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Jarvis Cocker

Good Pop, Bad Pop

  • Good Pop, Bad Pop

  • **AS HEARD ON BBC RADIO 4 BOOK OF THE WEEK**

    What if the things we keep hidden say more about us than those we put on display?

    We all have a random collection of the things that made us - photos, tickets, clothes, souvenirs, stuffed in a box, packed in a suitcase, crammed into a drawer. When Jarvis Cocker starts clearing out his loft, he finds a jumble of objects that catalogue his story and ask him some awkward questions:

    Who do you think you are?

    Are clothes important?

    Why are there so many pairs of broken glasses up here?

    From a Gold Star polycotton shirt to a pack of Wrigley's Extra, from his teenage attempts to write songs to the Sexy Laughs Fantastic Dirty Joke Book, this is the hard evidence of Jarvis's unique life, Pulp, 20th century pop culture, the good times and the mistakes he'd rather forget. And this accumulated debris of a lifetime reveals his creative process - writing and musicianship, performance and ambition, style and stagecraft.

    This is not a life story. It's a loft story.

The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test
The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test
Tom Wolfe

Jarvis Cocker is a musician & broadcaster from the north of England. He formed the band Pulp in 1978 whilst at secondary school. They went on to become one of the most successful UK groups of the 1990s. Between 2009 & 2017 he presented the BBC 6Music programme "Jarvis Cocker's Sunday Service" as well as the ongoing, award-winning BBC Radio 4 documentary series "Wireless Nights". He has honorary doctorates from both Sheffield Hallam University & Central Saint Martin's School of Art (which he attended 1988-91). His lyric collection "Mother, Brother, Lover" was published by Faber in 2011. "Good Pop, Bad Pop " is his first work of long-form prose. He divides his time between Paris, London & the Peak District. His star-sign is Virgo.

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