ArrGee wrote:

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I seem to be looking to buy more books about Pulp than LPs in last 20 years...

...I would like to have a look at the book before purchasing, but looks interesting enough.

That written, I haven't even got the Nick Banks' book yet and only had a quick glance at the Hardcore book I got a year ago. Good Pop, Bad Pop lurks in my Kindle account and Mother, Brother, Lover gathers dust on my bedside cabinet. I think the only Pulp book I did read was Truth & Beauty. A long time ago. 15 years! How the hell is it that old? I had planned to get through my stack of unread books post-retirement, but they remain unread. Still too busy!

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I've been devouring them.

My ranking of those I've read:

1. Nick's: A nice conventional telling of his life story in chronological order. Relatable to me because I'm about the same age and his teen tales vaguely resemble my own, but not so relatable because the man is unrelentingly upbeat. But he got to join his favourite band which achieved true greatness after he joined, so I can't blame him.

2. Jarvis's: There's a lot going on here, including a telling of the Pulp story. It's not a conventional telling but the story does get told, up to a point (and that point is 1994, so a sequel might emerge, eventually?). Overall, it's just plain fun. Nitpick: his insistence on writing "&" rather than "and". C'mon man, it's easy: a-n-d.

3. Mark's: A fun read, with lots of good stuff, especially if, like me, you weren't into Pulp when and where all the big things were happening. Quibble: my aging eyes can't handle the puny size of many of the reproduced magazine and newspaper clippings, and the occasional use of dark-coloured paper also annoyed me. Need to revisit with a magnifying glass. (& there's Jarvis at it again in the preface.)

4. Hardcore: The Cinematic World of Pulp: It's been a year or so, so I'll have to revisit, and I think there are some bits I haven't read yet. One  highlight is the long interview with Candida (whose book I would also devour, if she ever decides to write one). Lots of lovely photos.

5. Russell's. It's a wild ride and I enjoyed it, but I don't think it really stands up to the rest. It just feels kind of forced at times, and rather bitter in places. 

6. 33 1/3 book on TIH. Cringed at the framing device. The pages in between were not bad, not great, mostly just forgettable. It's short, and of the lot it would be the easiest to read while commuting.

Sturdy wrote:

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How do you think I feel!

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 I turned 40 yesterday without having any say in the matter. I feel cheated.

Eamonn wrote:

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Sturdy wrote:

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How do you think I feel!

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 I turned 40 yesterday without having any say in the matter. I feel cheated.

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Face it: you are young!

Many happy returns, Eamonn.

So we haven't had any reviews of the book, either on here or in the press, from what I can see (sorry, there's a brief one above). For those who have read it, what did you think? I got it about a month ago and rationed myself to it over a few days, to take it all in. It's been out 6 weeks or so, but I'll put the below in spoilers just in case:

Spoiler

Overall, it was certainly more than I had hoped for - plenty of insight from Mark along with some wonderful old photographs and ephemera. I was worried, (worst-case scenario) it would be short on text, with pages devoted to close-ups of artwork and merch alongside dry caption headings and little else. Thankfully, while the initial process seems to have been Mark tipping out boxes of Pulp stuff, arranging and snapping them chronologically, he's turned the book from a coffee-table flicker to a genuine potted but insightful history of his time in the group with plenty of stories that correspond to the pictures or of the period in question.

The early 90s era is my favourite part of the book. You get a sense of giddiness from his descriptions of the time: Pulp connecting with the rough youths of Halifax in 1991; their first time in France - pictures from the Black Sessions; Pulp playing their 1992 session at the BBC for Mark Goodier with the band snapped waiting around/playing in the studio; the pictures of Jarvis giving it his physical all while performing to an empty hall in Newcastle - it's all so vivid and wonderful. I'd have been happy with another 100 pages just on 1991 to 1993 to be honest!

I would have preferred less pictures of flyers and all the examples of promo or foreign press from the years of their commercial peak. I get that it's important for context (and less geeky readers) but the personal touches from earlier in the book - Mark's copies of the letter from Fire records, that wonderful postcard from Jarvis in London late 1990 and the band photos from Mark's archive; all carry so much more weight and interest. Some photos may not be of the best quality but I'd rather something slightly grainy be blown-up in size so that it's more than a large thumbnail instead of a full-page poster for a gig that we've seen before on Pulpwiki etc. Even some photographs that are of decent resolution on the internet, such as that incredible b&w one from the Limit Club in '87 with the girl blowing bubbles and Mark with a bowl-cut and an old camera, is shunted as a small image to the side of a page.

As Pulp became more professional and successful and Mark's role was established as "just" a band member, there is a noticeable drop-off in terms of interesting personal Pulp visual items compared to earlier in the 90s/book. However, it's to Webbo's credit that he is very honest and illuminating at times about his thoughts during the late 90s and early 00s. The text carries the weight of this section of the book rather than another page of pictures of platinum discs or the Different Class Japanese version etc. It also made me really glad that he had countered the publisher's proposal to publish a book centred on Different Class with this fuller pictorial history. I do wonder if he's holding some images from the era back though - when he took part in the Tim's Twitter Listening Party of Different Class (which was the seed for this book), he posted a picture of the string section playing their parts to Different Class at Air Studios in summer 1995. Maybe that/other "in-house" pics of the time will feature in a future Different Class reissue. Also, it's a real shame that there's no pictures included from the Catcliffe rehearsal space (apart from Mark posing outside it in later life). I suppose we do have that brief section on the Home Movies part of the Hits DVD along with the Common People documentary. And I guess there's only about a dozen or so of us who would gladly buy a book of outtakes/pics that didn't make the cut !

His story about running away at the end of 1998 following the This Is Hardcore tour, to go travelling with Cat Power's band was a complete surprise to me! There is a sense throughout of a strong conviction within Mark on what he feels is worthwhile or not which runs slightly at odds with his quiet, meek manner (if you were harshly judging him from the few tv/radio interviews he has given in Pulp). I'm so glad that he does have strong opinions (at least about Pulp and art) as it gives his words real meaning in the book. The more I read, the more I felt it a slight shame that he hadn't done a full memoir as a companion piece to the images but I guess it's hard enough to sell a Pulp scrapbook, let alone yet another Pulp band-member life-story of probably the least well-known person in the group. Mark refers to his diaries a few times in his notes - it'd be cool if he had reproduced actual diary entries of Pulp activity.

The picture of the demos from 1999/2000 is a wonderful tease and as has been discussed elsewhere on the forum, another eye-opener into just how prolific the group were at the time. It's reassuring to know, from Giles' interview, that Mark is still keen on a We Love Life deluxe.

The contributions to the book were fine but didn't add a huge amount in my opinion with Simon Reynolds' part being the most comprehensive. I like Luke Turners writing in The Quietus but I felt that I had read variations of his main angle - outsiderdom and sexuality as a fan of Pulp, many times before. Jarvis' use of ampersand (&) instead of the word "and" alongside his penchant for sentences with brackets, still bugs me! His intro is quite short which was slightly disappointing. As Mark has said, they are not a demonstrative band, so the last few lines from JC about Zig, do feel warm and from the heart.

Between the four books from members (a real shame Candida seems to have no interest in telling her full story) and all the wonderful press interviews that Jarvis gave over the years (particularly early 90s when he could afford to be less guarded), there's a lot of similar experiences from different perspectives covered and it's to each man's credit that they make familiar stories sound fresh from their own memory. Fingers-crossed that Jarvis does another book that covers that fascinating late 80s to early 90s period as a sequel to "Good Pop Bad Pop".

"I'm With Pulp: Are You?" really is a gorgeous book and it's so great to see Mark take centre-stage for once. If you haven't got it, I'd highly recommend. I've seen cheaper prices online recently (got a sealed copy on ebay for £20 last week - couldn't resist, will have it as a back-up in case I give away the first copy I bought). 

SarahAWilson wrote:

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Is it just me and Scott going to the ICA then?

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 And me!

Yeah - in order of faves mine are Mark's/Russ'/Nick's and Jarv. No slight on JC, it's just that I learned a lot more about the others from their books whereas Jarvis has given excellent interview content for decades so there was less novelty in the content of his book (although as a concept, it worked pretty well).

I imagine Giles Acrylic and Ester will be at the ICA - the hardcore element of experience and youth.

I've not got Mark's yet (excited to!) but for now I'd say Nick's is my favourite. So well written, funny, lots of interesting nuggets - it just reveals enough of the behind-the-scenes shenanigans to be intriguing without being indiscrete. The only tiny change I'd make is that while he runs through the other albums track-by-track, with his opinions and information about how they came about, the book doesn't do that with His 'N' Hers, weirdly - a part I'd be especially interested in. But that's a tiny quibble.

All the Pulp books are good, although maybe Russell is a bit too self-indulgent. But we all are at times.