I've been thinking a lot recenlty about this. It's very odd to me to think that 1995 is so many years in the past and to think of all the technological advances that have occured since then. Saying that, I don't want to be younger than I am, I just feel odd. I'm 28 now and can't readily relate to alot of what I see in current youth trends- it just looks crap to me and yet I generally don't feel old. Discuss! .
I've been thinking a lot recenlty about this. It's very odd to me to think that 1995 is so many years in the past and to think of all the technological advances that have occured since then. Saying that, I don't want to be younger than I am, I just feel odd. I'm 28 now and can't readily relate to alot of what I see in current youth trends- it just looks crap to me and yet I generally don't feel old. Discuss! .
I'm soon to turn 26, so 1995 is over half a lifetime ago... I was only 10 when I discovered Pulp... scary to think I've been a fan for so long...
I had a similar feeling the other day when I mentioned a Pulp show that I realised was 11 years ago. It made me feel old but I'm not really. Got into Pulp when I was about 11 so that kind of gives you a head start.
I got into pulp when I was 19, which would be almost 16 years ago. I do not feel old, though, and I try to follow current trends as much as I can. I don't like everything, but I didn't when I was younger, either.
I do however remember being quite amazed the first time I got into a band comprised of people younger than me!
-- Edited by clodia on Sunday 10th of July 2011 11:35:26 AM
My mother used to sing along to Sorted For E's & Wizz. My dad stopped me listening to 'His N Hers' (song rather than album) in the car once... with my grandparents and my uncle in the car I can kind of understand his reason for that now!
I was 12 when i first fell in love with pulp...15 years ago, in fact my first ever gig/festival was 15 years ago next month V96 - god that makes me feel old!
Although i'm only 30, i feel really old now sometimes, so i agree with Sleeve. Our time was really the mid 90s early 2000s, things have changed a lot since then and although we wont be as has been as the previous generation technology-wise, the good old days are over. People are different now, society is different.
At wireless, it was my first time seeing pulp and that was really weird, one week later i cant really feel like it was for real. It was surreal in fact. Now i understand people who never really managed to forget the 60s or the 70s. It must be even harder for them to live in our world. But tbh, it feels good to be a little out of this society. We never fit, if only for a few years between 95 and 96, now it's back to being misfits. And i like it.
Remember getting Different Class just after it came out. I was 7 I think, very young eh? It was one of my first CD purchases but I remember my tape collection already had modern life is rubbish and parklife by blur. I had a load of those shine compliation CDs too... weird... I can't imagine a 6 year old saving up all their pocket money for a parklife cd these days
Anyone remembers the times of adverts for penpals in Pulp People, paper fanzines (we had Tournico Pulp in France) that were the only way to hear about gigs, writing letters to other fans in order to exchange tapes ? No mobile phones nor internet nor Youtube back then... somehow everything was more complicated yet perhaps more valuable.
I still remember the first time I went to an internet cafe to check the Pulp People website... it was my first time on the web and I was completely lost! Now I work in ecommerce :)
different class came out when I was 1 - I don't really remember first hearing Pulp because I was brought up hearing common people. That and brimful of asha by cornershop are the two songs I liked most as a child (not much has changed)
Anyone remembers the times of adverts for penpals in Pulp People, paper fanzines (we had Tournico Pulp in France) that were the only way to hear about gigs, writing letters to other fans in order to exchange tapes ? No mobile phones nor internet nor Youtube back then... somehow everything was more complicated yet perhaps more valuable.
I still remember the first time I went to an internet cafe to check the Pulp People website... it was my first time on the web and I was completely lost! Now I work in ecommerce :)
Tournico Pulp was probably the best fanzine I saw and the Pulp site was one of my first experiences of the internet too. URLs used to be so long!
Days of Netscape... it used to be so slow and confusing... I think it took me about 30 minutes to manage to get on the site!!! I used to write some reviews for T Pulp :)
Was fifteen/nearly 16 in 95 when I heard His n Hers for the first time when my mate borrowed it from a library and it changed my life. Pulp were the band of my teenage years and it's been surreal seeing them again as a married man of 32 with our first baby on the way. What a year it's been!
I'm 30. I became a Pulp fan in 1995, not because of Common People, but because of Sorted. In fact when I first heard Sorted I didn't realise it was the same band! At that time I had started to buy NME/Melody Maker and Jarvis was featuring pretty heavily on the cover of both publications. I then got HnH and subsequently DC, and haven't looked back!
Strangely, my first exposure to Pulp was the Do You Remember The First Time? documentary when it aired on channel 4. Which led me to the song and then later bought Common People and His N Hers and God now look at the mess we're in!
Vaguely aware of them when a friend invited me to the Do You Remember the First Time launch party at the ICA and I couldn't go - something I've always regretted! Really got into them after seeing them perform at Glastonbury '95 (on tv sadly, as I couldn't go because I was a postgrad and in the final phase of the deranged writing-up stage) and, like many others, they really blew me away. And, of course, I couldn't resist a band that had a song with my name (which had always seemed very uncool) in it...
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Her house was very small with woodchip on the wall
Vaguely aware of them when a friend invited me to the Do You Remember the First Time launch party at the ICA and I couldn't go - something I've always regretted! Really got into them after seeing them perform at Glastonbury '95 (on tv sadly, as I couldn't go because I was a postgrad and in the final phase of the deranged writing-up stage) and, like many others, they really blew me away. And, of course, I couldn't resist a band that had a song with my name (which had always seemed very uncool) in it...
I feel even more ancient now, as I got into Pulp around 1993, and saw them at The Garage at the end of that year. And Babies had my name in it (not ArrGee funnily enough), but that wasn't the reason I got into them.
Was fifteen/nearly 16 in 95 when I heard His n Hers for the first time when my mate borrowed it from a library and it changed my life. Pulp were the band of my teenage years and it's been surreal seeing them again as a married man of 32 with our first baby on the way. What a year it's been!
That's pretty much my story, give or take. Although I prefer to think as myself these days as two 16-year-olds rolled into one.
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"Yes I saw her in the chip shop / so I said get yer top off"
Strangely enough, when Common People came out I truly hated it. I was only 5 years old mind, which might explain it. I remember it was on a mixtape we had in the car and I'd always ask my parents to fast forward through it. My mam had Different Class and I remember listening to it on and off when I was 11 and 12, but I was a bit embarrassed about liking it for some reason, I guess I thought it was uncool as everyone at school liked Blink 182 etc. But then when I was 13 I got a girlfriend, one day she was like "yeah I've just bought Different Class by a band called Pulp, they're really good" and I could do the whole "Oh, I've been listening to them for YEARS"...
Though it wasn't till I read Sturdy's book that I became a proper Pulp geek/obsessed with live bootlegs/Bar Italia forum user...
Nice thread! Love reading how you lot got into Pulp.
I cannot believe it has this long either, as I still feel like a teenager most of the time. I was 15 when I first saw the video for Disco 2000 in 1995 or so in MTV Latino. I became so obsessed with it, then got into the earlier albums, then 3 years later when I turned 18, I left Mexico for the UK to see Pulp at Glasto 98. The rest is history :P Pulp shaped my life...
Pulp shaped my life too :) I remember buying the His'n'Hers tape at my local Fnac and spending hours religiously translating all the lyrics with a dictionnary. I pretty much learnt English thanks to Pulp and also ended up moving to the UK !
I think I might be unusual as I was already married with 2 going on 3 kids when I got into Pulp around 95/6, and heading fast towards my 30's. They were the band that got me back into music in a big way, and reminded me that music is not a luxury in my life but an essential. It's been absolutely amazing seeing Pulp live again, but feels kind of strange hearing about people growing up listening to and seeing Pulp as teenagers, who are now watching them for the first time as married people with kids - I'm going in reverse on this one! When Jarvis was engaging with the crowd at Wireless, asking who had got married and had kids since they last played, I had a moment of realisation that the last time I had seen saw Pulp I was already married with kids, and this time round was the first time I was watching Pulp as a completely free and single person.
A girlfriend at 13...you can't possibly be a Pulp fan.
Ha ha! It's funny because it's true!
Haha oh that doesn't mean I was cool or socially acceptable in any way, by the way! Just found a fellow weirdo. My teenage life was pretty much identical to the film Submarine, if anyone saw that earlier this year...
Submarine is an amazing film. Best thing I've seen in ages. Really captures all that intense teenage awkwardness around relationships. BTW the actor that plays the dad was in a similar film, Flirting, as a teenager, which I really loved when it came out but haven't seen for years.
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Her house was very small with woodchip on the wall
I'd never really acknowledged 'modern' music in my early teens. Got into the Beatles when I was about nine and never really stepped outside the 60s musical sphere. It was in December 1994, however, that I heard - and loved - Oasis' "Whatever". After following them for a year or so, a friend at school told me - in no uncertain terms - to go out and buy Mis-Shapes and Blur's Universal. Mis-Shapes was not in stock, it being late 1995, but I got Disco 2000 anyway. Shortly afterwards, another friend copied me Different Class, then I bought Countdown, swiftly followed by Freaks and I never looked back!
... the last time I had seen saw Pulp I was already married with kids, and this time round was the first time I was watching Pulp as a completely free and single person.
First half a dozen times I saw Pulp, I hadn't even met my wife, met her just after Theatre Royal show. The last time I saw Pulp in 2001, I just had a two year old son. Missed Finsbury Park in 1998 because I was on honeymoon. I'd forgotten that was the reason I didn't go.
Reading about all you people who's been around since the 90's makes me a bit jealous really. Got in to pulp for real about 5 years ago when I was 18. Even if I have a blurry memory of hearing "common people" when I was a kid and the line "I took her to a supermarket" got stuck in my mind. Was absolutely chocked over the fact that someone was singing about such a common thing as a supermarket in a pop song. It was fascinating, common and weird at the same time. Still love that about Jarvis lyrics.
one of the forest gigs (can't even remember the name of the place now!), and My Legendary Girlfriend being played as the moon was coming up - real spine-tingling moment
Auto at the Magna Centre (the last one ever before the hiatus) - especially hearing Lyndhurst Grove and being right down the front for the first time
and Wireless this time round - completely losing myself like I've never done before - it seems the older the I get the less I care about making a spectacle of myself!
"Even if I have a blurry memory of hearing "common people" when I was a kid and the line "I took her to a supermarket" got stuck in my mind. Was absolutely chocked over the fact that someone was singing about such a common thing as a supermarket in a pop song."
You'd have loved "Mum's Has Gone To Iceland" by Bennett, then!
"Even if I have a blurry memory of hearing "common people" when I was a kid and the line "I took her to a supermarket" got stuck in my mind. Was absolutely chocked over the fact that someone was singing about such a common thing as a supermarket in a pop song."
You'd have loved "Mum's Has Gone To Iceland" by Bennett, then!
Have listened to it twice and yes, it does have a childisness that i think could have appeald to me.
Love this thread and the discussion of memories attached to Pulp and the very personal meanings of songs to individuals. I was diagnosed with a serious illness 4 years ago (am through the worst now and in recovery) and have had a lot of time off work, much of it spent listening to music. It was then that I rediscovered This is Hardcore, which I hadn't really appreciated when it came out. And I've recently realised a good way to listen to We Love Life is through headphones on a woodland walk. When the comeback was announced I was determined to see them as I missed out before as too busy with babies, career and lived in Belfast where no bands ever seemed to come. Anyway, saw Pulp at Wireless and it was everything I hoped and more. Completely turned round a shit week for me - the anniversary of the diagnosis of my illness - and totally joyful and life-affirming.
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Finsbury Park was mental - I really thought I'd die of exhaustion by the end! What are your best gig memories ? Eden Project remains my favourite.
Finsbury Park was exhausting! Just before This Is Hardcore, I'm on the video being exhausted- not a good night. Afterwards we slept in Victoria Coach Station which was also bad. I'm going to make sure Brixton will be great though...
I suppose it's the first time I remember most Garage 1993, we flogged a ticket at the Cock Tavern which paid for the other two, and my mate missed last tube home. Pretty wild as most Garage gigs were at that time. I remember dancing on glass at another. Pulp fans were better behaved than most.
Also remember Theatre Royal as the last gig before Pulp made it big. In eighth row and though there were seats, no one sat and I had a great view of a band just about to break thru. A few months later my sister said she'd like to see Pulp, and when I told her I had offered her a spare ticket that night she was gobsmacked!
But as it is freshest, I think wireless is the best Pulp gig ever. Pure celebration.
I'm also married (well as of June next year) with 2 children. So yeah...from being the 13-17 yr old, that was maybe, probabaly, slightly obssesive...seeing them live 4 times in the same week....(god bless EMA) and did arty farty stuff at uni, and then mostly fucked about. My life has changed dramaitcly since their return. Im a full time mummy (and loving it) to two children under 4. I know when they release full dates for thier tour (UK) (cos it'll happen), i'll not get the chance to see them like i used to...i was at many a gig 6 hours before the doors opened. Sleeping homless in london just for a pulp gig!, Those days are long gone, that freedom I will never ever have again. But ill still be there...later..probably just after the support ;)..but ill be there with bells on. ;)
-- Edited by Rachel on Friday 15th of July 2011 01:47:45 AM
-- Edited by Rachel on Friday 15th of July 2011 01:51:18 AM
-- Edited by Rachel on Friday 15th of July 2011 02:00:31 AM
First time I got into Pulp was when the something changed single came out. Was not into music really then but that christmas in 96 my parents bought me the first two Oasis albums and Different Class all on tape and my life changed forever. Not bad for a christmas present lol!
I've been dipping in and out of Truth And Beauty lately, and probably will do even more once I finally get to watch the Beat Is The Law DVDs which arrived yesterday. Still can't believe you were 16-23 writing it... the research, tone and narrative are spot-on. Detailed, professional but all written in an easy-going, not taking yourself too serious style (which often can be hard at that age what with being eager to impress etc.). The last page is even quite moving. Very little if anything to be embarassed at, eight years later or however long it's been.
And that's enough of blowing smoke up Sturdy's backside. Just get the update/deluxe thing done, on paper or virtually, and we'll all pay you £6.99 through paypal or summat.
Garage 1993, we flogged a ticket at the Cock Tavern which paid for the other two, and my mate missed last tube home. Pretty wild as most Garage gigs were at that time. I remember dancing on glass at another. Pulp fans were better behaved than most.
