Why Jarvis Cocker and Johnny Greenwood were cut from ‘Harry Potter’
The Harry Potter franchise is one of the UK’s biggest, most wide-reaching and hugely profitable exports. As Hugh Grant’s Prime Minister in Love Actually puts it, it’s up there with “Shakespeare, The Beatles, David Beckham’s right foot”.
The national institution that it is, Harry Potter has featured performances from the crème de la crème of British actors. If the main trio of Harry, Ron and Hermoine would need to be played by unknown child actors, then it wouldn’t skimp on the rest of the roles. Right off the bat, The Philosopher’s Stone, released in 2001, gave us the likes of legendary Irish thespian Richard Harris in the role of Dumbledore and Maggie Smith as Professor McGonagall.
During the series’ decade-long lifespan, it became a part of British tradition for each new film to feature a supporting turn or cameo from a thespian yet untouched by the multi-billion dollar franchise. What may surprise you, however, is that Harry Potter has featured top-tier British musical talent too.
In the 2005 film The Goblet of Fire, the Potter film included a scene that die-hard fans who had read the books were desperate to see depicted in live-action; the Yule ball. An annual Christmas ball in the Wizarding World, this night of dancing and festivities showed the magical students in a new context, one that regular Muggle audiences could relate to. After a long night of formal waltzing and ceremony, we see a glimpse of later on in the night; the Hogwart students are going wild for a witchy-looking rock band.
It lasts about 30 seconds, so you’d be forgiven for missing it, but what is shown on stage is effectively a Pulp/Radiohead cross-over supergroup. Perhaps, if audiences were paying enough attention to the performers, they might have recognised underneath the hair and make-up the unmistakable mug of Jarvis Cocker. But it’s only in a deleted scene featured on the DVD that it becomes truly apparent who Cocker’s sharing the stage with; Johnny Greenwood.
The bonus content, which clocks in at nearly four minutes long, gives a whole new depth to the appearance of two of Britain’s most famous musicians on a Hogwarts stage. Introduced as The Wierd Sisters by a teacher, the band also features fellow Pulp bandmate Steve Mackey and Radiohead drummer Phil Selway on the kit, and they play a full-on song that features many references to the magical world and the chorus, “Can you dance like a Hippogriff?”
So why was this delightful playful scene cut from the theatrical version? Only the filmmakers can be 100% certain, but our guess is that it was probably considered a little bit too indulgent to spend four minutes on a full performance, especially with the threat of Voldemort still looming at the school gates and the Triwizard Tournament to yet be completed.
Watch the full song in all its glory below.
