfriend till he was 19. Now he's a pin-up and ...

Pulp: Anson Rooms, Bristol

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 6 May 1995

THERE'S A new spring in Pulp's stride. Maybe it's the afterglow of romping to victory in the Sound City pop quiz earlier today, but Jarvis ...

Pulp Diction

Profile and Interview by Paul Lester, Melody Maker, 27 May 1995

Starring: JARVIS COCKER as THE JUNKSHOP ROMANTIC STEVE MACKEY as THE PLAYBOY RUSSELL SENIOR as THE ALIEN CANDIDA DOYLE as THE CARE BEAR KID NICK ...

A simply divine madness

Memoir by Caitlin Moran, The Times, 2 June 1995

How an obnoxious teenager, revelling in the obscurity of her pop passions, met Bros in the supermarket aisle to Damascus ...

Pulp, PJ Harvey, the Cure et al: Glastonbury Festival, Worthy Farm, Pilton, Somerset

Live Review by Caitlin Moran, The Times, 30 June 1995

City of 100,000 dancing lights: Caitlin Moran on a Glastonbury weekend that will be remembered chiefly for the coming of Pulp ...

Pulp T.V.

Interview by Andrew Smith, The Face, July 1995

Ladies and gentlemen: introducing Sheffield's own Jarvis Cocker, man of the common people, unlikely sex symbol, top pop personality and the best TV presenter we never ...

Pulp: The Dandy Man Can

Interview by Sylvia Patterson, New Musical Express, 23 September 1995

Wow! Grab your shades, pull on that glitter top and slip into your favourite brown nylon flared trousers 'cos PULP'S JARVIS COCKER is in the ...

The Jarvis & John Show!

Report and Interview by Andrew Mueller, Melody Maker, 30 September 1995

This Saturday, JOHN PEEL will interview JARVIS COCKER on Radio 1FM and play tracks from PULP'S forthcoming album. ANDREW MUELLER goes to Peel Acres to ...

His Little Percolations: Pulp's Jarvis Cocker puts the T in Britpop.

Interview by Andy Gill, MOJO, October 1995

You came through the '70s revival relatively unscathed. Did it look like becoming a millstone? ...

Pulp: Top Of The Fops

Interview by Pete Paphides, Time Out, 11 October 1995

Captain's log, chartdate 1995: Pulp, Britpop's most militant misfits, are set to trounce rivals with a new zeitgeist-friendly album of caustic lyrics, hum-me tunes and ...

Pulp: Different Class (Island 524 165)

Review by David Sinclair, The Times, 27 October 1995

Louche canon finally on target Jarvis Cocker's lowlife lyrics have come of age on a Pulp classic, says David Sinclair ...

Working-Class Heroes: Pulp: Different Class (Island)

Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 28 October 1995

Jarvis Cocker, sexual outlaw, professional eccentric, godlike television personality and master of idiosyncratic dance steps you already know and adore. SIMON REYNOLDS heralds the entrance ...

Pulp: Different Class

Review by Bob Stanley, MOJO, November 1995

JARVIS COCKER, THE WORLD'S least likely sex symbol!" If I read that line one more time I'll scream. Give the man a break. He's svelte ...

Pulp: Cocker Gets Cocky

Interview by Martin Aston, Attitude, November 1995

"Mis-shapes, mistakes, misfits... oh we don't look the same as you / We don't do the things you do / But we live round here ...

Pulp: Jacques Brel Art Disco I Gave You The Best Years Of My Life

Interview by David Quantick, Q, November 1995

"I'VE BEEN in the studio all the time. I mean, look at me, I'm nearly transparent! I feel bad, really – they're saying it's the ...

Pulp: Sorted For Freezing Gigs!

Interview by Johnny Cigarettes, New Musical Express, 18 November 1995

Phew!!! It may be bloody cold outside (minus three degrees, actually) but in the frozen expanse that is Norway, things are definitely hotting up for ...

Pulp: Different Class (Island)

Review by Keith Cameron, Vox, December 1995

WHERE, ONE wonders, does he do the dishes? The pre-eminence gris of kitchen-sink drama has spent so long washing other people's dirty linen, the plumbing ...

After Oasis, the desert

Comment by Caitlin Moran, The Times, 8 December 1995

Unless the music business pulls its finger out, we'll have nothing to look forward to once Britpop dies. ...

Pulp: Upper Class

Interview by David Stubbs, Melody Maker, 23 December 1995

Forget Blur vs Oasis — this was PULP's year. Two Number Two singles, a Number One album, triumphant festival appearances, the MM hacks' LP and ...

Sorted for Kids — Pulp: Brighton Centre, Brighton

Live Review by Caroline Sullivan, The Guardian, 22 February 1996

In a police station one night, on stage the next, and the Pulp fans have never been happier. Caroline Sullivan reports ...

A word from our censor

Report by Caitlin Moran, The Times, 23 February 1996

In with the old, out with the true. How the Brit Awards were turned into a TV farce ...

Jarvis Cocker: Serious about songs

Profile by Andy Beckett, The Independent, 25 February 1996

Andy Beckett on the wry idol who was more than ready for overnight success ...

Pulp: NEC, Birmingham

Live Review by Everett True, Melody Maker, 2 March 1996

The Good Sex Guy ...

Pulp: Fame Fatale

Interview by Dave Simpson, Melody Maker, 30 March 1996

So Jarvis Cocker is innocent. But that doesn't mean he's got off the hook — we still want a word or two with Michael Jackson's ...

Pulp: Here's Looking At You, Kids

Report and Interview by Phil Sutcliffe, Q, April 1996

PULP LANDED in Sweden last night, but they're still coming down from Japan. Circumnavigational jet lag vies with cultural bouleversement for command of the mental ...

Pulp Friction

Interview by David Sinclair, Rolling Stone, 18 April 1996

Frontman JARVIS COCKER wreaks revenge for the 'Common People' ...

Britpop Football Special: Ooh-aah, Rossit-ah!

Report and Interview by Ian Watson, Melody Maker, 25 May 1996

Martin Rossiter as Eric Cantona? Liam Gallagher squaring off against Damon Albarn? Robbie Williams and Steve Pulp in the same footie team? No, you're not ...

The Nineties: Going for Bloke

Comment by Johnny Cigarettes, The Face, September 1996

In the Nineties, we are all everyday people, says Johnny Cigarettes ...

True Brits

Interview by Jon Savage, The Guardian, 20 December 1996

A young New York painter looks like becoming "the first artist of Britpop". Jon Savage on how Elizabeth Peyton's portraits of Jarvis, Liam and Noel ...

Pulp: Sorted for Pipe and Slippers

Profile and Interview by Ben Thompson, Telegraph Magazine, 8 November 1997

At the age of seven, Jarvis Cocker realised he was not immortal. Now the Pied Piper of his generation has decided the end is nigh. ...

Rejoice! Rejoice! Britpop is dead

Comment by Caitlin Moran, The Times, 28 November 1997

The jig is up, the hype exposed, and now Oasis, Pulp and the rest will have to do a proper job ...

Inside Jarvis: A Reluctant Stardom

Book Excerpt by Ben Thompson, Seven Years of Plenty, 1998

Autumn 1993 ...

Pulp: "Nice one, Jarvis!"

Interview by Caroline Sullivan, The Guardian, 27 March 1998

Jarvis Cocker, latter-day folk hero, talks to Caroline Sullivan ...

Pulp: This Is Hardcore (Island CID 8066)

Review by Andy Gill, The Independent, 27 March 1998

OF ALL the Britpop stars, it was always going to be Jarvis Cocker who would grapple most readily with encroaching maturity. Having dealt unflinchingly on ...

Pulp: Talkin' Lewd

Interview by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 28 March 1998

...But it's not just rude things JARVIS COCKER and PULP are talking about. They're also chatting about the new album, losing a band member, losing ...

Neuroses Grow On You: Pulp: This Is Hardcore (Island) ***

Review by Gavin Martin, Vox, May 1998

Gathering storm clouds, gruesome sex and self-flagellation: dim the lights for Pulp's very own horror movie ...

No Success Please, We're British: Pulp: This Is Hardcore (Island)

Review by Chris Ingham, MOJO, May 1998

At it since 1983, missus! Can they keep it up now the camera's on them? ...

People's Poet: Pulp: This Is Hardcore (Island)

Review by Nick Hornby, Spin, May 1998

On the long-awaited sequel to Pulp's breakthrough album, Different Class, England's unofficial laureate Jarvis Cocker perfects his poetry of the prosaic. By Nick Hornby ...

Mum's the word

Overview by Caroline Sullivan, The Guardian, 15 June 1998

They maybe rock icons, mad, bad and dangerous to know. But somewhere, some long-suffering woman remembers them in nappies. Caroline Sullivan on that great institution, ...

Pulp: Finsbury Park, London

Live Review by Caroline Sullivan, The Guardian, 27 July 1998

"IS THIS the way they say the future's meant to feel?" asked Jarvis Cocker as his hands, seemingly independent of the rest of his body, ...

Jarvis Cocker

Interview by Stephen Dalton, Uncut, August 1998

The Pulp frontman takes a stairlift to heaven as he reflects on post-coital guilt and post-Britpop blues ...

Pulp Friction

Profile and Interview by Mark Mordue, Sydney Morning Herald, the, 18 September 1998

JARVIS COCKER wanders through London's Tower Books and Records like a spy in a foreign country. Close by, music fans are harvesting the racks of ...

Pulp/Eels: Hereford Leisure Centre

Live Review by Robin Bresnark, Melody Maker, 17 November 1998

HAPPY! SAD. H-h-h-happy! Sad. You know those theatrical mask things, one with a smile big enough to house a Manic's packed lunch, the other with ...

Pete Waterman: Style Counsel

Interview by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 16 January 1999

Last week, Pete Waterman the Brian Clough of pop, stoutly defended his new teenpop cadets Steps and his revitalised label PWL. Here Doctor Waterman offers ...

Pulp — A Quiet Revolution: Queen's Hall, Edinburgh ****

Live Review by Dave Simpson, The Guardian, 2 September 1999

Blinds have more fun ...

Pulp: Postcards From The Hedge

Profile and Interview by Ted Kessler, New Musical Express, 2 June 2001

Galloping stallions, shagging on a mountain top and perhaps a spot of weeding. Welcome to the all-new pastoral pastimes of Pulp. ...

Jarvis Cocker: Sorted For Trees and Weeds

Profile and Interview by Ben Thompson, The Independent, October 2001

AMID THE RUMPLED grandeur of West London's Cobden Club, the familiar angular figure of Jarvis Cocker stands out like a sore index finger. His ...

Jarvis Cocker: An Interview

Interview by Jim Irvin, MOJO, November 2001

Jim Irvin grills the willowy Pulp frontman about Scott Walker, Ginster's pasties and encounters with his younger self. ...

Pulp: We Love Life (Island) *****

Review by Simon Reynolds, Uncut, November 2001

After scrapped sessions and a delayed release date, Cocker & Co follow up 1998's This Is Hardcore, with Scott Walker at the controls ...

Ten Questions For Jarvis Cocker

Interview by Jim Irvin, MOJO, November 2001

Jim Irvin grills the willowy Pulp frontman about Scott Walker, Ginster's pasties and encounters with the younger self ...

Pulp: Octagon, Sheffield

Live Review by Simon Price, Independent on Sunday, 25 November 2001

THERE ARE TWO classic symptoms of nervousness. One is to dry up and fall silent. The other is precisely the opposite: to gabble like Kathy ...

In a Class of His Own: Jarvis Cocker

Live Review by Sean O'Hagan, The Observer, 2 December 2001

Jarvis Cocker could have been trapped in his role of English eccentric, a blend of Morrissey, Ray Davies and Alan Bennett. But he has found ...

Music for a Divine Moment: The Best Music of 2001

Guide by Devon Powers, PopMatters, 17 December 2001

IN THESE DAYS of crusades, jihads, and God-Bless-This-Lands, I've been wondering why so much music writing is riddled with religious imagery. ...

Pulp: Je Suis Un Rock Star...

Interview by Sean O'Hagan, The Observer, 22 December 2002

IN THE BBC CANTEEN, where passing celebrity chefs must recoil before a menu that has stubbornly resisted the onward march of culinary ponciness, Jarvis Cocker ...

Britpop: And The Beat Goes Off

Retrospective by Philip Norman, The Sunday Times, 17 February 2003

Britpop recalled the halcyon days of the Beatles and the Stones – but the party didn't last ...

Pulp: Hits

Review by Devon Powers, PopMatters, 5 September 2003

PULP HAVE a greatest hits record, and it’s about goddamned time. The enigmatic group, fronted by the inimitable Jarvis Cocker, are by far the oldest ...

Top 5 Unforgettable Glastonbury Moments

Retrospective and Interview by Johnny Black, Music Week, May 2007

1. 19-20 September 1970: The very first Glastonbury It was a triumph of faith over common sense. Having snuck in for free to the Bath Festival ...

The Making of 'Common People'

Interview by Nick Hasted, Uncut, August 2010

From three chords on a cheap Casio keyboard, via Glastonbury, to the huge summer anthem of 1995. It's the song that broke Jarvis and co! ...

Pulp: Hyde Park, London

Live Review by Neil Kulkarni, The Quietus, 6 July 2011

Neil Kulkarni breaks his no-festival rule and braves the corporate overkill of Wireless to see his Pulp. His verdict? They "now stand mighty amidst the ...

Pulp: Royal Albert Hall, London

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 1 April 2012

FOR ALL our faults, it says something great about this nation that Jarvis Cocker remains the best-loved survivor of the Britpop boom, a man so ...

Modern Life Isn't Rubbish: The Trouble With Britpop Nostalgia

Comment by Luke Turner, The Quietus, 10 April 2014

The mainstream media are currently engaged in a collective misty-eyed throwback to the 'glory days' of the mid 90s. Luke Turner, who was a teenager ...

Pulp: Different Class

Review by Simon Reynolds, Pitchfork, 3 July 2016

On 1995's Different Class, Pulp and Jarvis Cocker were arty outsiders worming their way into the lives of ordinary folk, and they became pop in its most ...

see also Jarvis Cocker

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