NO MORE SCRUBBING CRABS—text by Graham Diss—in Sheffield City Press [circa October]
Pulp have been about to ‘break’ for years. The big build˗up’s happening again and it’s probably their last chance. Things look, promising this time, provided they don’t fall out first...
Forming at school, Pulp played their first gig at the Leadmill over five years ago. Only Singer / Guitarist Jarvis Cocker remains from that era. Russell Senior (occasional vocals, guitar and violin) gave us
a potted history:
«There have been three basic incarnations. One did a John Peel session which was repeated. That was the first swell of success. That group split. Second, was the album line˗up, which didn’t sell many, but got a certain amount of critical acclaim and was heading in the right direction. Then that split. This line˗up’s been going for two years.»
Jarvis: «So we’re just about ready to split up now.»
Russell: «We’re on just about the same stage of teetering on the edge of independent success.»
All the group are unemployed (the others being Peter Mansell, Candida Doyle and Magnus Doyle), but they have become «Damn near full˗time. With the current work, there’s no way we could get a job.» (Russell).
This activity includes a ‘mini˗tour’, including an anti˗apartheid gig at the University on October 25th (which isn’t in Machst Du—Prod’Ed.), also featuring local band Mr. Morality and London band, Popular Front. Also, a single is imminent, recorded at Sheffield’s Input Studio.
But don’t expect to hear these tracks live! Jarvis—«We’ve stopped playing the songs on it. Some people think we’re being awkward, but it’s there on record; we’re fed up of hearing them. If people see us live and like us, I’d have thought they’d go and buy our record, anyway.»
Their new label signed them on the strength of the L.P., released two and a half years ago, which Jarvis says is «very polite and relaxed», while Russell says «We're now rude and intense.»
Their disagreements with their label seem to typify the band—«We don’t hang around with each other; we don’t like each other very much. There is a certain tension—I don’t like it when everyone gets comfortable.» [Jarvis]. «Most people have fights with the audience, we have fights with each other.» [Russell].
Jarvis is responsible for much of the songwriting, and the band now has a large repertoire. «Which we swap around, like crop˗rotation». [Russell]. «We’ve got one coming up soon; a winder [sic, winter?] song, which we’ve not played since last year.» [Jarvis]. «The really dedicated Pulp fan will know they can come and hear the song if it’s been snowing». [Russell].
Jarvis: «If things are bad, you can either get depressed about them, or you can think—they’re so bad it’s almost funny. That’s how I feel most of the time. There isn’t anything humorous about us—well, not intentionally. We’re not wacky!» «Although we have tongue in cheek, every word’s meant!» [Russell].
Russell believes in «A theatrical element in our performances» which [apparently] used to be aided by toilet rolls draped around the stage [«Which looked quite effective with the lights»—Jarvis]. «I really like being in a band. To do something good, you really have to be self˗obsessed and fight for it» explained Jarvis. Russell talked of an ultimate objective to make «The best music in the world. Of necessity, you think what others are trying to do, is not so good, so you have to hate them, in a way.»
So what of other bands in Sheffield ?
Russell: «Best it’s been for years—very healthy. What it lacks is a fanzine—you normally get one associated with a ‘movement.’»
Does that mean there’s actually a movement?
«That supposed ‘Sheffield Scene’ is based around Cabaret Voltaire and their minions. But now, there’s a hell of a lot of ‘clean cut young men’ doing passionate songs about love and things, in various ways... But quite good, not wimpy. The best bands in Sheffield from that past wave never got anywhere. It was the worst ends of it—those that compromised round the edges, that got anywhere. I think some of the bands in the current Sheffield upsurge are going to break. My tips would be: Tree Bound Story, Dig Vs Drill, and us, in that order.
So where can we expect to find Pulp in another five years?
Jarvis: «I don’t really like old bands. In five year’s time, I’ll either be in the ‘Hole in the Road’ with a cider bottle and a brown paper bag, or I’ll be quite well off somewhere. Either very happy or very depressed, I won’t be in the middle.»
Russell: «There's only two options; you’re either a pop star or you’re scrubbing crabs.»
Five years ago I saw this band. Four people not old enough to be in the venue on stage at the Royal Hotel, Abbeydale Road, Sheffield, turning out ramshackle, endearing and daft pop songs without a care in the world. Fronted by the gawky, bespectacled Jarvis Cocker, a man with a brilliant line in stylish bad dressing. I thought they were tailor made for early and total obscurity. But Jarvis Cocker, against all odds, turns out not only to be a persistent bleeder, but a simply brilliant charismatic songwriter, which is how come Pulp 1985 are on the point of releasing a new 12’ EP on Fire Records. Let’s backtrack.
By 1981 the style had developed and musicianship improved. There was a session on the John Peel show and the group took to making tongue in cheek artistic statements like playing with cardboard cones over their heads and being wrapped in toilet rolls by dancing girls. I left Sheffield early in 1982 and lost touch, but bearing in mind their raucous style and garage pop sense of aesthetics I half expected them to surface in the London trash wave of ’83. Sure, I read the review of their LP It on Red Rhino which said they could be the next Simon & Garfunkel but I didn’t take it seriously. Perhaps there was another group called Pulp? Then I heard It... shock is hardly the word. More Leonard Cohen than Simon & Garfunkel but what’s an acoustic guitar wimp between friends? This was fantastic in more ways than one, skilfully crafted songs of love powered by luxuriant horn arrangements, sometimes funny, sometimes poignant, always great. At this point Jarvis Cocker should have been adopted as another romantic teenage genius like Roddy Frame, but he didn’t have a leather jacket with tassles on so nobody bought the album. Pulp were dropped by Red Rhino and only now, after a low profile two years, are Pulp threatening a comeback.
So what does the man himself think of that period?
That was our middle of the road period. I wouldn’t like to be compared with Simon & Garfunkel. I wouldn’t like people to think we were some kind of soft rock thing. I wouldn't say that review made the band split up but it certainly made me think, well, I don’t want to come on as that kind. I don’t want to be anybody else besides myself. I don't think I’m very good. I don’t have a great complex about how great I am but I wouldn’t like to be anyone else.
Very sensible.
Around the time of that LP we got into this music / musician type of thing; everyone was very proficient, whereas I’m the best musician in the band now and I’m not very good. When people know how to play their instruments their imagination goes.
That LP, it was dead sincere at the time. I feel a bit embarrassed when I listen to it now. I was 18 when it was released. I’m not trying to make excuses, it makes me sad more than anything else because I seem very naive and very innocent about things, which I don’t feel that I am now. It was hankering after something which
I didn’t have any experience of and when you get to actually have what you’ve been crying for for a long time sometimes you find that you don’t want it and chuck it in the bin. I suppose I’m a bit more cynical than I used to be although I don’t want to be because I don't think anything good can come from cynicism. You just drag things down and don’t take any chances.
So what can we expect from the new Pulp?
The songs are more violent now, more frustrated. There are some softer songs but there’s no love songs any more. The word ‘love’ doesn’t get used very often. I’m very ambitious, you’ve got to set your ambitions as high as possible.
And what is your ambition?
To bring back truth and beauty to the world.
I haven’t heard the new Pulp record, but something tells me it’s going to be good.
The main attraction is Pulp, regarded by many at Sheffield’s most promising band ever, after reasonable success from their last EP Little Girl (With Blue Eyes), they’ll go out of their way to live up to all expectations. Gaudy, trashy, explicit, intense, moody—a dictionary of adjectives can describe them.
LITTLE GIRL [WITH BLUE EYES] AND OTHER PIECES EP PROMOTION:
PULP PULL NO PUNCHES—in The Star, Sheffield [circa Nov.]
Jarvis Cocker of Pulp has to admit that the band don’t always get on that well together. «It adds a bit of tension live» says Jarvis, once dubbed the «child prodigy» of the Sheffield pop scene in the days when the schoolboy Pulp landed a John Peel session but now in danger of approaching elder statesman status. Jarvis is the only survivor from those heady days when the Peel session was followed by an album and single and Pulp were a force to be reckoned with on the local scene.
These days they are rather taken for granted.«With us having been around for so long, people made up their minds up having seen us in 1983. They are not aware that we have changed a lot» says Jarvis. The new line˗up came together when Jarvis took part—with guitarist / violinist Russell Senior—in play The Fruits of Passion in October, 1984.
At the time, Jarvis was ready to leave Sheffield for a place at Liverpool University to take English.
«I thought I would give Pulp one last chance and, luckily, it has turned out all right. I enjoy it more.»
Drummer Magnus Doyle was already there from Pulp’s previous line˗up, his sister Candida joined on organ, with the band being completed by Peter Mansell on bass.
They have been concentrating on out˗of˗town appearances
recently but have found time to record their first single for more than two years—a four-track 12’ inch on London based label Fire which is also handling other Sheffield bands Ipso Facto, Scala Timpani and 1,000 Violins.
The A-side, recorded at Input in Sheffield, is Little Girl (With Blue Eyes), a typical Cocker composition, with clever melodic and lyrical twists. Pizzicato violin adds a fancy touch. It’s a pity it will almost
certainly miss out on radio play simply because of the chorus.
There’s nothing dodgy about the lyrics, but, as Jarvis points out, he sees no sense in couching his ideas in euphemisms as is the case with most pop records.
There are two more excellent Cocker songs on the B-side, the whole thing being characterised by an almost medieval fairground sound that Pulp have developed. Final track, Blue Glow, shows their theatrical side with Russell intoning over a lot of banging and crashing.
«This is quite a crucial time for us» says Jarvis. «I don't want this single to be stillborn. As long as it does something...»
Success is long overdue for Pulp and they should get some—as long as they can keep from each other’s throats in the meantime.
PULP, SHEFFIELD’S UNDISCOVERED SENSITIVE SOULS—in Zigzag [Nov.]
After seven years of ramshackle existence in the garages of Sheffield, PULP remain the city’s least famous supergroup. They’ve just re˗emerged onto vinyl with an achingly great ballad written by their longest serving member Jarvis Cocker—a man of gaunt face and second-hand suit. He’s a songwriter of rare talent—a sort of Baccarach and David of the inner city—which can be witnessed on the gorgously sad Little Girl With Blue Eyes released by music journalist Johnny Waller’s Fire label... A love song dripping with a violent fatalism...
«It’s not about physical violence » Jarvis retorts, « it’s like something that builds up over years and years and gradually destroys somebody...»
For the last couple of years Pulp has existed as a collective of musicians based around the songwriting talents of Jarvis and friend Russell Senior, but it’s Jarvis who tends to dominate the mood of the group...
« I’m a bit of a dictator sometimes, I surprise myself because I can be a bit obnoxious. I think because it means a lot to me, I can be a bit of a twat sometimes. In concerts I stop songs half way through. I know it’s not a good thing to do, but I can’t help myself. I’m going to have to go and see my analyst.»
In November 1985, Jarvis fell from the window of Russell’s flat while trying to impress a girl with a Spiderman impression. He fractured his pelvis and broke several bones. He spent the next six weeks in the Royal Hallamshire Hospital, forcing the cancellation of concerts and other promotion for the Little Girl (With Blue Eyes) EP.
COCKER COMES A CROPPER—in The Star, Sheffield [Nov. or Dec.]
SHEFFIELD band Pulp have had to cancel concerts for the next few weeks—because singer Jarvis Cocker has fallen out of a window.
Cocker, who is now in the Royal Hallamshire Hospital, suffered a number of broken bones in his leg, hip, arm and wrist, when he fell 20 foot to the pavement.
The blow has come at a crucial time for the band who have just released their Little Girl (With Blue Eyes) single and were due to play an important date at the Greyhound in London on December 11. Unless Cocker undergoes a miracle recovery this date looks almost certain to be cancelled.
They have also ran into problems with radio play for the single—one Radio Hallam deejay faded it out when he heard the chorus, and that was at one a.m.
Winners of copies of Pulp’s new single are E Wilson of Firshill Walk, Sheffield 4; and C Noton, of Toftwood Road, Crookes. Because of Cocker’s mishap, the Greyhound tickets have now had to be withdrawn. The answer to Jarvis's question—«When was the Hole In The Road officially opened» is November 1967.
PULP’S BIG BREAK—text by Paul Moreau and Tony Marshall—in Darts, Sheffield [Nov. or Dec.]
Yup Darts brings you this exclusive exposé on the hard-living lifestyle of Sheffield’s top rock bands.
Première guitarist and violinist with top Sheffield band Pulp, Russell Senior, sits in the Darts office, strumming on his balalaika, magnanimously handing out free singles and press releases and reflecting on the cruel twists of fate that have afflicted the band of late.
To start with, following the news that Pulp might support the Pogues, lead singer Jarvis Cocker, clearly determined not to be overawed by the boozy reputation of the drunken folk revivalists managed to get gloriously as the newt and fall out of the window of his fifth storey flat. Lying in a hospital bed with numerous shattered limbs, Jarvis may care to reflect that this is in fact the fulfilling of a bizarre prophecy for Pulp’s new single contains the lyric, ‘...face down on the pavement, chalk lines around your little hands.’ Which, according to Russell, is the precise position in which poor Jarvis was found.
This comes closely in the footsteps of the new Pulp single, called Little Girl, being [gasp] banned by Radio Hallam. It appears they think the record is obscene. In particular, they point to the lines, ‘...little girl with blue eyes, and a hole in your heart, and one between your legs, you're never going to wonder which one he'll fill...’
Well, Russell doesn’t see it and, quite frankly, neither do we but ours is not to reason why. Anyway, the record is currently selling out in shops all over Sheffield. Meanwhile, J.C. seems quite content lying in hospital singing, easing the pain and keeping the nurses awake all night.
We know the Sheffield City Press said that Pulp’s problem is that they’re always falling out, but this is ridiculous.
Unknown publication [Nov. or Dec.]
Did he jump or was he pushed? Exactly why did PULP’s Jarvis Cocker leap from Russell Senior’s window [breaking assorted ankles, wrists and pelvises—all his]? Will Russell get to sing the 'A' side of the next single now? Or will Jarvis return, having proved his machismo, and break his voice instead?
Press release? [Nov. or Dec.]
PULP have cancelled all current interviews and gigs until Christmas due to the serious injury suffered by vocalist Jarvis when he inadvertently [and inadvisedly] fell out of a second-storey item. Adding insult to injury—literally—the band have run into trouble over the lyric of their new single. Radio Hallam’s go-ahead progressive pop show, ‘New Age Muzak’, took Little Girl off the air at one a.m. after playing the lines ‘Hey little girl, there’s a hole in your heart / And one between your legs / You’ve never had to wonder / Which one he’s going to fill / In spite of what he says’. The flabbergasted DJ announced «Well, I never expected anything like that from Pulp!»
By contrast, Melody Maker’s Helen FitzGerald explained that «the song is all about girls realising that their destinies don’t have to be tied to a man's.» The band themselves regard the single and their own existence as «an attempt to put life back into cliches». London dates to be confirmed for January.
SMASHED PULP MISS BIG DATES—Unknown publication [Nov. or Dec.]
Controversial Sheffield band Pulp had to cancel their first Rotherham gig after an unlucky break... The band were to appear on the bill with Mr Morality and Lay Of The Land in the Arts Centre on Friday. But their lead singer, Jarvis Cocker, is now in hospital with a fractured hip after falling 20 feet from a window. Said Pulp violinist Russell Senior: «He was playing Spiderman on the window ledge after a heavy drinking session, as well rock stars do all the time, but things went wrong.» It looks like Pulp will be in for a quiet Christmas, as Jarvis will be out of action for several weeks.