This week 12 years ago CD, vinyl and cassete (remember them?!) singles of Common People were flying out of Woolworths quicker than you could say 'the best old band in Britain'. On a drizzly day in Birmingham, Pulp learned that they had entered the pantheon of pop when the chart countdown revealed a debut at number 2; though the moment was marginally tampered by Jarvis' landing on his arse while performing the song at a live radio event.
On this week in 1992 - a fortnight after the band's debut Gift release with the OU single, Pulp recorded perhaps the definitive radio session of their careers - a four song set for Mark Goodier's BBC programme consisting of what would become Intro/His'n'Hers material (plus 'Live On'). It was also their first major mainstream radio coverage - not a bad way to showcase arguably the best recorded versions of some of these songs (She's A Lady, Your Sister's Clothes).
The end of May/beginning of June also saw the first real evidence of pre-Common People Pulp's infiltration of the mainstream in 1994. The finest EP of the modern age (? - there's a poll for Q's list-writers to chomp on) starring Babies saw Top 20 chart success and the first in a line of fantastic Pulp performances on Top of the Pops - the programme on whose appearance the group always said they would measure their success on.
The period of Spring turning to Summer hasn't always been so kind to Pulp however.
It's 20 years ago now since ignored Long-Players of Freaks looked out forlornly in the crowded shelf racks of independent music stores around the UK; almost a year after the thing had been recorded piss-poorly, and 6 months after that particular incarnation of Pulp had split-up. Very possibly the nadir of the group's career, though the album's lack of success can't have surprised the band too much who had moved on in terms of line-up and sound.
Finally then, the end of May/ beginning of June 1997. Jarvis' demons were slowly being exorcised through a 9 month fits-and-start recording process for what would become the monster known as 'This Is Hardcore'. While it's a shame that recording details for the Hardcore sessions are scant for anoraks like me to ponder over, it must have been about this time a decade ago that Pulp were creating the two most ambitious, dark and fantastic songs of their lives - namely This Is Hardcore and It's A Dirty World. That the latter was left gathering cobwebs in its fully-realised state until a belated release last autumn defies logic but I find it fascinating that the horrors in the heads of certain members of Pulp managed to manifest themselves into such challenging pop music that pisses over 99% of any 'mainstream' artist before or since. By humanising the dehumanised characters in these songs Jarvis retained his touch as a lyricist of rare talent; any concerns of not being able to write about 'real life stuff' anymore due to fame rendered pointless. The grasping of the mettle, musically by the band, on these and many other tracks from the This Is Hardcore sessions further proved that Pulp had moved onto a different plain - one which proved a little too daunting for many.
