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Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Jarvis Cocker even manages to make farmers' markets sexy on Pulp's new album More
As Liam and Noel Gallagher prepare to rake in millions from this summer's much-fêted Oasis reunion shows, Manchester's favourite warring brothers risk being overshadowed by one of the Nineties' most beloved other bands. Back with their first album in almost 24 years, Pulp prove – once again – that their title of Britpop's wittiest and most intelligent chroniclers of everyday life (and sex) is in no danger of being snatched away. Appropriately titled More, the album was written in the aftermath of Pulp's own triumphant run of reunion shows beginning in 2023 (it's also their first since the death of bassist Steve Mackey, that same year). There's always a worry when a band as influential – and brilliant – as Pulp decides to release new music: will it be any good? Will the new songs have everyone heading off to the bar en masse? One only has to remember the Stone Roses' tedious 2016 effort, Beautiful Thing, to be filled with dread. But More is a supremely confident record, filled with lust, laughter and passion that hark back to Pulp's glory days. Spike Island – itself inspired by the Roses' famous 1990 gig in Widnes – is a sunny slice of pure pop that manages to sound like quintessential Jarvis Cocker and co. without veering into nostalgic karaoke. That's not to say that loyal Pulp fans shouldn't be prepared to feel challenged by some of the tracks – the youthful exuberance of 1994's His 'n' Hers, and the anthemic power of Different Class, which followed a year later, has been replaced with tales of 61-year-old Cocker's upper middle-class reality. Luckily, despite many of the songs focusing on farmers markets or conversations with friends about commute times, his irrepressible horniness (think of sex-fuelled classics like Acrylic Afternoons or Babies) is still present. 'And so you move from Camden / Out to Hackney / And you stress about wrinkles / Instead of acne,' he sings on Grown Ups, a thudding, synth-heavy reflection on ageing, while Farmers Market is Cocker at his most Cocker: a bit pretentious, a bit strange, but nonetheless intoxicating. Elegiac strings give way to his earnest vocals as he regales us with the tale of an intense love affair. You can readily picture massive crowds singing back the soaring bridge – 'We thought that we were just joking / Trying dreams on for size / We never realised / We'd be stuck with them, for the rest of our natural lives' – just as loudly as they would that famous refrain in Sorted for E's and Wizz. It's the slower tracks that take slightly longer to get on board with, from the ode to Steel City on Hymn of the North to melodic closer A Sunset (co-written with Richard Hawley), the latter of which wouldn't sound out of place on a church choir's Sunday setlist. In comparison, the stompers will have the biggest impact – Spike Island, already making waves on radio, and the superbly funky Got to Have Love. Perhaps it's because they were never 'really' Britpop, having started out too early, but Pulp is still the best thing to have come out of the era. Not as boisterous as Oasis, never as smug as Blur or Suede, their music remains an open window to everyday British life. Because what's more British than self-deprecation and a penchant for farmers' markets? More is released on June 6 Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
BBC News
22-05-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Common People: Pulp's 'rubbish' riff that became a Britpop anthem
Thirty years ago today Pulp let loose their biggest hit. In just five minutes and 51 seconds Common People shone a light on class, politics and Britain in the 90s. Three decades on the song remains as popular as ever, but how did a riff Jarvis Cocker's bandmates initially dismissed as "a bit rubbish" become one of the defining records of the Britpop era?Early 1995; John Major's Conservative government is faltering, Eric Cantona is serving an eight-month ban for kicking a supporter, rogue trader Nick Leeson has brought Britain's oldest bank to its knees and Britpop is the same time in the Town House recording studio in west London, the members of Pulp were scratching their heads at what to do with their latest song."It didn't really go anywhere, it felt a bit one dimensional," drummer Nick Banks told the BBC ahead of the song's 30th keyboard part at the centre of Common People had been written by frontman Cocker the previous year with little fanfare."It seemed kind of catchy, but I didn't think too much about it," the singer revealed in a 2004 BBC documentary."I didn't think 'wow, that's a masterpiece' I just thought it could come in handy for something."Bass player Steve Mackey - who died in 2023 - was a little more scathing: "It sounded pretty rubbish."Only keyboardist Candida Doyle saw its potential, remarking in the documentary how she thought it was "great straight away". "It must have been the simplicity of it, you could just tell it was a really powerful song," she said. 'It built like a runaway train' However, when it came to rehearsing the song Banks said the band kept naturally speeding up, building to a final crescendo when they actually wanted to maintain a consistent he said, when they managed to keep the tempo down "everyone was bored to tears" by the halfway point, and the track became "slow and ponderous".Making it faster didn't work either, he said, so the band decided to embrace the change of speed and set a "timed framework" that gathered momentum as it went on."It was my inaccurate time keeping that created a happy accident," Banks said."It built like a runaway train, and that was the mystery secret of the song." But it is more than just the driving energy of Common People that has made it an enduring lyrics and narrative also captured people's the intrigue surrounding the mystery student who inspired the opening lines - "She came from Greece, she had a thirst for knowledge/She studied sculpture at St Martin's College" - to the acutely observational reflections on working-class in 2004, Cocker, who grew up in the Intake area of Sheffield before going to study film at St Martin's in 1988, said: "It was [written] not that long after I had moved down to London and so the sensibility is definitely that of somebody moving from up north to down south."You just see more of society, there's more extremes in London. For a start you see people with money."As to who was the muse of the piece, in 2015 the Athens Voice claimed they had identified her as Danae Stratou - the wife of the Greek finance minister, Yanis an interview with BBC World News Mr Varoufakis said: "Well, I wouldn't have known her back then."But I do know that she was the only Greek student of sculpture at St Martin's College at that time. And, from personal experience, she is a very fascinating person." Despite the popularity of the song, Common People was beaten to number one by former Soldier Soldier actors Robson Green and Jerome Flynn and their rendition of Unchained Melody and White Cliffs of the moment the band learned their fate, Banks said they had been booked to take part in a live BBC Radio One chart rundown in Birmingham's Centenary the rain lashing down, the band sat waiting backstage as one by one the other acts left, until only they were left and just two names remained in contention."Robson and Jerome hadn't actually bothered to turn up, but we were announced number two," Banks said."We went out, Jarvis was wearing his usual quite stacked heels and promptly went arse over apex on the slippery flatbed lorry and ended up lying flat on his back miming along to Common People on the radio."Pop historian Jonathan Rice said the song was among an "eminent list" of hit singles that never reached number one."Strawberry Fields by The Beatles never made the top," he said."Vienna by Ultravox was kept off number one by Shaddupyaface by Joe Dolce."[But] these are songs that stood the test of time and are much more memorable than the songs that beat them to number one."As the author of The Guinness Book of British Hit Singles, Rice said Common People "defined a generation"."It was a song that just summed up the atmosphere at the time felt by younger generation. It reflected the class barriers in such a witty and clever way." Prior to 1995, Pulp had failed to trouble the upper echelons of the charts, only reaching number 33 with their 1994 track Do You Remember The First Time?So why did Common People catch on in a way that previous Pulp material had failed to?Eric Clarke, a former Professor of Music at the University of Oxford, said it was in part the band's ability to reflect the mood of the country mixing "a genuine energetic, celebratory quality" with "anger and a sneering quality"."Common People is the most brilliant single from the 1990s"It was coming to the end of the Thatcher and Major period, people were sick to the back teeth of years of Tory government."There was a general upwelling of feeling that surely things could be different."It mixes thin, cheesy synth sounds with a really driving beat that seems to always be accelerating, the whole song is driving on to that incredible anthemic chorus at the end, which feels, to my ears, like an outpouring, a genuine release of frustration." Nicola Dibben, now music professor at the University of Sheffield, was herself a student in the city in 1995."What's really striking and meaningful is how the song captures what it means to be poor," she said."Common People sends up class tourism. I love the anger and glee that Jarvis deals with through his acerbic witticisms."His confessional breathy lyrics, he's so close to the mic - you can hear the lip smacks - it draws you in to the story right from the start." Perhaps the moment that cemented Common People's place in history was the band's last-minute headline appearance at Stone Roses guitarist John Squire broke his collar bone falling off a bike, the Sheffield band were drafted in to plug the followed was arguably one of Glastonbury's most famous headline moment was not lost on the enormous crowd, he said: "If you want something to happen enough then it will actually happen. I believe that. That's why we are stood on this stage today."If a lanky git like me can do it, then so can you."Now, 30 years on, as the band prepare to tour again - their first since the death of bassist Mackey - Banks said he believed Common People was "still a song that gets you going"."To me it still sounds fresh, vibrant and immediate and a worthwhile social commentary," he said,Reflecting on the songs enduring success in 2004, Doyle said: "I remember at one point thinking I wish we could write a song that would be fantastic for ever and ever and ever - and then I thought 'oh, we have'." Listen to highlights from South Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North
Telegraph
20-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
Jarvis Cocker even manages to make farmers' markets sexy on Pulp's new album More
As Liam and Noel Gallagher prepare to rake in millions from this summer's much-fêted Oasis reunion shows, Manchester's favourite warring brothers risk being overshadowed by one of the Nineties' most beloved other bands. Back with their first album in almost 24 years, Pulp prove – once again – that their title of Britpop's wittiest and most intelligent chroniclers of everyday life (and sex) is in no danger of being snatched away. Appropriately titled More, the album was written in the aftermath of Pulp's own triumphant run of reunion shows beginning in 2023 (it's also their first since the death of bassist Steve Mackey, that same year). There's always a worry when a band as influential – and brilliant – as Pulp decides to release new music: will it be any good? Will the new songs have everyone heading off to the bar en masse? One only has to remember the Stone Roses' tedious 2016 effort, Beautiful Thing, to be filled with dread. But More is a supremely confident record, filled with lust, laughter and passion that hark back to Pulp's glory days. Spike Island – itself inspired by the Roses' famous 1990 gig in Widnes – is a sunny slice of pure pop that manages to sound like quintessential Jarvis Cocker and co. without veering into nostalgic karaoke. That's not to say that loyal Pulp fans shouldn't be prepared to feel challenged by some of the tracks – the youthful exuberance of 1994's His 'n' Hers, and the anthemic power of Different Class, which followed a year later, has been replaced with tales of 61-year-old Cocker's upper middle-class reality. Luckily, despite many of the songs focusing on farmers markets or conversations with friends about commute times, his irrepressible horniness (think of sex-fuelled classics like Acrylic Afternoons or Babies) is still present. 'And so you move from Camden / Out to Hackney / And you stress about wrinkles / Instead of acne,' he sings on Grown Ups, a thudding, synth-heavy reflection on ageing, while Farmers Market is Cocker at his most Cocker: a bit pretentious, a bit strange, but nonetheless intoxicating. Elegiac strings give way to his earnest vocals as he regales us with the tale of an intense love affair. You can readily picture massive crowds singing back the soaring bridge – 'We thought that we were just joking / Trying dreams on for size / We never realised / We'd be stuck with them, for the rest of our natural lives' – just as loudly as they would that famous refrain in Sorted for E's and Wizz. It's the slower tracks that take slightly longer to get on board with, from the ode to Steel City on Hymn of the North to melodic closer A Sunset (co-written with Richard Hawley), the latter of which wouldn't sound out of place on a church choir's Sunday setlist. In comparison, the stompers will have the biggest impact – Spike Island, already making waves on radio, and the superbly funky Got to Have Love. Perhaps it's because they were never 'really' Britpop, having started out too early, but Pulp is still the best thing to have come out of the era. Not as boisterous as Oasis, never as smug as Blur or Suede, their music remains an open window to everyday British life. Because what's more British than self-deprecation and a penchant for farmers' markets?
