Trivia / Pulp

• Breakthrough Hit: Their fourth album His N' Hers really got them noticed. Singles-wise, it was "Common People".
• Creator Backlash:
  • Jarvis is not proud of the band's first two albums It and Freaks, and is mixed about Separations, describing it as 'patchy' but overall being more positive about it than it's predecessors, saying 'at least it's got "My Legendary Girlfriend" on it'.
  • Perhaps the most infamous song from Pulp's back catalogue is the B-side to the 1987 single "Master of the Universe", called "Silence". The song features Jarvis Cocker wailing and crying amidst the sound of a droning organ, and is widely regarded as the worst song ever released by Pulp. When Fire Records re-released the band's singles from the label on the "Masters of the Universe" compilation in 1994, it was the only song left off the compilation, having been removed at the request of Jarvis.
• Creator Breakdown:
  • Jarvis, after Different Class. This Is Hardcore is the result.
  • Freaks, released eight years before This Is Hardcore, can also be considered this.
• Cut Song: In 1994, the band wrote the song "We Can Dance Again" which they then played at their Christmas show that year, to highly positive reception from the audience. During the sessions for Different Class, a demo was recorded, and the band thought it would be their next big hit after "Babies". However, the song was left off the album for unknown reasons, and fans believe that if it had been released on the album or as a single, it would have been one of the band's bigger hits. The demo was eventually released on the deluxe reissue of Different Class in 2006.
• Executive Meddling:
  • Separations was recorded in 1989, but Pulp's record label at the time, Fire Records, refused to release it until 1992, at which point Pulp had already left Fire, releasing several singles on Gift Records and were at the time negotiating a deal with Island Records. It seems like Separations was only released by Fire in order to capitalize on the increasing acclaim Pulp were receiving. Fire also released cash-in Pulp compilations throughout The '90s after Pulp got big, which implies they'd realised how good the band were a little too late, after spending almost a decade doing very little to help them, such as only providing meagre budgets for albums and music videos. Jarvis has frequently criticised Fire, saying that being on the label almost led to Pulp breaking up.
  • A much more minor example: "Pink Glove" was to initially be the fourth and final single from His 'N' Hers, however Island Records instead preferred to re-release "Babies" as part of The Sisters EP.
• No Budget: Freaks was recorded on a budget of £600.
• Promoted Fanboy:
  • Mark Webber was the president of the band's fan club before becoming their guitarist in 1995.
  • Jarvis was a big fan of Scott Walker before Scott produced We Love Life. The two became good friends until Walker's death in 2019.
• What Could Have Been:
  • The song "Pink Glove" from His 'N' Hers was initially planned to be the fourth single from the album, however Island records wanted a re-release of the earlier track "Babies", which was initially released as a single in 1992 and had been added (in a slightly remixed form) to His 'N' Hers, so this version of "Babies" was re-released as a single on The Sisters EP and "Pink Glove" remained an album track.
  • During the recording sessions for We Love Life, Pulp recorded many more songs than were eventually released on the album. These tracks would presumably have been released on a follow-up album; however, the relative commercial failure of We Love Life and Pulp's subsequent disbanding meant that these songs would remain unreleased, and while all of the band's previous studio albums have all had expanded or deluxe reissues, We Love Life is the only album to not yet have such a reissue, meaning that fans wanting to hear the unreleased tracks have to search for uploads of live bootleg recordings or leaked demos such as "Grandfather's Nursery", "Got To Have Love" and "Cuckoo Song", while many tracks such as "St. Just", "Darren", "The Performance of a Lifetime", "M'Lady" and "My Mistake" remain unavailable in any form. The only track to have an official release is "After You" which was released in 2013. Fans have started a petition for a release of a deluxe version of We Love Life or a compilation of these tracks.
  • According to Jarvis, if it weren't for Fire Records' Executive Meddling, Pulp would likely have had the money to make a music video for "O.U. (Gone Gone)", which would have featured the band performing in front of the rotating, giant titular letters.
  • It is also likely that, instead of the Intro – The Gift Recordings compilation and singles on it, Pulp would have made an album in 1993 if not for Fire's Executive Meddling. Instead, many of the tracks that were intended for this album ended up on His 'N' Hers instead, and if this album had been released, the tracklist for His 'N' Hers would be quite different, such as possibly featuring the tracks found on The Sisters EP.
  • The BBC once asked the band if they could have the Teletubbies, of all things, make their own version of "Common People". The band declined, calling the idea "a little bit naff".

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