Mis-shapes, mistakes, misfits: the story of Pulp
With voyeurism, class consciousness and praying mantises, the story of Pulp is certainly an interesting one. Beginning as a rag-tag bunch of secondary school friends, the Jarvis Cocker-fronted outfit eventually rose to prominence among the titans of the 1990s Britpop scene. Yet, they never seemed to fit in with the Gallaghers and Albarns of the musical mainstream. No, Pulp was something different, both a celebration of old-school pop sensibilities and a destruction of musical norms. The reunion tour, which delighted audiences last year, was a testament to the enduring popularity and relevance of the Sheffield outfit.
The beginnings of Pulp were far less decadent than the corduroy suits of Jarvis Cocker might suggest. Originally, Cocker formed the group at school in 1978, at the age of only 15, with the name ‘Arabicus’ coming from the Arabicas coffee bean. However, bands named after coffee beans rarely achieve greatness, so the name was soon altered to Pulp after the admittedly pretty terrible Michael Caine film released in 1972.
For the most part, Pulp existed more in principle than in reality, performing disparate rehearsals at Cocker’s childhood home. In fact, during these early years, as Cocker’s recent memoir Good Pop Bad Pop shows, the frontman was more concerned with the group’s image and wardrobe than its musical output. Thankfully, they soon lost the weird praying mantis drawing that Cocker had envisioned as the band’s logo.
It took nearly two years for Pulp to play their first proper gig in the illustrious surroundings of Rotherham Arts Centre in 1980. Thus followed a deluge of attention in the local scene, finding favour with the fanzine makers of South Yorkshire. As Cocker would readily admit, they weren’t particularly great during this period, they were simply school kids messing about, but it did eventually lead them to record a session for John Peel in 1981. The role of John Peel in the development of alternative music cannot be overstated, with the DJ launching the careers of groups like The Undertones and The Fall. However, the same success was not afforded to Pulp – at least, not initially.
After they recorded for Peel in 1981, they became notable within the Sheffield scene but failed to see much success outside of the 0114 area code. After most of the core line-up graduated secondary school and left the Steel City for university, Pulp witnessed a shake-up, finding new members and recording the mini-album It, which witnessed very little commercial success or attention. The following years saw Pulp largely fall into obscurity, existing mostly in the mind of Jarvis Cocker rather than being an actual band.
Cocker returned with the group in 1987, after years spent living in the attic of a disused factory in Sheffield, releasing the lacklustre album Freaks. Under pressure from the record label Fire, the album was recorded in the space of only a week, giving it a feeling of being rushed and underdeveloped. It was not the beautiful renaissance that Cocker had envisioned, but it did pave the way for the pop stardom that would soon follow. After the disappointment of Freaks, Cocker left for London, studying at Saint Martins College.
After a brief interlude, Pulp returned once more, recruiting bassist Steve Mackey to join the ranks alongside Russell Senior, Candida Doyle, and Nick Banks – the classic line-up of Pulp. Cocker had struck gold with this line-up, which became quickly apparent with the release of Separations by Fire Records in 1992. The album was the beginning of the Pulp that we now all know and love. On tracks like ‘My Legendary Girlfriend’, Cocker established his penchant for imbuing pop songs with strong themes of eroticism and sex. It was at this point that, finally, Pulp started to get noticed by the musical mainstream, spurring them on to continue in their quest for reinventing British pop.
The period that followed Separations marked the start of Pulp as a commercial success – though they never made any particular effort to appeal to the substanceless drudgery of the early 1990s charts. Bringing their unique stylings to clubs and venues around the nation, Pulp began to work on their next album, His ‘n’ Hers: the first in a trilogy of masterpieces created by Cocker and company. Releasing the singles ‘Lipgloss’ and ‘Do You Remember the First Time?’ in the run-up to the album’s release, Jarvis achieved his dreams of pop stardom, breaking into the UK singles chart for the first time.
When His ‘n’ Hers finally hit the scene in 1994, the music scene of the UK had developed an early adoration for the blossoming Britpop sense, with groups like Suede, Blur and Oasis rising to prominence. Although they didn’t share much in common with Britpop in a musical sense, the conditions were perfect for Pulp to capitalise on the resurgence of guitar-led rock and roll. With the success of the album earning the band a Mercury Prize nomination and the success of the Britpop scene becoming unavoidable, Pulp had – at long last – arrived.
Although the group had finally eclipsed the local scene of Sheffield to become a celebrated band among the indie scene nationwide, Pulp still hadn’t quite broken into the mainstream consciousness. All that changed in 1995, when a sudden cycling accident meant that The Stone Roses had to pull out of a headline set at Glastonbury Festival. Quickly taking the reins, Pulp stepped up to headline the festival, creating one of the most unforgettable sets in Glastonbury history. After the performance, there was scarcely a music fan in England who did not know the distinctive tones of Jarvis Cocker. Months later, they released Different Class, by far their most successful effort – at least in a commercial sense.
Containing the defining hit singles ‘Common People’, ‘Disco 2000’, ‘Mis-Shapes’ and ‘Something Changed’, as well as earning Pulp a Mercury Prize win, there were few records from the Britpop period that could rival Different Class in terms of creating iconic and enduring pop hits. In the wake of the album’s intense success, Cocker made headlines by mooning Michael Jackson at the Brit Awards in 1996, an occurrence which confirmed that, although he was now a stalwart of the singles chart, Cocker had never lost the punk ethos that had first inspired the 15-year-old to start a band.
Any normal outfit would follow up the commercialism of Different Class with another chart-pleasing pop record, but Pulp wasn’t a normal band. Instead, they set about recording This Is Hardcore, an intense, atavistic and erotic record that subverted expectations and once again affirmed Cocker’s incredible songwriting ability. For all its daring nature, the record proved to be incredibly successful in a commercial sense as well, earning their second number-one album.
Behind the scenes, though, Pulp was rapidly deteriorating. Russell Senior had left the group shortly before the recording process, while Cocker battled cocaine addiction and feelings of disillusionment with fame and stardom. Like the majority of Britpop acts post-1997, Pulp soon fell into obscurity. Missing and presumed dead.
Eventually, they returned with the fairly successful release We Love Life in 2001 before breaking up so Cocker could pursue a solo career. After 25 years, Pulp was finished – but not for long. The band would reunite for a tour in 2011 and again in 2023, with various Cocker solo projects occupying the spaces in between the reunion tours. Generally, reunion tours are the last resort of washed-up rock stars with tax bills and divorces to pay for, but Pulp never stuck to the norm.
Not content with wheeling out the hits, the band debuted two new tracks, ‘Hymn of the North’ and ‘Background Noise’, during their 2023 reunion, bringing hope to a new generation of Pulp fans that they have finally returned for good. Whether or not they are, indeed, recording a new album remains unknown. However, their 1990s releases still hold up incredibly well within the modern age – in stark contrast to many of their Britpop contemporaries. Even if they were to disband for good tomorrow, it would take decades for the unforgettable work of Pulp to exit the cultural landscape of the United Kingdom. Perhaps it never will.
