There’s something really beautiful about using your life as raw material and making it into something that, if you do it right, it’s like a thing that’s there for ever and people can access it and it will do something for them.
Jarvis Cocker
I met Jarvis a few years ago in St. Pancras Station. I've seen him quite a few times heading to or from the Eurostar check-in with guitars and other luggage over the years.
The newspaper has an interview with Jarvis by Olivia Laing and there are plenty of mentions of the importance of the quotidian and the everyday in influencing his music, and that of others.
Jarvis' excellent book here is about his start in music and the influences of the everyday. It is similar to some of the work of Jonathan Meades.
This takes Jarvis back to his early days and is an inventory of some of the objects that remind him of different stages in his career.
There's a strong element of everyday geographies here too, and the ephemera that we collect. He shares images of items, and the design is nice as it changes from format to format throughout the book with lots of pictures e.g. early posters from familiar Sheffield venues such as the Leadmill, Hallamshire Hotel and the 1980s 'fun pubs' that I remember (avoiding).
Jarvis has been the frontman for Pulp for decades. My friend Simon saw him in New Zealand with Pulp playing live and said it was one of his favourite concerts - and he's seen Led Zeppelin and all the greats play live.
He has also worked on a couple of films with Wes Anderson.
I have a signed copy of the hardback first edition of the book and am going to get deeper into it to add something more substantial as a response to the book. I liked the memories of the hole in t' road.
Music is just organised noise.
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