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Au revoir to Jarvis
PULP singer Jarvis Cocker will soon be departing for a new life in France – but has denied it means the end of the band he has fronted for more than two decades.
The Sheffield stars will be leaving their record label with the release of a greatest hits album next month.
And their December concert at South Yorkshire's Magna complex will be their last for a long time. But probably not their last ever.
"I want to stress that this definitely isn't a farewell concert," said Intake's most famous son.
"If you know what our history's like, there have been lots of periods of hibernation. I suppose it's the end of a certain era, but I wouldn't say it's the end.
"Anyway it'd be daft to split up while Status Quo are still alive. We've still got our eye on the 'longest-running band' title."
Meanwhile Jarvis – who recently married his French stylist girlfriend Camille Bidault-Waddington and will soon become a father for the first time – is planning a permanent move to Paris next year.
''I've never lived abroad before, and I'm not well-known in France, so I'll be able to buy my baguettes without being noticed and carry out any improprieties in peace."
Although the days when it was impossible to open a tabloid without seeing a Cocker and bull story are long gone, he is still one of the most easily recognisable figures in the pop world. Nonetheless he still catches public transport whenever he can.
"I just like getting on a bus and watching everyone from the top deck. If the planned Eurostar link at St Pancras goes ahead, I'll be able to get from Paris to Sheffield in a few hours."
Fantastic
The album, Pulp Hits is out on November 18, and features all their chart singles, as well as a new track, The Last Day Of the Miners Strike, which Jarvis says "has fantastic lyrics. A tour de force, even if I say so myself".
It will be their last release on Island/Universal Records, with whom the group have been connected since the early 1990s, scoring their biggest hits in 1995 with the classic Common People single and chart-topping Different Class LP.
But Cocker claims that the company had changed so much recently that Pulp was no longer a priority.
"There was only one person there who we still knew and I just didn't want to be signed to them anymore to be honest."
Disappointing sales of their last album, We Love Life, led the label to attempt a contract renegotiation, which the band turned down.
However Jarvis suspects that the world situation at the time may have made the LP seem a bit superfluous.
"It came out three weeks after September 11. Even though it was our attempt at an upbeat album, it wasn't exactly Agadoo. Sometimes you need Agadoo to help you forget that you may be dead soon."
The Pulp concert at Magna on December 14 is part of the Auto festival organised by Pulp's bassist Steve Mackey and features a feast of acts appearing in the former steelworks. There are also plans for a cinema tie-in with Sheffield's Showroom.
"It's something a bit different," explained Jarvis. "The festival scene in this country just seems to have the same bands on all the time. It won't just be a Pulp concert either, so if you're bored with us there will be plenty of other things to do."
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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