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Pulp - Hits

Universal Music/Universal Music . R4 . COLOR . 69 mins . E . PAL

  Feature
Contract

15 years is a remarkably long time in music, so you have to either be incredibly patient – or incredibly bloody-minded – to stick it out that long whilst scarcely being noticed. Thankfully for lovers of brilliantly crafted, almost perfect pop, Sheffield natives Pulp well and truly did, before enjoying “overnight success” in the mid-‘90s. And to think it was more due to a bum wiggle from their incredibly charismatic example of lanky geek chic in singer Jarvis Cocker, during a sickeningly overblown display of self-love from Michael Jackson at the 1995 Brit Awards, than their musical prowess. Oh well, at least Wacko Jacko has been good for something since losing the plot (and assorted body parts) somewhere back in the ‘80s...

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Now why doesn't my supermarket stock these?

Fast becoming a part of the Big Three in the musical pigeonhole known as ‘Britpop’ (along with Blur and Oasis), it was their second major label album, Different Class, that sealed Pulp’s fame, scoring them the coveted Mercury Music Prize in the process. Continuing Cocker’s lyrical bent for exploring the minutia of domestic drama in song, it simply oozed hits – including what I sincerely believe to be the greatest pop single of all time in Common People - and to think as a whole it wasn’t even nearly as good as its predecessor, His’n’Hers! It just goes to show what a bit of notoriety can do for your career. Only two more albums followed, bringing with them a maturity in both style and subject matter which saw Pulp shed their more fickle fans. Many theories could be proffered as to this sudden jump into grown-up-ness, but with Jarvis recently pissing off to marry some chick with a hyphenated surname and doing the daddy thing it’s possibly not too hard to guess. After all, sadly we do all have to grow up sometime.

Cocker’s art school pedigree has always been obvious in Pulp’s output, with him having quite the hand in the majority of their visual productions, all of which, including two from their pre-major label days, are included on this here little DVD. The obviously low-budget beginnings (well, even if they were ten years into their career at the time) gradually give way to bigger budgeted fare, always with a welcome flair for storytelling that’s missing from so many of their peers’ clips. From the stomach-churning, relentless rotation of Do You Remember the First Time? through the day-glo supermarket meets dance floor splendour of the aforementioned Common People; the over the top sleaze meets opulence of This is Hardcore to one of the most piss-funny videos ever made for what now sadly appears to be their swansong, Bad Cover Version, Pulp is/was a band who always had an eye for visuals, making this release ever so much more vital than your run of the mill collections of boorish monkeys arsing about in endless successions of boring old performance clips. A little style can always go a long way...

Track listing:

Babies (Original Version): Signs, signs, signs – sideburns!
Razzmatazz: Moulin Rouge, cornflakes, tomato soup – chockies!
Lipgloss: Red, yellow, tunnels, more signs.
Do You Remember the First Time?: Worm, spinny, nausea – censorship.
Babies (1994 Version): White, pose, lips – stuff.
Common People: Trolley, back’n’forth, Saturday Night Fever – Sadie!
Sorted For E’s & Wizz: Squares, unique, arseholes – revenge!
Mis-Shapes: Glasto – alright!
Disco 2000: Telly, cardboard, it – Gloria!
Something Changed: Strums, strings, studio - straight.
Help the Aged: Beards, boobs, bubblers, rails.
This is Hardcore: Screen test, splash, feathers, nurse!
A Little Soul: Dad, son, Mum, daughter.
Party Hard: Cheerleaders, hearts, sparkles – Bowie!
The Trees: Shadows, trails, ballet, red.
Bad Cover Version: Fake, flake, fjake, Brian May?!

  Video
Contract

When it comes to visual quality, low budget and high quality rarely rub shoulders – and many of these clips prove to be no exception to this rule. With many of them shot on film the usual gremlins come out to play, most notably speckles and grain, however find me one fan of Pulp who really cares about the odd bit of grottiness here and I’ll eat a cardboard cut-out of Jarvis...

Once given bigger budgets to play with things improve markedly, with many clips boasting superbly vibrant colour without heading into retina-searing territory. For the most part black levels are good, and by the time you get to the latter half of what’s on offer you’ll witness scarcely a blemish within what’s on offer.

Needless to say it’s all in full frame, with the odd clip here or there masked at different ratios, for despite what some dumber folk will try to tell you, black bars are ALWAYS cool.

  Audio
Contract

Nobody’s been given free reign to mess about and surroundisise (I’ll get a new word into usage if it kills me!) Pulp’s music here, which is definitely something to be thankful for. The Dolby Digital stereo mix delivers everything the way it was intended to be, displaying nothing in the way of bad stuff at all save for some minimal hiss in a couple of the early clips. Synch is as spot-on as it gets for a series of mini-films which were all mimed, and cranked up to 11 it all sounds as splendiferous as it ever did on record.

  Extras
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Paper Pulp.
It’s getting harder to classify what’s feature content and what constitutes extras nowadays, for there’s actually more running-time to be found outside of the ‘Promos’ section than within, and all reachable via three options from a deliciously assembled set of simply animated, but ever-so-effective menus, complete with Jarvis hum...

Home Movies Four features of various lengths are on offer here. First up is a fan’s delight – TV Madness (17:42) is a visual scrapbook of sorts featuring appearances on various telly programmes, from dishing band goss on The Big Breakfast to helping the mo-fo aged with Ali G, plus all manner of weird and wonderful pit stops in-between. Highlights include – well, everything – although the cabaret version of Common People by some guy in a suit made from what looks like the silver paper out of fag packets is a highlight, as is an incomprehensible read through of ALL the lyrics from that particular song in Italian by a rather excitable TV presenter. Most of it offers visual “quality” pretty much akin to that of VHS, which isn’t very surprising really when you consider that’s where it was sourced from – occasional on-screen displays and all. I hope their Mum's got the tapes back!

Next up is Sheffield Bands (6:46), another videotaped treat salvaged from somewhere way back in the deep dark mid ‘80s, looking at Sheffield’s rich musical history – after all, who else could boast spawning Joe Cocker, the Human League, Heaven 17, Cabaret Voltaire, Def Leppard – actually, in the case of most of them, who would want to?

The self-describing Home Movies (14:22) fronts up next, straight from bandi-cam to us with such joys to behold as rehearsals, tales of lost keys, early gigs, the odd bad haircut, the odd bad cover version and lots of dicking about.

Completing this little cul-de-sac of fun is the decidedly weird Catcliffe (1:50), whereby Pulp go porcelain in their rehearsal place...

Live Whilst there must be oodles and oodles of live stuff floating about, we get but a wee taste here, with a mere five tracks. Fans will be rapt though that they show a quick potted history of the band over around ten years, with only one obvious song included – the 1995 Brit Awards performance of Sorted... complete with Jarvis getting very high at the end... The other tracks on offer are Joyriders, taken from Yorkshire TV’s The Beat; 59, Lyndhurst Grove from something called No Stilettos (it looks to be in a church); Dishes from Jools Holland’s Later... and finally Sunrise from their Eden Project gig (we’re talking BIG dome-y things!) following the release of the We Love Life album. All up there’s just over 20 minutes here to enjoy, interspersed with some more, usually weird TV bits and pieces.

Short Films You can take the boy out of art school, but you can’t take the art school out of the boy... Here we have three fabulous examples of Jarvis’s flair for the dramatic (a fourth, Documentary is listed on the cover, but is nowhere to be found – mrrf!). Possibly the best known amongst fans will be the 30:21 event that is Do You Remember the First Time?. Perhaps not surprisingly it presents a series of interviews with all manner of folk - including the likes of Justine Elastica, comedienne Jo Brand and UK radio god John Peel – and their remembrances of that initial close encounter; everything from bed-sits to bathrooms, the boring to the “Blakeian” – and all marred only by a stupid layer change plonked haphazardly in the middle.

If that’s not enough, the entire 25:38 of This is Hardcore is also here for the taking. More than a simple extended video clip (the full ones for the titular song as well as Help the Aged do feature), it attempts to find out what happens when you ask people on a film set to talk about some of life’s more difficult subjects – the usual diverse stuff like, erm, porn, freedom, trouble, booze, the afterlife, depression and getting on in years.

Last, but – it must be said – certainly not least, is a spoken version of Babies (2:13). Assorted sound effects accompany Jarvis in a sleazy poet’s corner take on the song, accompanied by cleverly edited vision from the 1994 clip.

Rounding out the package is a very slick, incredibly glossy fold-out, ten-panel booklet type affair, complete with lots of yummy piccies, credits and a brief message from the band.

  Overall  
Contract

With over three hours of content, none of which is crappy filler, Pulp – Hits is the sort of creation most music fans crave, but rarely receive, from their heroes (or indeed heroines, for we can’t forget the wonderful worshipper of all things stripy, Candida). With heavy creative involvement from the band we’re privy to all manner of more personal moments and remembrances – and some may say more importantly lots and lots of yummy Jarvis-ness (I tried to be good, honest I did!).

Sure it may all seem a bit too clever by half for some, but for anybody without spuds sprouting from their ears this is a superb showcase of some of the greatest, most scintillatingly epic pop music you’re ever going to be treated to in your life. After all, if nothing else any band that realises how devilishly cool and important the Stylophone is deserves the respect of everybody – alright?


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      And I quote...
    "...the sort of creation most music fans crave in a DVD release, but rarely receive... "
    - Amy Flower
      Review Equipment
    • DVD Player:
          Pioneer DV-535
    • TV:
          Sony 68cm
    • Receiver:
          Onkyo TX-DS494
    • Speakers:
          DB Dynamics Eclipse RBS662
    • Centre Speaker:
          DB Dynamics Eclipse ECC442
    • Surrounds:
          DB Dynamics Eclipse ECR042
    • Subwoofer:
          DTX Digital 4.8
    • Audio Cables:
          Standard RCA
    • Video Cables:
          Standard Component RCA
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