ADVENTURES of exploration along two Sheffield rivers have been recalled by Jarvis Cocker - one later serving as inspiration for Pulp album track Wickerman.

Jarvis has told how in the mid-1980s he and some friends walked down the River Porter from the Midland Station, through tunnels out into the suburbs.

"Sometimes the river would run through a dirty brickwork tunnel for a quarter of a mile or so, and then it would emerge in another part of town - never where we expected," he said.

"It seemed quite amazing to discover such an adventure in the middle of the city we had grown up in and which we all professed to be totally bored with."

Jarvis said the next year he attempted to navigate the Don in a similar way, this time using an inflatable dinghy bought in a jumble sale.

"I was living in an old warehouse in an area known as the Wicker and the river flowed directly past," he said.

"We were travelling downstream so we didn't have to do much rowing and somehow drifting past familiar landmarks from a different angle seemed to fill us with excitement. It was like a cut-price Apocalypse Now."

Jarvis' voyage continued as far as Rotherham and he always vowed to finish the journey at a later date.

And while he never did, Jarvis says as the day was one of the happiest of his life, he still can't rule it out entirely.

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Wish I'd known you lived up there earlier! I was in Sheffield on Sunday 11 September, on a Pulp pilgrimage of my own to see the area where Jarvis grew up. Still plan to go back at some point when I've got more time to see other sights etc..

fredthe3rd wrote:

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Any plans what you'll do with it when its done?

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 I'm thinking I might just upload it to megaupload for the forum members to download if they're interested. I'm not sure about youtube.