The best advice for anyone wanting to be a writer is, Write. Sure, read books, learn from others, keep a notebook, but it always comes down to just one thing: you and a blank page.

Here Elmore Leonard explains his rules for writing, in this rather hastily edited package from the BBC Culture Show of 2006. As Leonard explains writing is mainly rewriting, and it takes the pulp fiction maestro 4 pages of hard graft to produce one finished page. Now you know, so get cracking.
 

 
The sound quality is a bit rough and the picture rather watery, but there are still plenty of interesting things going on in this ‘lost’ interview with Pulp’s Jarvis Cocker and Russell Senior from 1995.

Recorded during Pulp’s first tour of Spain, the interview was conducted by writer and poet, Bruno Galindo, who asked Jarvis & Senior about the band, their career, their lives, the success of the album Different Class, and easy-listening music.
 

 
Previously on Dangerous Minds

This is Hardcore: Jarvis Cocker talks Pulp at Glastonbury 1995

Photo by Rankin

DM pal Rod Stanley, editor-in-chief of Dazed & Confused magazine (who is getting married tomorrow, congrats Rod!) recently interviewed the world’s last proper rockstar, Jarvis Cocker, about the moment when Pulp triumphed at their legendary show at the Glastonbury festival in 1995.

Dazed: I watched you play in 1995, when you replaced the Stone Roses at Glastonbury… I remember you walking out on to the stage and taking a photograph of the crowd – do you still have that photo?

Jarvis Cocker: I don’t even remember taking it. When we played there, we were added to the bill very last-minute so we had to camp on site. The night before, I had real trouble sleeping because I was so nervous… and there are these photographs of me there with this haunted look. So, I wish I did have that photograph. There are certain things of that night that are burned into my memory, I can remember going on and I can remember the end, but the middle bit has just been erased.

Dazed: There were a lot of those fisherman hats in the crowd … John Squire had broken his arm… and there was a kind of “impress me” atmosphere – but you won them over. Was that gig an affirmation? You had been together for almost 15 years as a band at that point.

Jarvis Cocker: Yeah it definitely was, especially that particular concert, because the thing that changed things for Pulp was that ‘Common People’ was a big hit – that had happened in May, and we played Glastonbury in June. So, I think it was the first show we’d done since we had become popular… and it was quite a moment because everybody sang along, and you realized that you’d crossed over into a different kind of world. As you say, they weren’t throwing the Reni hats at us. Or stones, or roses… I think they threw more roses than stones.

Dazed: I saw you again at Glastonbury, 1998, when you headlined the main stage on the Sunday night.

Jarvis Cocker: Yeah… very wet.

Dazed: Absolutely mud-soaked. And you congratulated everyone for staying, shouting “You… Are… Hardcore!” And got pretty much the biggest cheer from any audience ever.

Jarvis Cocker: I’m always impressed by audiences… I’m such a poof I would just go home. Especially on Sunday, you know what Glastonbury can be like, it’s a psychic obstacle course – and if you’re wasted and wet and been there for three days and haven’t slept very much, you would be well in your rights to go home. So, the fact that people were still there, I was just grateful.

Read the rest at Dazed Digital.

Below, Pulp achieve lift-off at the Glastonbury Festival, 1995
 

 
The great greatest British disc jockey, John Peel would have been 72-years-old today.

In the years since Peel’s death, there has been no one, absolutely no one, who has stepped into his shoes to do what he could do. You’d think that it would be the case that some new golden-eared music fanatic for a new generation would come along and tell us all what’s good to listen to, but clearly—and sadly—that’s not happened. This is a testament, of course, to just how culturally influential this one man truly was.

In the clip below, Jarvis Cocker tells a charming anecdote of a star-struck youthful meeting with Peel that led to a “Peel Session” for Pulp in 1982.
 

 
Via the awesome Sabotage Times

 
Fuck me but pop music hasn’t changed much in 20 years. Headlining this year’s UK festivals is the very best of what the 1990s had to offer, Radiohead, Primal Scream, Pulp, The Prodigy, The Charlatan, and even, er, U2. Okay, the Gallagher brothers are unlikely to kiss-and-make-up, but there are still rumors about a Blur reunion, which means we can party like it’s 1995.

The very thought could make a fan weak-eyed and teary-kneed for the glorious UK music mag Select, which faithfully documented the very best of music during the decade.

Select‘s dedication to Brit Pop was only part of its appeal, for what made the magazine delightful, fun and certainly essential, was the quality of its writers who penned columns, interviews and reviews in its silky pages.

Now these names read like a Who’s Who of TV and pop culture, from the darkly handsome genius of Graham Linehan, through the grumbling brilliance of wit and wisdom from David Quantick, to the ever-smiling J. B.Priestly of pop, Stuart Maconie, and let’s not forget Miranda Sawyer, Alexis Petridis, Andrew Collins, Sarra Manning, and Caitlin Moran.

To jump start the memories, some kindly soul has scanned a damn fine selection of covers and some lovely features from Select magazine “to give random flashbacks to the 90s music scene.” How cool is that? Answers on a postcard, please.

Now check the Select scans here.
 

 

 
Previously on dangerous Minds

 
More groovy covers, after the jump…
 

 
Following on from Bob Dylan’s suggestion we should write his autobiography, Pulp are currently running a competition to find the best cover version of one of their tracks:

During the process of learning to play the old songs again we have been consulting the cover versions posted on-line… Vote for your favorites by ‘liking’ them - or upload your own rendition if you think you can do better.

There’s even “a musical prize” for the winner.

As “Common People” is Pulp’s best known song and the one that appears to encourage most cover versions (will anyone surpass William Shatner’s version?) here are 8 covers of “Common People” - just a small selection of the many videos so far uploaded onto the site. If you want to see more, vote for your favorite, or think you can do better check here.
 

William Shatner’s cover of ‘Common People’ as a Lego animation by niblickthe3rd 
 
More Pulped versions after the jump…
 

 
Made in 1995, at the height of “Brit Pop” (that much hyped re-imagining of the 1960s), Pulp: No Sleep till Sheffield follows the band on their tour of the UK, which culminated with a gig in Sheffield, the Pulp’s hometown.

While best known for its stainless steel, cutlery production and incredible greenery (with 2.5 million trees, the highest ratio of trees to people of any city in Europe), Sheffield is also famed for its wealth of musical talent, a list which includes Joe Cocker, Def Leppard, The Human League, Cabaret Voltaire, Heaven 17, ABC, Richard Hawley, The Longpins, Moloko, Arctic Monkeys, The Long Blondes and, of course, Pulp.

Though associated with “Brit Pop”, Pulp were formed in 1978, and had released 3 albums, by the time of their breakthrough record His ‘n’ Hers in 1994, which announced a band of talent, originality and wit. This was followed in 1995, by the equally brilliant Different Class, which delivered one of the decade’s greatest pop songs,  “Common People”.

This summer, Pulp tour the Festivals, starting on May 27 at Primavera Sound, Barcelona, followed by the Isle of Wight Festival on June 11, and T in the Park on July 10. For full details check here.
 

 
Previously on DM

 
Bonus clip of Pulp’s legendary performance of ‘Common People’ at Glastonbury 1995, after the jump…
 

 
Excellent news for Pulp fans: The band will be reforming for some live festival dates next summer, as reported on the Guardian website, including shows at London’s wireless festival and Spain’s Primavera Sound:

A press release distributed this morning said: “Pulp have decided to get together and play some concerts next summer. The shows will involve all the original members of the band (Nick Banks, Jarvis Cocker, Candida Doyle, Steve MacKey, Russell Senior and Mark Webber) and they will play songs from all periods of their career. Yes, that means they’ll be playing your favourites.”

Pulp formed in Sheffield in 1978, establishing a cult fanbase before breaking into the mainstream with their 1995 single Common People. They released seven albums, before going on hiatus in 2002. Their forthcoming shows will be the first time the classic Pulp lineup has played together since 1996.

Below, the video for “Something’s Changed,” probably the best love song of the 1990s not written by Nick Cave.
 

 
(via Nerdcore )

 
Warm congratulations to Dangerous Minds hero—and Michael Jackson disruptor—Jarvis Cocker!

Former Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker has been given an honorary degree in his home city of Sheffield.  Cocker, who has also had success as a solo artist and radio producer, studied at the institution when it was Sheffield Polytechnic.  Receiving his certificate at a ceremony at City Hall, the 46-year-old said: “I’m called a doctor now.  Don’t worry, I won’t open a surgery.”  He added: “But I guess if you are a songwriter maybe I could have some kind of musical surgery.  If you had a song with a swollen chorus, or a varicose verse, or if you need a little bit of help I could try and heal your song for you.”

And while Jarvis won’t be delivering them anytime soon, “Babies” the song follows below:

 
Pulp Singer Jarvis Cocker Receives Honorary Doctorate