12 EVENT MUSIC Sad goodbye to cool Britannia

JARVIS Cocker is at out of step. I’d been in Pulp already home in his apartment Quirky Jarvis Cocker for 10 years at that point and it had in Paris. always been out of sync with what ‘‘I have been lying reminisces about the was going on in pop music – so it down for the previous was really weird to suddenly think three interviews, but now Britpop era with ‘Wow, this song, it’s its moment, it I’ve got up because I’ve Sally Browne says something about this time’. I decided I want a cup of green can’t say exactly what it said, but it tea,’’ the 40-something singer just seemed appropriate.’’ says in his memorable because I just hate happy songs; He was right. It was a hit, an Yorkshire accent. they depress me,’’ Cocker says now, instant classic, and the album went It’s amazing how this artist, who sipping his green tea. to No. 1. spearheaded the Britpop move- ‘‘The songs of a 46-year-old are Britpop is back in the news again ment with his band Pulp in the different to a 20-year-old in that after mainstays of the scene Blur 1990s, can make something mun- the life experience and the insights got back together and their arch- dane sound quirky and eccentric. that you gain tend to be slightly rivals Oasis split up. It’s his talent. Songs about meet- more depressing,’’ he says, finishing But Cocker, who felt that Pulp ing up with old crushes in the year his sentence with a hearty chuckle. were always outsiders, says the 2000 or taking rich girls to super- ‘‘I guess that’s why pop music is period of cool Britannia wasn’t markets captivated a generation in traditionally supposed to be the much to celebrate. the 1990s. preserve of younger people because ‘‘In a way I think it’s a sad period. Cocker, who grew up in the it’s all about the discovery of things I know that’s a bad thing to say northern English town of Sheffield, – that first flush of youth. because I was involved in it. turned thick-rimmed spectacles, ‘‘I’m not in the first flush of The thing that was exciting was corduroy pants and jackets into a anything, but I still think it’s that the mainstream was taking fashion statement, lyrical witticism important to be questioning things note of indie (independent) music, into an art form, and was never and trying to work out what you but what Britpop ended up being short of a quote for the hungry think about things, and I guess was a half-arsed rehash of the ’60s, British press. To this day, the artist that’s what I’m trying to do.’’ people playing jangly guitar music. is still a thinking-person’s pop star Cocker was hardly in the first So it’s sad that the last major and has hosted documentaries, flush of youth when Pulp became edited radio shows and been inter- cover stars in the 1990s. He had viewed on political program Ques- been recording with Arabacus Pulp, What Britpop tion Time in the UK. as they were initially called, since He has just released his second he was a teenager. ended up being post-Pulp solo album Further Com- He was more than 30 when plications, which has been garner- Pulp’s His ’N’ Hers album became was a half-arsed ing great reviews for its middle- an indie hit, which was then rehash of the ’60s aged wit and wisdom and ‘‘muscu- followed by the mainstream smash lar’’ sound. Different Class. Cocker was last in Australia The single Common People, musical movement in British performing at the V Festival, in a about a rich girl who wants to learn history was a revival. ‘‘That’s the Striking a chord: show that was as much stand-up as about how the other half lives – start of what we’re seeing so much Jarvis Cocker in it was good music, and he returns intimately – was a huge hit that of now. It seems in the UK it’s iconic corduroys for a series of concerts this catapulted Pulp to the forefront of turning into an anniversary culture. December. popular culture. It’s the 40th anniversary of Wood- On Further Complications he has At the time, Cocker knew he had stock or of Sgt. Pepper’s coming out. furthered that sense of humour on an important song on his hands. And the biggest news is that you CHUGG ENTERTAINMENT, VH1 & 4KQ PRESENT songs such as Caucasian Blues and Although Pulp didn’t yet have a full can play Beatles songs on an Xbox. Leftovers, in which he sings about album ready, he felt he had to I’ve not had a go on it, I probably the ‘‘surplus love’’ his ‘‘failing’’ body release the song immediately – that will have a go on it. has to offer. took much wrangling and convinc- ‘‘So although the technology Rather than tales of young love ing of the record company. moves on, the actual content of in the supermarket, Cocker, 46, is ‘‘I was aware that for the first things seems to have stalled. Just at singing about meeting women in time I’d written something that the moment when the ultimate the Museum of Palaeontology with seemed to be for whatever reason high definition (TV) has occurred memorable chat-up lines like: ‘‘I relevant to that particular time that there’s nothing actually worth wanna love you whilst we both still it was written, so I became very looking at.’’ have flesh upon our bones, before convinced that it had to be released If it all sounds too depressing, we both become extinct’’. as soon as possible otherwise it you may as well have a laugh. ‘‘I’ve never really written particu- would miss its moment,’’ he says. Jarvis Cocker performs at the Hi- larly upbeat and carefree words, ‘‘Pulp had always been massively Fi, Brisbane, on December 5.

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Page 12 THE SUNDAY MAIL, event November 15, 2009 thesundaymail.com.au