Jarvis Cocker

Early life and education

Jarvis Cocker was born and grew up in Sheffield. He attended City School. His father, Mac Cocker, a DJ and actor, left the family and moved to Sydney, Australia, when Cocker was seven, and had no contact with his son or daughter, Saskia, until Jarvis was in his thirties. Following their father's departure, both children were brought up by their mother, Christine Connolly, who later became a Conservative councillor.

In the 1970s and 1980s, Mac Cocker was a radio DJ in Sydney with Double J (later renamed Triple J). Jarvis wrote a song ("A Little Soul" on This Is Hardcore) about being abandoned by his father and working briefly as a butler. In 1998, Cocker and his sister travelled to Australia to meet their father for the first time in nearly 30 years. Cocker later said he forgave his father (who died in 2016) for abandoning them, saying, "I don't feel any bitterness towards him at all. I feel sorry for him."

For much of the 1980s, Cocker lived on unemployment benefits in a derelict factory. In his twenties, Cocker squatted in London.

Career

Pulp

Cocker founded the band Pulp originally under the name Arabicus Pulp (named after a tradable commodity he learned about in an economics class) at the age of 15 while he was a pupil at City School. After numerous line-up changes, and shortening the name to "Pulp", the band eventually found fame in the 1990s with the success of the albums His 'n' Hers (1994) and Different Class (1995). Cocker was Pulp's frontman, and part of his trademark image was his glasses, which seemed to "stay magically on his face" no matter what antics he performed. This feat was achieved using "a huge rubber band round the back" of his glasses.

Pulp released two more albums (This Is Hardcore and We Love Life) to critical acclaim, though neither achieved the commercial success of Different Class. After releasing a greatest hits album, the band went on hiatus from 2003 to 2010, then returned to activity in 2011. Pulp returned in 2022, touring and eventually releasing a new studio album More. The latter was a critical and commercial success, becoming Pulp's first No. 1 album since This Is Hardcore.

Cocker was a frequent guest on TV shows in the 1990s, such as Later... With Jools Holland, and hosted an art series for Channel 4 – Journeys into the Outside.< In the series, he took a trip across the globe, meeting so-called "outsider artists", people who create wacky and wonderful works of art, trying to understand what compelled them to do so. In 1996 Cocker performed a parody of "Common People" ("Showbiz People") on the satirical comedy show Spitting Image.

While attending the 1996 Brit Awards, Cocker and Peter Mansell (a former Pulp member) invaded the stage in a spur-of-the-moment protest against Michael Jackson's performance. Jackson was performing his hit "Earth Song" while surrounded by children. Cocker was detained and interviewed by the police on suspicion of assault. He was accompanied by the comedian Bob Mortimer, who was attending the Brit Awards; Mortimer is a former solicitor and represented him in that capacity. Cocker was released without charge. Cocker later said, "My actions were a form of protest at the way Michael Jackson sees himself as some kind of Christ-like figure with the power of healing. I just ran on the stage. I didn't make any contact with anyone as far as I recall." He also clarified that his actions were nothing personal against Jackson and he was even a fan of his music.

Opinions in the press on Cocker's actions were mixed. Blur frontman Damon Albarn did not approve of Cocker's actions, saying he had found them "really disturbing". Melody Maker's edition of 2 March 1996 suggested Cocker should be knighted, and Noel Gallagher of Oasis said that "Jarvis Cocker is a star" and should be awarded an MBE. Though a number of people described Cocker's stunt as "mooning Jackson", Cocker denied it, saying that he merely waved his (clothed) bottom. Jackson said about the incident, "I'm sickened, saddened, shocked, upset, cheated and angry, but immensely proud that the cast remained professional and the show went on."

Solo career

Cocker's debut solo album, Jarvis, was released in the UK on 13 November 2006. At the 2006 Reading festival, the video for "Running the World" was played on the main video screens of the main stage throughout the day, including just before the headline act, Muse, performed. This video contained a karaoke-like presentation of the song's lyrics to encourage the crowd to sing along.

In March 2008, Cocker made a short tour of Latin America (Mexico, Argentina and Chile), where he presented a new song called "Girls Like It Too".

Cocker said that he had written "Girls Like It Too" and "The Usual", and hoped to have enough material to record the follow-up to his solo debut album. He said of the forthcoming studio album: "I've got vague ideas. I'd like to do another album before the end of the year."

Cocker debuted a new song, "Angela", on BBC2's "The Summer Exhibition: A Culture Show Special", on 13 June 2008. On 6 March 2009, Pitchfork revealed the cover art and album title for Further Complications, which was recorded by Steve Albini and released on 18 May 2009. Drowned in Sound stated that the album was "a huge leap forward" for Cocker.

In October 2011, Faber and Faber published a collection of his lyrics entitled Mother, Brother, Lover: Selected Lyrics.

In March 2017, he released Room 29, a collaboration with musician Chilly Gonzales. It was Cocker's first album in 8 years. Room 29 is a concept album about the Hollywood hotel the Chateau Marmont. Cocker stayed in room 29 at the hotel during a Pulp tour in 2012. The room contained a baby grand piano and inspired Cocker to wonder if the piano, possibly having been there for decades, could tell the stories of previous tenants. Each song on the album is a different story of a potential guest. The songs aren't all about the glamour of Hollywood, but the potential illusions and disappointments of the industry as well. It was performed as part of the Edinburgh International Festival in August 2017.

In late 2017, Cocker formed a new band under the name "Jarv Is". Along with Cocker himself, the band comprises Serafina Steer (harp/keys), Emma Smith (violin), Andrew McKinney (bass), Jason Buckle and Adam Betts (drums). Primarily a live outfit, the band debuted a range of new material in intimate concerts at festivals in 2017, 2018 and 2019. On 15 May 2019, the band released their debut single "Must I Evolve?". The band played at Leith Theatre on 22 August 2019 as part of the Edinburgh International Festival's contemporary music programme. On 2 March 2020, Jarvis announced the band's debut album Beyond the Pale on Steve Lamacq's BBC Radio 6 show and released the single "House Music All Night Long". The album was scheduled to be released on 1 May 2020 on Rough Trade Records but this was later changed to 4 September 2020 and eventually the release date was brought forward to 17 July.

Side projects

Cocker sang a duet, "Ciao!", with Miki Berenyi on Lush's 1996 album Lovelife. In 1997, he collaborated with David Arnold on a cover of "All Time High" by Rita Coolidge, the theme from Octopussy. Furthermore, he gained co-writing credits for several songs ("Walk Like a Panther", "1st Man in Space", "Drive Safely Darlin'", "Stars on Sunday", and "Happy Birthday Nicola") on The All Seeing I's album Pickled Eggs & Sherbet, released in 1999. He contributed lead vocals to "Drive Safely Darlin'". He also performed live with The All Seeing I on Top of the Pops, singing "Walk Like a Panther" in place of Tony Christie, who sang on the recorded version.

In 2001, he contributed "Everybody Loves the Underdog" to the soundtrack for Mike Bassett: England Manager. He re-emerged in 2003 to promote a new album, under the pseudonym "Darren Spooner", for his new band Relaxed Muscle. The same year, he appeared on the Richard X album Richard X Presents His X-Factor Vol. 1. In 2004, Cocker collaborated with Nancy Sinatra on her new album, as well as with Marianne Faithfull on her album Kissin Time, with the song "Sliding through Life on Charm."

In 2005, Cocker co-wrote three tracks ("La Degustation", "Basque Country" and "Fred de Fred") on Sheffield-based electronica duo The Lovers' self-titled debut album. That same year he also covered "I Can't Forget" by Leonard Cohen as part of the tribute show for the film Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man. Cocker also contributed to the soundtrack for Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, writing and performing three tracks: "This Is the Night", "Do the Hippogriff" and "Magic Works". He appeared briefly in the film as lead singer of the band the Weird Sisters. The fictitious group also featured Jonny Greenwood and Phil Selway from Radiohead, Steve Mackey from Pulp, Jason Buckle from Relaxed Muscle and Steven Claydon from Add N to (X).

In 2006, Cocker appeared on albums Monsieur Gainsbourg Revisited (song "I Just Came to Tell You That I'm Going", co-performed with Kid Loco) and Rogue's Gallery: Pirate Ballads, Sea Songs, and Chanteys (song "A Drop of Nelson's Blood"). His song "Running the World" appeared over the closing credits of the film Children of Men. Also in 2006, along with Steve Mackey, he 'curated' the two-CD compilation, The Trip, which featured a wide selection of tracks by artists as varied as The Fall, Gene Pitney, The Beach Boys, and The Polecats. He also co-wrote lyrics on the Charlotte Gainsbourg album 5:55, with Neil Hannon and members of Air.

Broadcasting

On 3 October 1996, Cocker co-hosted the Australian Saturday morning programme Recovery with regular co host (and radio personality) Jane Gazzo.

On 12 October 2006, a fictional version of Cocker was a lead character in a drama on BBC Radio 2, as part of their "Imagine" competition. On 31 December 2008, Cocker guest edited the Today programme on BBC Radio 4. He also guested as a panellist on BBC's Question Time in July 2009.

In October 2009, BBC Radio 6 Music announced Cocker was set to take over the Sunday afternoon slot from 10 January 2010 onwards, with Jarvis Cocker's Sunday Service. He was quoted as saying "Sunday doesn't feel that different to the other days of the week any more. Although there was something weird about when everything seemed to stop on a Sunday, it kind of marked out the week. I am going to put the boringness back into Sunday. That's my mission." Cocker won the Sony DAB Rising Star Award 2010, voted for by listeners, for his BBC Radio 6 Music Show.

In January 2011 he appeared with fellow musician Richard Hawley and DJ Marc Riley on a Radio 4 programme, entitled "In Search of the Holy Whale", in which the trio embarked on a whale-watching expedition in the sea off Cork, Ireland. Then in 2012, Cocker began 'exploring the human condition after dark with tales of night people' in the award-winning Radio 4 programme, Wireless Nights. As of January 2019, 24 episodes of the programme have been broadcast. The first episode of the series, "Overnight Delivery", won the 2012 Prix Italia prize for 'extraordinary originality and / or innovation in a radio documentary'.

Cocker arranged for Iggy Pop to host the Radio 6 Music show in 2014, while he undertook a hiatus that involved Editor-at-Large duties for publisher Faber and Faber. Cocker explained in December 2013:

Crop Rotation has long been recognized as a way of preserving the fertility of the soil. Every now and again a field has to be left fallow for a year in order to make sure it has time to recover. In 2014 I will be that field. T'is done with the firm conviction that it will lead to a stronger and more vigorous Sunday Service when I return to 6 Music's pastures.

Acting

He appears in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005) as Myron Wagtail, lead singer of the Weird Sisters. His original scene was cut short, but most of the Blu-ray and D.V.D. releases hold the original scene in full-length with the entire 3:30-minute song in bonus features. He also played himself in the 2007 romantic comedy, The Good Night. American director Wes Anderson is an admirer of Cocker's work. This led to Anderson giving Cocker a role in the 2009 stop-motion animated movie Fantastic Mr. Fox as the voice of Petey, who sings an original song, and whose appearance is based on Cocker himself. He also voices a French pop singer in Anderson's 2021 film The French Dispatch. 2022 saw Cocker once again doing voice work on a stop-motion animated film, playing "Developer", a rat in The House, for which he wrote and performed the closing song This House. In 2023 he made an on-screen appearance as a musical cowboy in Wes Anderson's Asteroid City and in multiple roles in Anderson's The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar.

Journalism and writing

In June 2011, Cocker was chosen as poetry guest editor for The Mays Anthology, a collection of new writing from students at Oxford and Cambridge.

In 2014, he was the Editor-at-Large for Faber and Faber, and Singing from the Floor by JP Bean is his first acquisition. Cocker explained to NME: "Singing from the Floor portrays an important movement in vernacular culture in the voices of the people who made it happen – and that's not an easy task ... JP Bean has captured this moment before it is lost forever, and has made it live again on the page. He's a very clever chap. Let's raise a glass to him." Cocker says he writes about 'the little things that stick in your mind' because most of them are 'eternal'.

Cocker has also written for The Guardian.

In 2022, Cocker published a memoir-cum-"inventory" entitled Good Pop, Bad Pop, revisiting his formative years through clearing out his attic; Caroline Sullivan of The Guardian described the book as "terrific."

Personal life

Soon after signing to Fire, in November 1985, Cocker fell out of a window while trying to impress a girl with a Spider-Man impression and ended up in hospital, temporarily requiring the use of a wheelchair, in which he appeared during concerts.

In 1988, at age 25, Cocker took a sabbatical from Pulp to study Fine Art and Film at Saint Martin's School of Art, where he was tutored by Vera Neubauer and Malcolm Le Grice. He graduated in 1991.

In the late 1990s, Cocker dated Chloë Sevigny. Cocker lived in Paris from 2003 with his wife Camille Bidault-Waddington and their son. In April 2009 he announced that they were divorcing "on amicable terms", but that he was staying in Paris to remain in his son's life. Cocker had previously lived in Paris in the early 1990s, writing lyrics for Pulp's breakthrough album His 'n' Hers there, but he never learned to speak French, according to Bidault-Waddington.

As of 2023, Cocker lives in Shepherd's Bush, London, with his wife, creative consultant Kim Sion. The pair began dating in 2009.

Cocker is a supporter of Sheffield Wednesday.

Activism

In 2010 Cocker was named Cultural Ambassador for Eurostar.

In 2015 Cocker was among the signatories of a pledge committing to Artists for Palestine UK. In 2016 Cocker voiced his support for Remain in the EU referendum.

Discography

Jarvis (2006) No. 37 UK

Further Complications (2009) No. 19 UK, No. 155 US

Room 29 (with Chilly Gonzales) (2017)

Beyond the Pale (with Jarv Is) (2020)

Chansons d'Ennui Tip-Top (2021)

This Is Going to Hurt (Original Soundtrack) (with Jarv Is) (2022)