Introduction

Jarvis Cocker (born Jarvis Branson Cocker on 19th September 1963) is the founder, frontman, lyricist, and only consistent member of the band Pulp. He is also known as a radio presenter. Cocker emerged as a key figure in the Britpop genre of the mid-1990s. Beyond his work with Pulp, he pursued a solo career and hosted "Jarvis Cocker's Sunday Service" on BBC Radio 6 Music for seven years. He has made appearances in movies and the press and is a vocal activist for causes such as Scotland and Palestine.

Early Life

Cocker was born in the Intake area of Sheffield, where he spent the first 18 years of his life. He attended City School, where his teachers described him as eccentric but excellent. He has an older sister, Saskia, and both were raised by their mother, Christine Connolly, near their grandparents, who owned a DIY shop where Christine worked. Their father, Mac Cocker, a DJ and actor, left the family and moved to Sydney in 1970, cutting contact until Jarvis was in his thirties.

Jarvis developed an early interest in music thanks to his grandparents. In an interview, he stated, “They [grandparents] also had a music centre, with a cassette player and a radio, which seemed very posh. Sometimes I would go round there in the daytime, if nobody was around, and try and listen to records. There were three Beatles albums, and a Santana greatest hits album, and that was it. The rest of it was, they had Blood, Sweat and Tears. And Focus, kind of a Dutch progressive rock group with flutes...” During his teenage years, he spent hours writing songs and recording himself with a guitar and a small amplifier, which his mother referred to as his ‘plinky-plonking.’ He was heavily influenced by The Velvet Underground, Lou Reed, Alan Vega, Pierre Henry & Michel Colombier, and John Peel’s radio shows. Moreover, the punk era gave Jarvis the confidence that it was alright to be a bit different.

The time he spent in Sheffield deeply influenced many of his lyrics and songs. In a 2011 interview, he said, “It was only when I moved away to London years later that I realised the normal things I’d experienced in Sheffield weren’t actually normal at all – they were interesting and I wanted to write about them because I was scared of forgetting where I’d come from. I think that most of my work comes from memory. I very rarely write about something while it's actually happening. I don't know if that's a failing or not. A lot of times I tend to write about stuff when I really feel like I'm in danger of forgetting about it. Like when I moved to London from Sheffield, I wrote about Sheffield all the time because I was suddenly living in a new environment and I thought, I'll forget about everything. I suppose also I suddenly had a perspective on that place, because before I hadn't known any different”.

Jarvis depicted himself as the opposite of a “carefree” adolescent; “ I wouldn't go out with me if I were you”, he said in a 1987 interview. He eventually left the household at 18, booted out by his mother, but he never blamed her, believing she made the right choice to help him become someone.

Career:

Arabicus Pulp:

At the age of 15, in November 1978, Cocker founded his first band, Arabicus Pulp, while still a pupil at City School. He always wanted to be in a band, mentioning, “I used to walk around school imagining [I] was in one.” The name Arabicus Pulp came from a commodity he learned about in an economics class. Jarvis explained in an interview, “I think we were in an economics class in school, and the teacher was trying to tell us about stocks and shares, and it was a commodity. I think it was something to do with coffee. I think you get Arabica beans or something. And I thought that sounded good. But then the Arabicus bit was a bit too stupid, so we got rid of that. But then Pulp's never been a good name, really…”
The first rehearsals were held at Jarvis’s house with friends Peter Dalton on guitar, Mark Swift on drums, and David “Fungus” Lockwood on bass. Lockwood was eventually evicted from the band for playing faster than the others to finish practices early. The band practised in the living room when Jarvis’s mother went out on Fridays. Rehearsals were often messy and accompanied by alcohol. His grandparents later allowed him to use an old garage for proper practice sessions, attracting locals who came to listen.
Arabicus Pulp's first impromptu gig occurred in the school cafeteria, where students paid a nominal fee. Their first official gig was at Rotherham Art Centre on July 5th, 1980. Jarvis succeeded in gaining local attention by giving a demo tape to John Peel, a renowned English radio presenter. A few weeks later, a producer contacted Jarvis for proper sessions, which took place on November 17th, 1981. Jarvis described this as “exciting because [they] had to borrow proper equipment.” This session convinced him he was “heading for stardom.”

“It” era:

In 1982, the band struggled with member turnover, prompting Jarvis to recruit new members and persuade his friends to stay. This chaotic period led to the release of "It" in April 1983, a mini-album created with keyboard player Simon Hinkler in a broken-down studio with a single microphone. According to Jarvis, “The LP was inspired by Leonard Cohen, with acoustic instruments and quiet female backing vocals. There were loads of people in it.” Though the album was well-received, it wasn’t a breakthrough.Jarvis was disappointed; other bands ( ex:Tracy Thorne and the Marine Girls) that were doing similar music got an early career, but not him. A subsequent single, “My Lighthouse,” also went unnoticed.
Red Rhino, their record label, requested another single release in September 1983.and according to Cocker, “that’s where things got bad”. His producer, Tony Perrin, asked Jarvis to write “commercial songs like Wham”; which led to the creation of “Everybody’s problem”. Jarvis considered it a grave error, messing up all the vocals and words. The single's failure prevented further momentum, resulting in a lack of interest from the public.
Despite these unfortunate events, Jarvis met during this period one of the most consistent members of Pulp, Russel Senior. Cocker also recruited a new drummer, Magnus Doyle, declaring that “a new incarnation of Pulp was born”. The new lineup also included Magnus’ sister, keyboard player Candida Doyle as well as Peter Boam on bass.
Experimental phase:
At the beginning of 1984, Jarvis music was tainted by a very experimental and psychedelic atmosphere. His music was sometimes accompanying plays written by Russel, that were performed as support to other groups; and badly received, as people just used to walk out of chuck things at the band.

Eventually, Jarvis wrote and released two singles by 1985 and 1986 under the Fire Record label: Little Girl (with Blue Eyes) and Dogs are Everywhere. Cocker deeply hated the label due to its head Cliff Soleman and his authoritarian and insensitive behaviours. He mentioned “the only thing I can say for them is that they gave us money to record”.

According to Jarvis, Little Girl (with Blue Eyes) deals with the pregnancy of a young girl; the singer said being inspired by his mother, who had to stop her studies in order to raise him and his sister. The song got banned because of the lyrics, but the rare reviews it got were positive. Three days after the release of the single, Jarvis fell out of a window while trying to impress a girl by imitating SuperMan. He had to use a wheelchair on stage for a few months, and despite being ridiculed in the newspaper, Little Girl (with Blue Eyes) got some attention from it: “ I thought it was a door / I was exorcising a demon / Did it for a bet, depending who he's telling”.
Jarvis wrote Dogs are Everywhere inspired by a night after one of the band’s gigs in Chesterfield. Magnus Doyle and Pete Boam were getting drunk and stoned, which upset Jarvis and Russell “[We] were puritanical and thought that was terrible”. Jarvis concluded “that’s what Dogs are Everywhere is about - people who display a doggish attitude”. It got single of the week in Melody Maker.

Freaks:

Cocker wasn’t bearing the way the Fire Record were treating the band, and decided to leave the label for the Fon Record in 1986. Later in the year, in June, Pulp released another album: Freaks. The themes explored were way much darker, as Jarvis explained: “This was the low point, emotionally, of my life. It’s such a depressing album”. Moreover, Jarvis' opinion on “It” explains this drastic change: "it was a very innocent and naive, trusting love and romance. I suppose I'm a bit more realistic now". All the tracks were recorded under one week and with only £600. The producer “disowned” the album, asking for his name to not appear on it! The reviews were mixed, mostly negative; which heavily impacted Cocker. He was said in interviews as “maintaining a slightly resigned blank faced jocularity but keeps his speech prosaically direct, miles away from the contrivance that Pulp's press might lead you to expect of this 23-year-old”.

According to Jarvis, the name came from his situationship: he has been out of school for 4 consecutive years, living like a marginal and without success. "I didn't have any money and there wasn't much coming in from the band so I was selling off my belongings. I distinctly remember tromping around Sheffield with a yellow portable washing machine, trying to sell it to get the money for some food". He slept in a disaffected factory building; and albeit doing worthwhile music, nobody was interested. Even worse, people criticised his performances and physical appearance “everybody dwells on the fact that I'm thin with specs”.

In addition, tensions were arising among the band members; Jarvis and Russel were quite puritanical, and often fighted with Pete and Magnus, who eventually left the band.

Separations:

By 1988, Jarvis left Sheffield for London, where he studied cinema at the Central School of Art and Design or St Martin’s School of Art; he was tutored by Vera Neubauer and Malcolm Le Grice. He distracted himself from fantasies of fame by moving to London to do a film course at St. Martin's College of Art and "by the normal drugs and alcohol"; Jarvis really thought the band wouldn’t survive from it. Jarvis told his first impression of London as a “dead city”, owned by ancient rock stars that became vegetables by their lack of adaptations, totally hermetic to his ambitions. Jarvis came back to the Fire Record label, and signed for an album deal. Their new album, Separations, was finished by Christmas 1989, but Fire only released it in June 1992. Earlier, in 1991, Jarvis graduated from St Martin’s. Jarvis said that Separations was heavily inspired by the theme of space exploration; he was fascinated by it from a very young age, especially because he got to see Neil Armstrong's first step on the Moon.

The years were especially harsh for Jarvis, who was holding on as he can on this teenage dream. He said it was his “fallow” period, where he was ready to chop his little finger off for £5000.

The breakthrough:

At the same period of “Separation”, Pulp released the single My Legendary Girlfriend, which had been a NME single of the week. Jarvis started to feel a bit more hopeful for the future: “It's probably a combination of the mood of the times changing and us getting better”. As the frontman of the band, Jarvis brought lots of attention to it, mainly by his sense of fashion, which was heavily noticed in the press.
Through the next year, on their own Gift label, Pulp put out single after single that swelled their growing band of admirers; 'Razzmatazz', 'OU', 'Babies'. For Jarvis, however, 1992 was a frustrating year. "We were still trapped in this legal minefield with Fire. So, there was a lot of labels courting us and it is like courting. It's the nearest a bloke gets to being chatted up, getting taken out to dinner and stuff - but we couldn't do anything about it. All these people suddenly taking notice."
Still in the early 1990’s, Cocker flew to France where he wrote new songs for the next Pulp album; at the same time, he also shot music videos for Aphex Twin and other bands. By 1994, Pulp signed to Island Record label and released what they see as their first proper album, His ‘n’ Hers. Jarvis declared that he would probably have had a nervous breakdown if this album wasn’t a success "I've given rock 'n' roll the best years of my life”. Pulp effortlessly transcended the Seventies glam fixation intact. Cocker felt things might be changing: "Doing this album means we can kiss goodbye to a period of our lives.” Jarvis moved out of his council house in Camberwell to Ladbroke Grove at the same time of His ‘n’ Hers release. The said album was the real breakthrough for the band, reaching number nine on UK top charts. Moreover, Jarvis' talents for cinematography allowed songs like “Do you Remember the First Time?” to get memorable clips.

When playing during the 1994 Reading Festival, Pulp decided to play the in-work version of a new trade entitled “Common People”. Jarvis hasn't decided on the final version of the lyrics yet, messing up all the words. And still, this track gave Pulp a household name, no matter how simple the creation of the song actually was; originally made by Jarvis, it only contains three chords, and deals with the social fracture between London and Sheffield’s lifestyles: “In London I get that when I go out of the house, "Oh you're living with the common people, Jarvis," and stuff like that. The point of that song, being called common in Sheffield where I come from, is an insult. People who chew chewing gum with their mouths open or whatever”, said Jarvis about the song. The idea of writing a song called "Common People" was a joke for Jarvis, because of its negative connotations; the lady of the tracks doesn’t realise how she ridiculed herself by wanting to live “with the common people”. The song is based on a real-life experience of Jarvis; during his studies at St Martin’s, he was implicated in a “crossover”, a two weeks period where he had to study another discipline. He chose architecture, and met a posh girl in a bar. She was also involved in the architecture crossover, and told him about her future, how she wanted to live in Hackney, in the grimier part of London, with the “common people”.

In addition, Cocker wanted to denounce through “Common People” the britpop bands in-vogue, like Blur, that used a mockney accent, romanticise the images of dogs or feeding pigeons, even though they were middle class and never lived a hard life as Jarvis actually did.

Common People:

By the time “Common People” was released as a single, in 1995, Pulp was already a 17 years old band that only started to gain fame. Cocker was an elderly figure of the movement, being already 32 years old. Later that year, in October 1995, Pulp released the album “Different Class”, the most famous and successful of the band. At its release, Jarvis was extremely proud, saying that this album contains all songs he loved writing, and none of them had a “commercial dimension” to his eyes.

Cocker, as Pulp's frontman, became a real figure of glamour in the United Kingdom. Most of his songs dealt with sex, and the singer was talking very frankly and calmly about these personal subjects. Part of his trademark image remains his glasses, which seemed to "stay magically on his face" no matter what antics he performed. He revealed that this feat was achieved using "a huge rubber band round the back" of his glasses.
Cocker became renowned for his wit and observations of the cultural scene. He was a frequent guest on TV shows in the 1990s, and hosted an art series for Channel 4 “Journeys into the Outside”. In the series, he took a trip across the globe, meeting so-called "outsider artists", people who create wacky and wonderful works of art, trying to understand what compelled them to do so. Cocker's penchant for TV appearances was reflected in a parody of "Common People" ("Showbiz People") which was featured on the satirical comedy show Spitting image in 1996.
Jarvis Cocker and Michael Jackson’s incident:
During the 1996 Brit Awards,Jarvis invaded the stage while Michael Jackson was performing his hit "Earth Song",surrounded by children and a rabbi. Cocker decided to show his bottom to the camera, as a protest against Jackson and his USA hegemony; Cocker judged the performance ridiculously biblical. He was detained and interviewed by the police on suspicion of assault for two days, but Jackson’s lawyers couldn’t find real reasons to accuse Jarvis. He was accompanied by the comedian Bob Mortimer, who was attending the Brit Awards; Mortimer is a former solicitor and represented him in that capacity. Cocker was released without charge.
Cocker's actions created waves among the britpop world and the opinions were mixed. Damon Albarn, frontman of Blur, didn’t approve of Cocker's actions, saying to have found them "really disturbing". On the other hand, Oasis declared in the press that Cocker should be knighted, awarded an MBE, and Noel Gallagher said that "Jarvis Cocker is a star". The event remains remembered as "mooning Jackson".