*Hello, my name is Amy and I have a Pulp problem*

1995 - my last year of primary school, the first year I ever wore a bra and the summer in which the languid summer days seemed to press against my skin in a way I was previously unaware of before. It was this summer that I bought for the very first time the magazine Smash Hits, yearning for a poster of the Gallagher brothers I had seen on a friend's bedroom wall, wishing to covert their defiant pouts on my own woodchip in a way that I still had very little understanding of.

(Un)Luckily for me I was a fortnight out and instead, a different pout of a much more passive-aggressive nature caught me pre-pubescent gaze. I believe the image was captured around the infamous Glastonbury performance, the details of which would later become part of the folklore of my new religion - a religion that has resonated since in many aspects of my life. On hearing Common People, a fire was kindled in my chest that was unknown to me - an awkward little girl who had no idea about the world outside of the small Northern town of Middlesbrough - and somehow the words reminded me of the small knowledge I had of the world around me, of aunties, older cousins and the neighbours' teenagers working in the local hairdressers, collecting bins and smoking a LOT of fags on the corner of our street. 'This awkward man is singing about me!' I realised in delight. Plus Pulp didn't LOOK like the other bands at the time - Jarvis was all arms and legs with a face that reminded me of a baby bird, along with the angular Russell and the ex-orchestral girl look of Candida. Something made sense to me about it - like they were real people, something that never came across in the same way with Blur or Oasis.

Mis-Shapes was probably the song from Different Class (which I of course bought later - marching up to the till in HMV fervently clutching my Christmas money, purchased on tape and along with The Great Escape and What's the Story....no contest on which got the most airtime that evening) that made me the convert that I am today. Being awkward, long-sighted and introvert sent me into a world of academic achievement that is only really obtained at a Comprehensive School from social rejection from your peers at the age of eleven and so the lyrics to Mis-Shapes provided me with a sort of justification, a ticket out, because no matter what happened I had my mind. Growning up in an area which saw the devistation of deindustrialisation through the 70's and 80's also connected - I saw the joyriders every night on my way home from school, I watched the Cocaine Socialists of my friends parents and I watched my younger brother (who was nowhere near as nerdy as me) grow up to become the Weed - 'but you'd come round to visit us when you fancy booz and drugs'.

Anyhoo, threeish years later (having discovered clearasil, a good hairdresser and the power of a short skirt/higher heel combo) This is Hardcore came out at a moment which I wanted to push the stirrings nodded at by Underwear further. TIHC seemed to coincide with my sexual awakening, and may have even been the song playing during on of my very first sexual experiences. It took a while ('You're gonna like it, but not a lot') for me to fall in love with the rest of the album in the same way, but I turn to Hardcore now whenever I feel like MY edges have been taken off.

It was after Hardcore that I really began to explore Pulp's back catalogue, finding His'n'Hers reaching into places I was starting to become more practiced with - love, shame, loss, heartbreak and of course the bedroom. I spent my later teenage years discovering other music but to this day they will remain my favourite band, and on lots of levels I believe if it weren't for Jarvis I would be a very different person today!

amy: Apart from the title which left me a bit confused, reading that had me thinking "is she a professional writer?".

Deborah wrote:

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Amy, that is absolutely brilliantly well put! Thank you so much for sharing. Although I left school in 1981 and I'm a southerner I can really identify with a lot of what you've said.

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 Yes, an amazing story. I definitely identify with whole comprehensive school experience, it is the line "we'll use the one thing we've got more of, that's our minds" that resonates with me most of all. I've heard Lauren Laverne speak a couple of times about once interviewing Jarvis and he said something along the lines of he can only life looking backwards, like seeing the view disappearing behind you from a train window. I used to find memories of those teenage years very painful, but I think the perspective of this song has helped me come to terms with that time and even appreciate what it gave me, as Amy says, a level of academic achievement I would never have reached if I had been popular and out partying all the time.

littlegirlwithblueeyes wrote:

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Aww, thanks! I get very lyrical when talking about my love of Pulp haha. I have loved reading this thread so much! All my friends keep mocking me as I only recently discovered this forum but I am so happy I did!

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Would love to read more from you. Please post in the Desert Island discs thread! 

Ha ha ha! You sound as bad as me. Is it true they did more than three songs together but they didn't want to confuse HP fans by putting them all on the soundtrack? Also how did they end up working together on this project?

Amy, fran and deb, absolutly love your posts!!!
Amy particularly because it sounds like your the exact same age as me....smash hits posters eh haha i have this pic of my room (one part of my room at the time, i can asure you the whole room was the same) and i can spot atleast 3 posters i got from smash hits magazine back then.

It was in 1995. In a videotape with a gig with all the songs from His n'hers. I can't remember where was that gig... I remember Jarvis wearing a black and tight suit. I was 15 years old and of course I was smashed with all that.

It was Different Class that got me into Pulp - the year it came out. If I remember rightly my interest was first aroused when I saw Jarvis on Shooting Stars (!). I didn't really know who he was at the time, but my mind was boggling at the concept of this highly individualistic person being a 'popstar'. He certainly didn't look like one, sound like one, or act like one, so I had to do a bit digging around to satisfy my curiosity. I went out and bought Different Class shortly after. Oddly I was in the queue in a record shop, to pay for Oasis's What's the Story Morning Glory (ssh - I know!), and at the same time the shop was playing Different Class. Someone in front was faffing around and holding up the queue, and that gave me enough time to make the snap decision to put the Oasis cd back, and pick up Different Class instead. Just those few minutes of hearing album was enough to make me realise I had to have it. When I got home and heard it in it's entirety, I was blown away. It was the best thing I'd heard in about 10 years, and everything about it was so perfect.

Not long after came the Brits/Jacko incident, and if I even needed anymore convincing that Pulp were special, that sealed the deal for me. Such a silly, childish act, but saying so much behind it.

I've got a good Pulp/queue story! Warp records in Sheffield opened at Midnight on the day DC was released and I dutifully slepped down there for there witching hour opening. There was a quite marvellous sense of community spirit there, I was on my own but loads of people talked to each other. My eagerness was rewarded with a signed DC promo lp sized flyer. I actually have the article about it from The Star here. In retrospect I wish I'd bought the vinyl with the interchangable covers rather than the cd version but oh well.

Something Changed anet.


Oh and Fred,

Seriously Amy, you gotta explain this to me: *Hello, my name is Amy and I have a Pulp problem* Am I being dumb? It wouldn't be unusual.


Y'know, just a play on the version of Alcoholics Anonymous, employed with lazy shorthand in culture when the character has a drink problem and tries to resolve it. From Corrie a while back: ''I'm Peter Barlow and....*sorrowful look around the room*...I have a drink problem'' followed by supportive applause from the group.

triciathetree wrote:

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I think the people in charge of Harry Potter approached Jarvis and then he put the band together. I had seen an interview with Jarvis where he was talking about it. And Phil Selway from Radiohead said he and Jonny had been approached by Jarvis about it. Not sure why he asked them specifically.

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I thought Jarvis asked Jonny and when Phil found out from Jonny that he was going to be in a Harry Potter film, he got all excited (who wouldn't) and asked if they still needed a drummer.

As to the potential album that never happened, wasn't that tied up in the legal case brought by the Canadian band with a similar name - Wyrd Sisters or some such thing. I think officially/legally the HP band now has no name.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wyrd_Sisters_(band)

saw119 wrote:

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glosslip wrote:

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It was in 1995. In a videotape with a gig with all the songs from His n'hers. I can't remember where was that gig... I remember Jarvis wearing a black and tight suit. I was 15 years old and of course I was smashed with all that.

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 Was it this by any chance? http://www.pulpwiki.net/Pulp/March1994TheBeat

I have it on VHS somewhere.

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 Yes, it is!! Oh, I remember the impact of that images... Unfortunatly I saw it at a friend's home, no chances to see this again, I think. Anyway, I have to investigate this.