Page 130 - Hi-Fi World (January 2020)

CLASSIC CUTS

PULP

HIS ’N’ HERS

ISLAND

A well enough to get out of it, I didn’t use it.
relatively modern selection for
I’ve never believed in exploiting disability”.
you this time around – and one
The LP that followed – ‘Freaks’

that is looked upon fondly by the
band because it dragged them
– did nothing at all. The acid house-infused
from years of obscurity towards a
that it was released three years after it was
well deserved period in the sun.
Created in Sheffield, Pulp is a band who ‘Separations’ LP was so coated in lethargy
finished. “Acid house definitely sidetracked
ripened on the vine towards a state of pure Pulp for a bit”. More singles were released.
genius. Not that they planned it that way, nor Then Island signed them on the strength
did they want to ripen on anything, thank you of one single: ‘Babies’. Afterward the band
very much. They wanted to be a hit from the released ‘His ’N’ Hers’ and – lo – light shone
off. down upon their bare heads and the angels
When Jarvis Cocker formed Pulp in 1978 smiled upon them. “This was just a great big
as Arabicus Pulp, they got off to a good start. sigh of relief really” said Cocker, “because
Grabbed some experience, tightened up as a for the first time ever in our long tortuous
unit and recorded a demo sometime in 1980- history we had enough time and money to
1981. do a record as we wanted to do it. It was
John Peel spiced it up and signed the band really good because, having waited so long for
"The band split for a session. “John Peel did a Roadshow in that kind of opportunity, we weren’t going to
mess it up”.
Sheffield and I gave him a tape” said Cocker.
again; another “He said he’d listen to it but I didn’t think he – well, they had to be by now hadn’t they?
What was revealed was a tight band
really would, but then he gave us a session,
one formed. The which was a very big thing for us. I mean, – a synth-pop combo infused by Cocker’s
John Peel was one of the reasons that I got
wit with hooks and Bowie/Roxy style. Full of
sound deepened into music. It was the first time anyone had sex but ideas too. Joy and portent. Nostalgia
and obsession. It was an album that had been
taken any notice of us so I thought, this is it
and darkened, then, this is what I’ll do with my life...doing a perfectly baked.

And Cocker does see that. He does
John Peel session made the group seem real”.
That was November 1981. At that point,
full of sex but the band would have been forgiven to expect believe that the sometimes Proustian
attention to detail on many of the band’s
songs stem from the early days. “The only
success to quickly follow but that just wasn’t
ideas too" the case. Disappointment reigned that the thing I can liken it to is as if you were locked
group split – most left to go to University.
in a room for a year – you would get to
Pulp released its first, slightly folkie LP know everything about that room and you
‘It’ (1984) to a hail of prairie winds and would pick up all the details. And I think
tumbleweed. So the band split again. Then that’s why our songs have often got a lot of
another one formed. The sound deepened detail in them, because I’ve had a lot of time
and darkened. A host of singles were on my hands to pick up on details. I do think
released on the Fire label (“I think it’s well that details are important in songs, I think
documented that they haven’t exactly got a that details reveal more than attempting to
glowing reputation in the eyes of many artists. paint a massive broad canvas. But waiting
‘Idiot Bother’ by The Auteurs is very strongly around for our time to come definitely had
rumoured to be about Fire Records”.) an effect on Pulp”.
Cocker, desperate to impress a girl one A new edition of the album has been
evening, fell out of a window and had to released, on white vinyl and over two discs,
perform his subsequent concerts from a remastered and cut at Abbey Road with a
wheelchair. “I never used the wheelchair as mastering quality that reflects that august
a stage prop” said Cocker. "As soon as I was body. PR

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