I was watching the Common People documentary the other night and was quite amused at the footage showing the band revisiting their old rehearsal space above the pottery shop/storage area.
I'd forgotten about the nice little details in that part of the programme - Nick's drum-kit in the middle of the floor, Jarvis finding an old lyric sheet to "Seconds" and a bag of sugar which he examined to see if the expiry date tallied with when they were making CP/Different Class (turned out it did - meaning Nick had let it fester there for a decade!)...anyway, does Mark or anyone else know the story of their rehearsing there - i.e when it started and where had they done so previously (the Wicker karate rooms and then Jarvis' granny's garage?)
Would Catcliffe have been the base from which they wrote and practised when Jarvis and Steve came back up from London periodically in the early 90's? The little video on the Pulp DVD seems to date from around that time (Steve seems to still have curly hair). Did they ever practice in Sheffield itself or somewhere less out of the way? I guess being skint for most of that time it made sense to use whoever had some spare space like Nick's family's business.
Jarvis mentions in his lyrics book how Joyriders was inspired from a day after the band had practiced there so the environs seem to have informed more material than just Catcliffe Shakedown. Was April/May 1995, just prior to Common People's release, the last time they worked there?
I'm sure Truth and Beauty covers a lot of this, but I don't have it to hand. Geeky questions, but it's an interesting part of their story to ponder given the dodginess of the area, how it was immortalised in song so well and that there's something quite cool/quaint about Nick still working there all these years later with the poky, rehearsal space having been left more or less untouched. And it's interesting to compare it to the dark basement bunker in London discussed recently on here where the beginnings of This Is Hardcore was conceived. A lot more expensive and "safer" than Catcliffe but apparently without much of the character. Or porcelain.
I'm sure I remember reading somewhere that "the figurines are taking over the house" was inspired by being surrounded by china. Very frightening! Like an episode of Dr Who.
-- Edited by Fran on Monday 12th of August 2013 09:28:29 PM
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We'll use the one thing we've got more of, that's our minds.
From memory I think Nick told me they used the Catcliffe space from about 1988 to '95. It was mostly the Mansfield Road garage before that (and I guess they must have used the Wicker rehearsal rooms that Tim Allcard looked after as well, although I've never seen that specifically mentioned), and various places in London afterwards - notably the Fortress, and later on they wrote most of We Love Life in the cellar of Jarvis' house in Hoxton.
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"Yes I saw her in the chip shop / so I said get yer top off"
On a similar theme, Axis Studios, where they demoed much of their stuff in the first half of the 90's, seems to have gone now but I'm sure I read somewhere that it was where Pulp used as their rehearsal space for the reunion. Is that true?
It all a little confusing/mysterious really. As far as I was aware the studio was a going concern until Pulp rented (bought? I don't really know) it and converted it completely to their bespoke rehearsal space (as those You Tube videos showed) but once it was vacated by them it has remained empty and is slowly falling into a state of dereliction. I think it might be up for sale and the seller appears to be the city council. Anyway, fact fans it lies across the road from Sheffield's first Spearmint Rhino's, the one Jarvis mentioned at the Magna concert.
