The Britpop legends have reformed and following a string of acclaimed gigs around the UK they are due to perform at Utilita Arena Sheffield on Friday, July 14 and Saturday, July 15, supported by Richard Hawley, another member of Sheffield’s musical royalty.
Pulp’s route to the top was famously a long one, with the band having been formed by Jarvis Cocker in 1978 and waiting 17 years to achieve true stardom with the release of Common People in 1995. Jarvis charts the beginning of his ascent from gawky Sheffield schoolboy to national treasure in entertaining fashion in his book Good Pop Bad Pop, which is well worth a read.
Below are some of the Sheffield locations which played a big role in helping shape him and ultimately the band he formed, originally called Arabicus Pulp – a name he had spotted in the Financial Times when he was a pupil at The City School. The sites featured include the childhood home in Intake where he would practice upstairs, the makeshift studio where he and his fellow band members made their first proper recording, and the nightclub where Jarvis learned how to dance.
. Jarvis Cocker collage.jpg
Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker as a schoolboy, and some of the sites in Sheffield which played an instrumental role during his early years Photo: Other
. City School
City School, on Stradbroke Road, Sheffield, is where Pulp played their first ever gig during a Wednesday lunch break in March 1980, following encouragement from maths teacher Mr Jarvis. The gig even featured some rather underwhelming pyrotechnics, with their chemistry teacher and two assistant pupils lighting a magnesium ribbon backstage. Jarvis and his bandmates took to the stage wearing floral costumes created by his sister Saskia. He remembers the occasion as a 'complete and utter humiliation' and he was so embarrassed he persuaded Mr Jarvis to delete the recording the teacher had made of the performance. Photo: Picture Sheffield
. Sheffield Children's Hospital
When Jarvis Cocker was six he caught meningitis and recalls being given a lumbar puncture - describing the pain as 'unbelievable'. He was placed in an isolation ward at Sheffield's Children Hospital and received lots of 'great' presents, though the majority devastatingly had to be incinerated in case they were infected. Photo: Picture Sheffield/Sheffield Newspapers
. Childhood home
130 Mansfield Road, Intake, Sheffield, was the home in which Jarvis Cocker spent the first 18 years of his life. The Pulp frontman has described how he spent many an evening in his bedroom there, writing and recording songs he played using his guitar and a small amplifier - a process his mother would call his 'plinky-plonking'. Photo: Dean Atkins
. Sheaf Valley Baths
Sheffield's Sheaf Valley Baths, long since replaced by Ponds Forge, were where a teenage Jarvis Cocker went for his school swimming lessons. But it wasn't the swimming which played a big part in his development so much as the smutty book he discovered upstairs on the bus back to school one day. It was called the Sexy Laughs Fantastic Dirty Joke Book and proved a fascinating resource at a time Jarvis explains he was 'desperate to find out about sex'. It didn't provide much of an eduation, or much amusement judging by the quality of jokes. But for a songwriter who would go on to mine the seedier side of life for inspiration, in songs including Sheffield: Sex City, it was undoubtedly an influence. Photo: Sheffield Newspapers
1. Jarvis Cocker collage.jpg
Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker as a schoolboy, and some of the sites in Sheffield which played an instrumental role during his early years Photo: Other
2. City School
City School, on Stradbroke Road, Sheffield, is where Pulp played their first ever gig during a Wednesday lunch break in March 1980, following encouragement from maths teacher Mr Jarvis. The gig even featured some rather underwhelming pyrotechnics, with their chemistry teacher and two assistant pupils lighting a magnesium ribbon backstage. Jarvis and his bandmates took to the stage wearing floral costumes created by his sister Saskia. He remembers the occasion as a 'complete and utter humiliation' and he was so embarrassed he persuaded Mr Jarvis to delete the recording the teacher had made of the performance. Photo: Picture Sheffield
3. Sheffield Children's Hospital
When Jarvis Cocker was six he caught meningitis and recalls being given a lumbar puncture - describing the pain as 'unbelievable'. He was placed in an isolation ward at Sheffield's Children Hospital and received lots of 'great' presents, though the majority devastatingly had to be incinerated in case they were infected. Photo: Picture Sheffield/Sheffield Newspapers
4. Childhood home
130 Mansfield Road, Intake, Sheffield, was the home in which Jarvis Cocker spent the first 18 years of his life. The Pulp frontman has described how he spent many an evening in his bedroom there, writing and recording songs he played using his guitar and a small amplifier - a process his mother would call his 'plinky-plonking'. Photo: Dean Atkins