“Common People” had its live premiere at the Reading Festival on 27 August 1994 & it was clear from the outset that this song was something special. With the legendary Chris Thomas as producer, we worked together to create a huge wall of sound. Everyone got so excited about the track that we wanted to release it as soon as possible - even though we hadn’t really started working on the rest of “Different Class”, which we knew wouldn’t be ready until much later in the year. Sometimes it feels so right that you just have to do get on and do it.

The single was teased by a series of “You can’t buy …” billboards and adverts in the music press & then it crashed into the charts at No. 2. (Sadly kept from the top spot by a couple of crooning actors.) Suddenly Pulp were everywhere, all over the radio and daytime television. And then we went to Glastonbury … It was an exhilarating time & another new beginning for the band.

So it might seem strange to have these older songs as b-sides, but the truth is that at the time we weren’t exactly prepared for the relatively new (rip-off) concept of releasing CD1 & CD2 versions of a single. We just didn’t have anything else ready. After searching through tapes we settled on these three tracks that had been recorded live in the GLR Radio studios on 22 March 1994 for the Pete Aherne Show. They’d previously been released in France on a limited edition CD single of “Do You Remember the First Time” & we thought we should make them more widely available.

Now, can you still do the “Common People” dance?