PULP! Pride of Sheffield.

[Strider]

Hopefully, this will garner a bigger response than my Thelonious Monster thread, of which only one other member(snapper) here appears to be a fan. But, as Pulp is a British band and also achieved much more worldwide renown than Thelonious Monster, maybe the odds are in my favour this time.

There are certain moments in my life that bring me to tears of joy every time I recall them...no matter where I am or what I am doing, if something happens to trigger a memory of that moment, a warm glow spreads through my body, a goofy smile creases my face and the tears flow. Time stops.

One such moment was seeing Pulp at the 1995 Glastonbury Festival.

I had been intrigued by the Glastonbury Festival ever since hearing the Glastonbury Fayre triple-album set in 1972...Grateful Dead, Hawkwind, Pink Fairies, and David Allen & Gong were just some of the freakish delights on that album. Add in the interesting history and significance of the locale of the Festival, and I vowed that if I ever made it to England, one of my goals was to visit Glastonbury.

The Festival wasn't really much in the early days...it wasn't until the 80s that it sort of took off, and became a yearly event. There's a huge gap between 1971 and 1978. When I was stationed in Germany in the early 80s, I had my chance to go, and was able to attend both the 1983 and 1984 Glastonbury Festivals. Until then, most of my experiences with big music festivals were with the California Jams and the US Festival, all of which occured in hot, dusty Ontario, California in cement and dirt environs. A far cry from the lush green expanses of Glastonbury.

So, when 1995 rolled around and it was the 25th Anniversary of the Glastonbury Festival, me and my Anglophile girlfriend at the time decided it would be fun to go to the Fest that year. That whim became mandatory when the lineup was announced and I saw Page & Plant, Jeff Buckley, Portishead, Supergrass, the Cure and Stone Roses were on the bill!

Especially to see all those British bands on British soil had us drooling with anticipation: PJ Harvey, Oasis, Massive Attack, the Verve, Orbital, Elastica, and plenty others were also on the bill.

So it was we found ourselves in Glastonbury that weekend in June, 1995. The Britpop wars were heating up, specifically between Blur and Oasis, but I didn't really care about that. MY FAVOURITE Britpop bands were Suede and the new band Supergrass, whose first amazing single "Caught By the Fuzz" was only just released late-1994. I thought both Blur and Oasis were just okay, and if made to choose, probably liked Blur a little more than Oasis at that point.

Of course, along with Page & Plant, who I had just been blown away by at the LA Forum in May, the big event of the 1995 Glastonbury was supposed to be the return of the Stone Roses...the "Second Coming" is how the British media dubbed it, if I recall.

But John Squire had a mountain-bike mishap, and they had to cancel the gig...and Pulp was brought in as a replacement!

PULP?!? Who the fuck was this band?!? I don't think I had even heard of them...maybe I had heard the song "Babies", but I definitely didn't have any of their records. This was the band chosen not only to replace Stone Roses but HEADLINE a Saturday night slot at Glastonbury!!! My girlfriend, being the Anglophile knew about them, of course, but not to the extent she knew about Oasis or Blur or Suede. I think she only had a couple singles, and the His n Hers album.

Now, make no mistake: Page & Plant, Portishead, the Cure, Supergrass, Jeff Buckley, Oasis, PJ Harvey, Black Crowes, and some others all had their moments at Glastonbury; the Page & Plant, Portishead, and Jeff Buckley sets were AMAZING!

But above all the others, the main memory of the 1995 Glastonbury Festival to me is being simply blown away, steamrolled and FUCKING GOBSMACKED! by PULP and the crowd reaction they generated!!! It was incredible and even now, just typing this, I am getting shivers just thinking about it.

At first, Pulp's set started a little rough, as the people expecting the Stone Roses hurled shit at them...but as the set went on and the band gained confidence, the momentum of the set grew and grew until the entire crowd became this huge seething mass of joy.

Here was a band I had no clue about, and the crowd was reacting as if they were the hugest band in the world...singing along to songs and bouncing and dancing like mad. And I am not just talking about the usual diehards upfront, but the whole bloody field was like a giant pogo-stick. "Babies" was great, but "Common People" literally had us so euphoric it was like having an out-of-body experience. Hell, the song had only just been released and people were singing it by heart already. The "Different Class" album from whence the song came wouldn't be released until that October.

It is literally one of the greatest concert moments of my life...and you know what was even greater about it? It was so unexpected. I mean, I expected Page & Plant to be great, same with Jeff Buckley and the others, whose albums I had and had listened to over and over again, and even might have already seen in concert. But to be razzle-dazzled by a band you had no inkling about...watching Jarvis Cocker on that stage was like watching a STAR being born right before your eyes. After that, it was like Liam WHO? As for the Stone Roses, by that point, nobody missed them.

Oh, and another cool thing about that night? Everyone was watching the action on stage...nobody was texting or holding up cellphones or blackberries.

By the wonders of Youtube, you can see for yourself...here's "Common People" from their Glastonbury 1995 set:

All of which is prologue to the fact that there is a new documentary on the band Pulp, and I saw it last night at Allison Anders' Don't Knock the Rock Festival, and it is extraordinary. It is called "The Beat is the Law-Fanfare for the Common People". Here's the trailer:

What is really cool about it, is that besides being a history of the band(they started all the way back in 1978!!!), it gives you a social-economical background to the whole Sheffield scene, with all the problems with Thatcher-ism and the coal and steel industries; fascinating stuff.

One band I discovered through the documentary that I don't recall hearing in the 80s, was this Sheffield band called Clock DVA, with roots to bands that I do remember like Cabaret Voltaire and Human League. I've got to find their records now. Here's a clip of them doing "4 Hours":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1UTiAanuqXs

[Ady]

Wow. I was there. I have exactly the same opinion about their performance at Glastonbury 1995 as you do. When I saw your thread title it was the first thing that came into to my mind. When I read your post I got the shivers too as I was thinking back to it. It really was incredible, one of those moments I'll never forget.

'Common People' was only released as a single the month before, but it was all over the radio and TV and went to no.2 in the UK singles chart. Everyone in the country must've heard the song. I seem to remember it getting constantly played on pub juke boxes too.

They recently showed Pulp at Glastonbury '95 on BBC FOUR. It was my first viewing of it since the event. It was fun listening to Jarvis Cocker's banter between songs again, I think that was also a big part of why the crowd really warmed to them/him.

Of course, he became even more famous/infamous the following year for upsetting Michael Jackson by invading the stage when he performed at the Brits;

[Strider]

Thanks for the reply Ady...was hoping for more. Come on all you Brits...surely more of you had to have been at Glasto 95? Page & Plant were on the bill...Knebby, you had to have been there, right?

Ady, rhat is great you were there, too! Did you stay the whole 3 days or just one or two? What was the primary reason for going...which bands were the big lure for you? Were you disappointed by the Stone Roses pulling out?

We flew in Thursday night from America and left first thing Monday morning, so I didn't have a lot of time to check out the local radio, so unless it was playing on the taxi ride, I didn't hear Common People before hearing it live at Glasto. Plus, thanks to the lameness of radio in the states, by then I had weened myself off the habit of listening to radio. I brought my own tunes to listen to during the trip.

[Knebby]

Sorry saw you mentioned me - been busy and not seen this thread. Also was not at this Glasto as I was living in Greece - do like Pulp tho and have enjoyed your reviews!

I guess it is always worth remembering what is massive in one country is not necessarily so in another. x

[Ady]

Ady, rhat is great you were there, too! Did you stay the whole 3 days or just one or two?

My friends and I used to get there on Wednesday afternoon and leave on Monday morning. It was good getting there early. There was less traffic, plenty of space to pitch your tent and get organised. In 1995 there was a group of about 30 of us, good times.

What was the primary reason for going...which bands were the big lure for you?

I'd been the year before for the first time and that was enough to make me want to go again no matter who was playing. I'd be lying if said said I wasn't a bit excited about seeing Page & Plant though as I was born a few years too late to have seen Led Zeppelin. I've just looked through the lineup to jog my memory and I can remember watching Sinead O'Connor, Black Crowes, Oasis, Jamiroquai, Orbital, Pulp, Page & Plant and The Cure on the main stage.

Were you disappointed by the Stone Roses pulling out?

I wasn't too fussed. I liked them, but I wasn't a major fan or anything. I probably appreciate them more now than I did then. Also, at the time I didn't know I'd never get another chance to see them again - they split the following year.

We flew in Thursday night from America and left first thing Monday morning, so I didn't have a lot of time to check out the local radio, so unless it was playing on the taxi ride, I didn't hear Common People before hearing it live at Glasto. Plus, thanks to the lameness of radio in the states, by then I had weened myself off the habit of listening to radio. I brought my own tunes to listen to during the trip.

I used to listen to Radio One a lot at work back then. These days it's pretty much unbearable for the most part, so I try and avoid it.

Your enthusiasm for Pulp's performance in '95 reminded me of how good The Levellers were the year before. They headlined on the Friday;

http://youtu.be/0mVvMopn2os

[cocaine nosejob]

Yes Pulp were a great band. Most people seem to like Different Class, which is great of course, but I think This Is Hardcore was their masterpiece. Dark and twisted.

[Strider]

I concur cocaine nosejob(now there's a phrase I never thought I'd write). "Different Class" was great, no doubt...as was His n Hers. But what stamped them as the best of the whole 90s Britpop scene(along with Suede...I should do a Suede thread perhaps?) in my mind was "This Is Hardcore".

"This Is Hardcore" made sure nobody could write Pulp off as one-hit wonders...it was on a whole deeper level than "Different Class", and I remember the shows on that tour being off the charts.

EPIC album cover, too!

Oh yeah, Ady, I remember Jarvis taking the piss on Wacko Jacko at the 1996 Brit Awards...BRILLIANT! I thought and shouted at my tv screen!