Dance Along With The Common People

Here's some footage from the Jarvis Cocker Makes An Exhibition Of Himself...Again gig on Wednesday night.

Jarvis shows you the moves. Go on. Join in.

Further Exhibitions

Tonight I managed to make up for lost time and I also managed to snap this photo mid-gig.

London Met Ad

I didn't go to drama school. There I've said it.

Instead I went to university. Specifically the University of North London. At the end of our first year it amalgamated with Guildhall to become the ever-increasingly huge London Metropolitan University. In an effort to rebrand, the new uni spent money on an advert which ran in cinemas in 2003. I'm in this, although I'll be amazed if you can spot me. My sideburns have never been quite as luxuriant since.

Other LMU alumni seen in the advert include Zoe Alyssa Cooper, Laura Dobson and Claire Ludgate.

Slash Shoot

The shoot for Slash didn't quite go according to plan. This is writer and producer Lucy Hay's summing up of the catalogue of things that went wrong.

It's not all bad news, because despite the setbacks we actually got a lot in the can. I'm really looking forward to seeing the end result.

What I can tell you is that it gets bloody cold in the middle of the forest in late October (and as it turned out early November as well) in the rain. However nobody was really in any position to complain because Lucy Laing (below) spent the night wearing very nearly more blood than clothing.

Slash

It's Halloween.

An appropriate night to be filming a comedy horror short film in Bournemouth...

Arthur Linton

Arthur Linton was born in 1872 in Somerset but grew up in Aberaman in South Wales. He held a great many British records at distances up to 200 miles and became one of the great cycling champions. In 1893 he signed as a professional cyclist to ride a under the tutelage of the amazingly named trainer ‘Choppy’ Warburton.

1894 saw him defeat the French Champion in Paris, lose out by a narrow margin to the Italian Champion, who thereafter refused to race him again. In spite of this he was given the title ‘Champion Cyclist of the World’.

While 1895 was an injury prone one for him, the following year saw him achieve celebrity status in France after victory in the 1896 Bordeaux to Paris race. Tragically, this race looks to have taken its toll on his body and Arthur Linton died in June 1896, just six weeks after the race. He was just 24 years old. Reports differ as to whether he succumbed eventually to Typhoid Fever or the possibility that he was the first athlete to have died as a result of drugs in sport. ‘Choppy’ was implicated in the deaths of Arthur’s brother Tom and Jimmy Michael as well. He was banned from the sport although his guilt or innocence was impossible to prove.

Arthur Linton has been recognised by the Rhondda Cynon Taf Council’s Blue Plaque scheme and Arthur Linton is commemorated today for his achievements with a plaque mounted on the house where he lived in Aberaman.

According to Cllr Robert Bevan, Rhondda Cynon Taf Council’s Cabinet Member for Culture and Recreation: “Arthur Linton’s life was quite remarkable and I’m pleased to see that his many achievements are still being celebrated more than a century after his death. His rags to riches story will undoubtedly inspire all those who hear it.”

Arthur Linton was my great-great-uncle.


(Photos above: Arthur Linton on his bike circa 1896 and my father holding his blue plaque 113 years later.)

I Asked Dr. Pulp

From 1997 to its close in 2002 I was a member of Pulp People, the fan club of the Sheffield band. Over the years newsletters were sent out as and when there was enough news to fill them. Many included a feature called 'Ask Dr Pulp' in which assembled members of the band would answer questions sent in by fans.

Since GQ have recently printed an interview with Jarvis their editor conducted for The Sunday Times in 1998 practically verbatim and passed it off as new, it seems as if anything goes. So here are the questions the good Doctor asked Candida Doyle, Jarvis Cocker, Mark Webber, Nick Banks & Steve Mackey on my behalf, presented here as if in the form of a continuous interview. I seemed to have a knack for asking the wrong question:

Why is The Day After The Revolution “so bloody long”?
Candida: “Don't ask me!”
Jarvis: “The song itself is only the regulation four minutes”
Mark: “What kind of a stupid question is that?”

How democratic are decisions made within the group?
Nick: “Sometimes it's difficult for decisions to be made by committee. Pulp democracy changes depending on the subject in question.”
Candida: “I'll have to come to an agreement with the rest of the band before I answer this one, unless Jarvis has a particular answer.”

Do Pulp think Britpop is dead, and does it really matter?
Candida: “Well, I never liked the Britpop idea but the sad thing is, now that it's gone - which it has - what we are left with is much much worse, and that does matter.”
Nick: “Thank god, yes, and not in the slightest.”

What goes into consideration when deciding on a set list?
Mark: “Far too much. It's not interesting.”
Jarvis: “Biorhythms, chakra alignments, I-Ching forecast, personal hygiene, proximity to ley-lines centres of earth magic, closing time.”
Steve: “Whatever Jarvis feels like playing…”

Originally published in Issues 24 to 28 of the Pulp People Newletter.