Pulp

Pulp formed in Sheffield in 1978 when Jarvis Cocker was fifteen years old. The band spent the next fifteen years in near-total obscurity — releasing records on small labels, playing to tiny audiences, and developing a sound and aesthetic that had no obvious commercial application. Cocker's lyrical obsessions were already fully formed: class, sex, voyeurism, the gap between aspiration and reality.

'His 'n' Hers' (1994) was the breakthrough — a collection of kitchen-sink dramas set to glam-influenced pop. 'Babies' and 'Do You Remember the First Time?' announced a songwriter operating at a completely different level to most of his Britpop contemporaries. The album was Mercury Prize nominated and finally gave Pulp the audience they had always deserved.

'Different Class' (1995) was the masterpiece. 'Common People' — written about a Greek art student Cocker had met at St Martin's — became the defining song of Britpop, a furious, funny, devastating examination of class tourism. 'Mis-Shapes', 'Disco 2000', 'Sorted for E's & Wizz' — the album was full of songs that felt genuinely important. It won the Mercury Prize.

Cocker's stage invasion during Michael Jackson's performance at the 1996 Brit Awards — a protest against what he saw as Jackson's messianic self-presentation — made him a national figure overnight. The tabloids tried to destroy him. The public largely sided with him. It was the most Pulp thing that could possibly have happened.

'This Is Hardcore' (1998) was the difficult, brilliant follow-up — darker, more explicit, and deeply uncomfortable in places. It divided opinion at the time but is now recognised as one of the great British albums of the decade. The reunion in 2011 and again in 2023 confirmed that Cocker's voice and vision remain utterly distinctive. There is no one else quite like him.