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.
13. Castle Market
Jarvis Cocker had a Saturday job on a fishmonger's stall called Grayson & Boaler, at Sheffield's Castle Market, which paid £15. The job, found for him by a man his mum dated, who thought he needed 'toughening up', inspired one of his early attempts at songwriting, called I Scrubbed the Crabs that Killed Sheffield. The lyrics refer to one occasion when the crabs had been delivered to the stall early and by the time he arrived they were emitting a particularly 'pungent' aroma. The market's manager eventually arrived to condemn the stock and order that all the remaining crabs be destroyed, Jarvis recounts, but only after 20 to 30 of the 'foul creatures' had already been sold. Photo: Sheffield Newspapers
14. Limit nightclub
The Limit nightclub on West Street, Sheffield, pictured here in September 1981, is where Pulp's Jarvis Cocker says he learnt how to dance. He said when he was going there the basement club was the only one in the city which played alternative music and 'where you don't get beaten up if you look a bit different'. Photo: Picture Sheffield
15. Sheldon Row
After moving out of his mother's house, Jarvis Cocker lived for a while with a friend called Tim on the top floor of an old factory on Sheldon Row, just off The Wicker, which had no heating and where the rules included 'no television, no meat and no bass'. He recalls how he got ill a lot at the time but he met an interesting cast of visitors he dubbed the 'lost souls'. Sheldon Row probably looks a little different today to how it did back then. Photo: Google