Click here to see more of the artwork
Details
- Release date: 9 March 1998
- Label: Island
- Format: CD (2 versions), cassette
- Recorded: March 1997 - January 1998 (Olympic Studios, London & The Town House, London)
- Chart position: 12 (UK)
Credits
- Designed by: Howard Wakefield and Paul Hetherington at the Apartment
- Art direction: John Currin and Peter Saville
- Photography: Horst Diekgerdes
Releases
|
Date |
Formats and catalogue numbers |
Notes |
|---|---|---|
|
9 March 1998 |
CD1 - CID695 CD2 - CIDX695 Cassette - CIS695 |
Original UK release. CD1:
CD2:
Cassette:
|
|
11 August 2023 |
Streaming and digital download |
Newly uploaded to streaming services as "This Is Hardcore EP", with a scan of the CD1 artwork; the ninth of a series of Island Records-era EPs reissued to coincide with the 2023 tour. Tracklisting:
|
Notes
The 2023 digital EP labels the End of the Line remix as "Single Version", to differentiate it from the shorter version included on This Is Hardcore's Deluxe Edition. It credits the Swedish Erotica Remix to "Swedish Erotica" rather than Tipsy.
Sleeve notes
Taking it all the way down the marrowbone. Hold tight.
Now is the time of the quickening. By the way - that goes in there.
Commentary
The release of the digital EP in 2023 was heralded by the following commentary from Pulp's social media accounts, believed to have been written by Mark Webber:
“Taking it all the way down the marrowbone. Hold tight.”
If any song exemplifyies the ambition and majesty of Pulp in the late 1990s, it is “This is Hardcore”. Maybe it wasn’t the best commercial decision to release a 6 1/2 minute long single 3 weeks before your new album, but it felt like the right thing to do at the time & after all these years it still sounds extraordinary and unique.
The song is propelled by a loop created from “Bolero on the Moon Rocks” by the Peter Thomas Sound Orchestra (originally recorded for the soundtrack to the German TV sci-fi series “Raumpatrouille”). It was the first, but not last, time that Pulp based a song on a loop that sampled the work of another artist.
Mark has always played the lead piano part at concerts but in the studio, just about everyone had a go at it without being able to get it right - Jarvis, Mark, Candida, producer Chris Thomas - and in the end we had to call in @anne.j_dudley to play it. Anne’s sweeping string arrangement also took the song to another level. (The outro can be heard in isolation on the “End of the Line Remix” that was recently embellished on the 2023 tour by @elysiancollectivemusic.)
Two tracks based on demos that didn’t make the cut for the LP sessions, plus not 1, 2, 3, but 4 remixes of “This is Hardcore” filled out the two original CD single releases and now appear on streaming services for the first time.
The video (now available on YouTube in Kids and Adults versions) was directed by Doug Nichol and filmed on a grand scale at Pinewood Studios. It was inspired by classic Hollywood melodrama & Busby Berkeley dance sequences, with many scenes based on images from the wonderful book “Still Life” by @diane_keaton and Marvin Heiferman.
“Now is the time of the quickening.”
Promotional video
Details here.
Charts and sales
UK Singles Chart
|
Week |
Date |
Position |
|---|---|---|
|
1 |
28 March '98 |
12 |
|
2 |
4 April '98 |
31 |
|
3 |
11 April '98 |
50 |
|
4 |
18 April '98 |
72 |