Pulp are an English rock band formed in Sheffield in 1978. Their best-known line-up from their heyday (1992–1997) consisted of Jarvis Cocker (vocals, guitar, keyboards), Russell Senior (guitar, violin), Candida Doyle (keyboards), Nick Banks (drums, percussion), Steve Mackey (bass) and Mark Webber (guitar, keyboards).
Throughout the 1980s the band struggled to find success, but gained prominence in the UK in the mid-1990s with the release of the albums His ‘n’ Hers in 1994 and particularly Different Class in 1995, which reached the number one spot in the UK Album Chart. The album spawned four top ten singles, including “Comon People” and “Sorted for E’s & Wizz”, both of which reached number two in the UK Singles Chart.
Pulp’s musical style during this period consisted of disco-influenced pop-rock coupled with references to British culture in their lyrics in the form of a “kitchen drink drama” style. Cocker and the band became reluctant figureheads of the Britpop movement, and were nominated for the Mercury Music Prize in 1994 for His ‘n’ Hers; they won the prize in 1996 for Different Class and were nominated again in 1998 for This is Hardcore. Pulp headlined the Pyramid Stage of the Glastonbury Festival twice and were regarded among the Britpop “big four”, along with Oasis, Blur and Suede.
The band released We Love Life in 2001 and then took a decade-long break, having sold more than 10 million records. Pulp reunited and played live again in 2011, with dates at a number of summer festivals. A number of additional concert dates were afterward added to their schedule. In January 2013, Pulp released “After You”, a song originally demoed for We Love Life, as a digital download single. It was the band’s first single release since “Bad Cover Version” in 2002.
In March 2014, Pulp and filmmaker Florian Habicht premiered the feature documentary Pulp: A Film about Life, Death & Supermarkets at SXSW Festival in Austin, Texas. The film toured the international film festival circuit and was released theatrically by Oscilloscope Laboratories in the US in November 2014. It is the first film about Pulp (and Sheffield) that has been made in collaboration with the band. The band once again went on hiatus following this, but in 2022, Cocker announced that the band would be reuniting for a second time to play a series of shows in 2023.
