28.11.98 Select Magazine vote 'Hardcore' 2nd best album of 1998
[Select: Jan 1999] This Is Hardcore makes it to number two in their end of
year album poll, with the top spot being taken by Air with 'Moon Safari'.
"Their follow up to 'Different Class' may have fallen short commercially,
but 'This Is Hardcore' saw Pulp shift up a gear in urgency, gravitas and
adulthood, as Jarvis decorated the band's boldly modernist tunes with his
post-Britpop worries, which were indeed very worrying: death, porn... and
dare we mention the drugs?"
In addition, the 'This Is Hardcore' single makes number 10 in their end of
year single poll. "Amsterdam met Berlin in this sonically brilliant
suite that featured Jarv's finest vocal and saw porn figuring for fame,
self-disgust, indeed, the whole desperate messiness of modern life. In
other words: this year's 'Paranoid Android'. Too darkly desolate to
achieve 'Common People'-style acceptance, its stature nonetheless grew
assuredly through the year." In the same chart, 'A Little Soul'
gained a second appearance for Pulp at a respectable 18.
28.11.98 Millennium Drone
[Select: Jan 1999] TV and Radio companies have been instructed not to use
Disco 2000 for trailers or items, and it has been absolutely banned from
use in adverts until 31 January 2000. According to Pulp's publicists,
"They've removed the synchronisation licence for it, which means it can't
be used for trailing television programmes. Presumably Pulp want to use it
in their own way."
16.11.98 Pulp UK tour starts tonight
[The Net, Radio 1] Pulp played a number of big outdoor shows during the
summer but Jarvis says he more anxious about these gigs, "It'll be
interesting because it's the first time we've done a tour for a little bit
over 2 years in this country - I have to admit that I'm slightly nervous
but for some reason because it's your own country you've got more
capacity to embarrass yourself. It was quite funny because Russell left our
band, obviously we had to get somebody to help us out playing some of his
stuff, so it forced us to go back through all the songs we'd written and
listen to some that were 15 years old, and some of them were really
horrendous but some of them were really good so we'll probably will end up
playing things that we've not played for almost 10 years."
28.10.98 Jarvis teams up with Tony Christie
[NME.com] Jarvis has been writing lyrics for '70s singer Tony Christie.
One song, entitled 'Walk Like A Panther', will be released as a single
early next year. Christie filmed the video for the single last week at a
fish and meat market in Christie's and Cocker's hometown of Sheffield. A
spokesman for Jarvis said that the music for the single had been written
by Parrot from The All Seeing I. He explained that Parrot - also from
Sheffield - and Cocker had been good friends for years. The All Seeing Eye
I remixed Pulp's last single 'Party Hard'. Parrot is writing tracks for
Christie's comeback album and invited Jarvis to write lyrics for a couple of the
songs. Pulp are also considering an offer from the BBC to put together a
themed evening of television. If the band agree, Pulp Night will be
included as one of BBC2's weekend theme nights.
14.09.98 Pulp write news songs in the countryside
Appearing on the Radio 1 Jo Whiley show, Jarvis said that the band would
hopefully play some new material in their upcoming UK tour this
November. "We went to Wales the other day to get it together in the
country which we've never tried before. The acoustic guitar was straight
on and then one of the songs was about trees, well it mentioned trees."
Meanwhile, Mark told Pulp People that they stayed in Monnow valley Studios
in Rockfield and came up with three new songs, two of which were still in
parts, and one really good one written by Richard Hawley.
15.06.98 Win a Different Class framed triple platinum disc!
It's being raffled off to raise funds for the Cub group that Jarvis
attended as a ikkle kid. If you write to Akela below with some hard cash
(£1 per ticket) along with an SAE, then all you'll have to do is
wait until October 10th 1998 to see if you've won...good luck!
Cheques & Postal orders should be made payable to '270th Intake Scout
Group'
Irene Perceval
270th Intake Scout Group
PO Box 1353
Sheffield
S12 2YW
England
13.06.98 Pulp & Radiohead play secret gig
[NME 17 June] Due to a lightning strike at the RFK stadium, the Tibetan
Freedom Festival was cancelled half way through the Saturday line up.
Later that night, Radiohead played a secret gig at the city's 9:30 club,
where they were supported by Pulp who performed, 'She's Dead', 'Help The
Aged' and 'I'm A Man'. Mark Webber: "We were just sat in the lobby of the
hotel and we'd heard a rumour that Radiohead were thinking about a gig at
the 9:30 club which is where we played last time we were here, so we just
cheerily asked them if they wanted a support band and it all came
together."
01.06.98 Pulp on TV and Radio
In addition to the performances on 'Nulle Part Ailleurs' on April
1st (Dishes / This Is Hardcore) and on 'Later with Jools Holland' on May
1st (The Fear / Dishes / This Is Hardcore), Pulp will be playing their new
single 'A Little Soul' on TFI Friday on 5th June. Jarvis also appears on
the Jo Whiley TV Show on Wednesday 3rd June, and will also be
appearing on her radio show 'The Social' on Friday 12th June on Radio
1.
Radio 1 are also planning to broadcast the entire Pulp set at Glastonbury
(Sunday 28th June). The broadcast is from 9pm to 11pm. TV highlights of
the last day at Glastonbury start at 11:15pm on BBC2. MTV also have plans
to broadcast the Pulp in the Park Show from Finsbury on July 25th. Also
listen out on Radio 1 for highlights of the Pulp set at the T-in the Park
Festival. The broadcast starts at 9pm on Sunday 14th July.
26.05.98 Cocaine Socialism
[NME.com] Pulp have launched an attack on Britain's Labour Government in
the lyrics to track included on their next single 'Cocaine Socialism', a
track on the B-side of the 'A Little Soul' single. Pulp bassist Steve
Mackey says the song was written by Jarvis after the Labour Party tracked
the singer down while he was on holiday in New York last year and asked
him to support them in their election campaign. Jarvis apparently told the
party representative to "piss off". After reading the full transcript,
Labour press representative, Julie Crowley says: "I don't even understand
half of it, to be honest. It's up to people whether or not they
support the Labour Party. He's entitled to his views."
Jarvis is currently in South America filming a Channel 4 documentary and
was unavailable for comment. However, talking to NME recently about his
decision to shun the Labour invite, he commented: "I've always voted
Labour, but I wasn't prepared to use my position in that way. It's not
appropriate, in the same way that it's not appropriate for Tony Blair to
give awards at the Brits and stuff like that. To me it just stinks of,
'Come on kids, I'm hip'."
26.03.98 Live Dates Announced
Pulp People reveal the latest concert and summer festival details:
JUNE
09 USA, Boston, Paradise
10 USA, Toronto, Massey Hall
14 USA, Washington DC, Tibetam Freedom Festival, RFK Stadium
16 USA, New York, Hammerstein Ballroom
20 Germany, Rockpalast
21 Germany, Hurricane
26 Switzerland, St Gallen
27 Denmark, Roskilde
28 England, Glastonbury
JULY
01 Portugal, Imperial
03 Belgium, Torhut
04 Belgium, Werchter
05 France, Les Eurokeennes
10 Spain, Dr. Music
11 Ireland, Galway Big Day Out
12 Scotland, T-in-the-Park
16 Greece, Rockwave
19 Austria, Forest Glade
23 Sweden, Stockholm, Skansen
25 England, London, Finsbury Park: 'Pulp In The Park'
Consult the Gigography for more live dates in
'98
20.03.98 Hear the new songs!
Radio 1 will be playing new Pulp songs from 'Hardcore' this weekend. On
Sunday night, the 2 part Pulp documentary will conclude by looking at Pulp
post Glastonbury 1995, and the band will be talking about their new
material. New tracks are also going to be played on the Radio 1 breakfast
show the following morning (23/03/98).
03.03.98 Pulp head into 'hardcore' movie territory.
[NME.com] PULP are filming an hour-long movie to accompany the
release of their new album, 'This Is Hardcore'. The band are working with
a number of UK-and US-based visual artists and directors on the project.
The first confirmed collaborator is London artist Tracey Emin. The film is
described by Pulp singer Jarvis Cocker as a random patchwork of
collaborations and will include five songs from the album including the
promo video for the single 'This Is Hardcore'. The band are currently
finalising a deal with Channel 4 for a spring broadcast. Pulp's bassist
Steve Mackey told NME: "The central concept of it is the idea of
'hardcore', the nitty-gritty of your life and personal issues that really
affect you. We asked a lot of people a lot of questions while
we were making it, mainly sexual things. What we've said to them is we're
going to edit it together, show it to them and see if they like their
contribution before we use it. A lot of people did it in quite good
faith." [Note: this documentary was never broadcast, but was subsequently included on the Pulp Hits DVD released in December 2002. See the Videos Page for more details].
Meanwhile, Jarvis Cocker has additionally been commissioned by Channel 4
to work on three one-hour documentary programmes about "outsider artists."
Jarvis revealed to NME: "The documentaries are about people who never
went to art college and haven't got any knowledge of art history, and also
who usually live outside society as well. Filming for the TV shows begins
in April with broadcast expected early next year.
02.02.98 'Hardcore' details announced:
The new Pulp album is due to be released in the UK and America on March
30th, two weeks after the planned UK release of the new single 'This Is
Hardcore'. An earlier release of the album is expected in Japan.
Tracklist: The Fear / Dishes / Party Hard / Help The Aged / This Is
Hardcore / TV Movie / A little Soul / I'm A Man / Seductive Barry / Sylvia
/ Glory Days / The Day After The Revolution.
13.01.98 David Arnold speaks about 'All Time High'
[Music Maker, January '98] "I don't think Jarvis was particularly
interested in doing it as Jarvis Cocker; he wanted it to be a Pulp thing.
They more than anybody else, had a definite idea of what they wanted the
song to be. I ended up playing some guitar and piano on it and obviously
did the arrangement, my brother played drums, but Jarvis played guitar and
Steve Mackie played bass. This track took the longest to produce, because
I'd have Jarvis in the studio for a day, then we wouldn't see him for five
weeks. It felt like it took a long time..."
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