Jarvis back in cracking form

If anybody was to write The Life and Times of Jarvis Cocker it would make interesting, if idio­syncratic, reading.

The Pulp singer has entered the realms of local legend, and even though he has not lived in Sheffield for nigh on three years, most people connected with the music scene around here have at least one tale to tell.

After all, this is the man who, while still at school, used to have entire buses full of people chanting his name, was the subject of a graffiti campaign, has performed live from a wheelchair after tumbling from a window (impersonating Spiderman apparently), claims to have once stayed at the same campsite as Gilbert O'Sullivan's brother, and was seen by yours truly at a party in London. Sitting on top of a dungheap.

Add that to his dress sense, donning what other people dare not wear, and it's clear to see that the man is a born star. It's just that the rest of the world hasn't realised yet.

This may have something to do with Pulp's low profile over the last few years, after Jarvis decided to give up on music and go to college down south, where he has been studying film and making videos for a couple of other acts.

STICKING

This must have brought back his enthusiasm, as, after a low-key concert around Christmas, they have returned to support World of Twist at the Leadmill tonight.

With Jarvis, bassist Steve Mackie and drummer Nick Banks living in London, keyboardist Candida Doyle in Manchester and only guitarist Russell Senior sticking around his home town, it's difficult for them to get anything together. But they've managed not only to get a set together but recorded an album, unsur­prisingly to be titled Separations.

The first fruits of their labour, a mere four years after the last new Pulp release is the My Legendary Girlfriend single out on Monday. The wait was worth it.

It's a cracker, and a good sign for their future develop­ments, assuming their future separations don't last too long. They will be on stage at around 9.30 tonight, and the show is apparently being filmed by Granada television for one of their late night shows.

"Getting in touch with the spirit of Barry White is the thing," says Jarvis of PULP as his Florida Spring Vegetable soup simmers obediently. "Because as you know, he is quite spiritual. So if you tune in to his wavelength, it's possible to get that sound, even without the Love Unlimited Orchestra."

Pulp have returned after some years' mysterious silence with a single which reminds us why many once hailed the Sheffield group as "the best band in the otherworld." "My Legendary Girlfriend" pulsates with not only the spirit of the great Barry but also echoes of Iggy Pop, Human League, and any great existential profundity you care to raise. It really is a bit of a corker. A big bit.

"What do I admire about Barry White? His personal approach. The way he always has the hi-hat 25 times louder than anything else. The way he can say lines like, 'Take off that brassiere, my dear' - I'd sound stupid if I said that, but then so would he if he came from Sheffield. Did you know he used to be a catburglar, like his brother who is currently in prison, but he was so fat he got caught in a window and so turned to singing?"

Jarvis has been making films and videos because "music gets on your nerves if you do it too much. Overall, though, I prefer music because there's more chance of meeting nice girls. More opportunity to show off handling a microphone. I live in hope, anyway".

"My Legendary Girlfriend" doesn't actually exist, but perhaps that's the whole point. "She's a legend in my mind. All our songs are about mundane everyday things that assume the status of high art in your own life. I used to get too precious about our records and think they'd alter people's lives; I'd try too hard. Now I've mellowed, I'm simmering down, just like this soup. Making records is like bricklaying, and if people are impressionable that's up to them."

An album, "Separations", will follow, and Pulp play their first London gigs in simply ages later this month (without the infamous wheelchair prop), It's a "show full of showstoppers".

"Sometimes," Jarvis muses, "you do go round in the middle of the night, hope she's in, throw stones up at the window. And sometimes she's annoyed with you for being noisy. But sometimes you can persuade her to come out and you can have a little adventure.

"It's not like I sit around pondering modern existence. Making soup is as profound as anything else. When you're having a drink in a bar and someone says, 'What's it all about?', that's too much, that's too vague. If they ask you something more specific, like, 'What's your opinion on the new Vauxhall Nova?', then fine..."
What's your opinion on the new Vauxhalt Nova?

"Pulp are light and shade, a dog snapping off its lead for a bit and running around then getting caught again. I can hear a train going past."

CHRIS ROBERTS

Rock & Pop Pre-view

The prodigal and prodigious Pulp return to their hometown of Sheffield on Saturday promising to be as weird and wonderful as always. To the uninitiated, Pulp have been lurking for over a decade as the creation of gangling pop eccentric Jarvis Cocker. During the 80s they had a sporadic series of critically acclaimed singles but a disap­pointing album 'It'.

Their current 45 'My Legendary Girlfriend' (Fire) tantalises, simmering and spars for the length of a run of the mill single before Jarvis b[r]eaks into song from his deep-throated narra­tive. Pulp have a compelling groovy, melodic sound of their own which helps mask the despair­ing and satirical lyrics. Their songs of love cut deep against the grain, too deep perhaps for the charts (their only escape route from the asylum?).

'Countdown' is to follow before the appear­ance of an LP 'Separations'. Their live show is the bee's knees though. The crimplene clad Cocker twitches and tweaks around the stage show theatrics, one minute Ian Curtis, the next Marc Almond. The inimitable Pulp are at The Leadmill, Sheffield on 25th May.