It was Disco 2000, played repeatedly on the Radio 1 breakfast show, which I listened to from my parents’ kitchen every weekday as I got myself ready for school... it was like nothing I'd ever heard before, the lyrics and the delivery sounded like they had been extracted from my mind - it was like music made just for me! I have the memory that this was before Different Class had been released, and they were playing it from the album preview just because they thought it was a great tune... I remember being surprised and delighted when - seemingly ages later - it was announced as a single. By that point I'd bought the album (to get that song) and absolutely devoured it. Everyone seemed to be talking about them, about which songs were best, and all that. I caught a repeat of Glastonbury '95 on the radio one night, which I managed to tape most of, and that became my textbook for exploring further back into their catalogue ("oh right, that's where Babies fits in"). I bought everything they released thereafter, though I was slightly put off by the This Is Hardcore album's unfriendly artwork and didn't eyed it suspiciously in the shops until I'd heard enough of the songs on the radio and on TV to convince me that it was still Pulp underneath that weird, impersonal sheen! So
I joined Pulp People, traded tapes and CDs through mail order, trawled record fairs for fresh bootlegs... and only got round to actually seeing them live at Reading 2000, when I got separated from my friend in the mosh and had a slightly scary time. And kept thinking they were about to play Birds In Your Garden (which I'd heard on the Flux and Garage bootlegs), which they didn't. Second time was best: Guildford 2001, a lovely atmosphere, and a happy band.