Well readers, I plucked up the courage to ring Russell's doorbell and he very kindly entertained, informed and tolerated me until I had to leave about an hour and three quarters later. I covered almost all of the questions I wanted to ask ranging from "who was the singer in the Bath Bankers?" to his thoughts on the 2011 tour. There's an enormous wealth of material and I should be able to get a few articles out of it - all with a helpful link to where one can buy the book.
At the start of the interview Russell said things like "a song like My Legendary Girlfriend, which you might know..." but by the end he was referring to stuff like 'Cousins' with no preamble whatsoever.
He also treated me to a 'lucky bag' of 'old Pulp stuff' from his loft. I've not opened it yet but I'm sure you can imagine how thrilled I am by it.
I'll make available 6/7 minute mp3s for transcribing purposes over the next few days. I'm sure you're all going to love it.
And for anyone wondering...he's a really nice, warm chap indeed. Very smart with a good sense of humour.
We had 'winter tea' with a slice of orange.
Well, I've had my first dig into the Russell envelope and (avoiding the cd I could feel) I plucked out a piece of paper. It's Russell's own ticket/flyer for the gig that Pulp were scheduled to play at Fulham in December 1985 that was cancelled due to Jarvis' accident. The ticket seems to refer to both gig entry and bus down. All for £1.50!
Aw, this is what comes across in the book about Russell too - the thoughtfulness and way he puts effort into trying to make everything special and an experience from decorating the stage, to the elaborate flyers, to giving you a lucky bag, Stephen! Really looking forward to seeing the final result.
