“Jarvis Cocker is one of our heroes. Because with Pulp he made the chronicle of Britpop: 'Different Class'. Because he stormed the stage of the Brit Awards in '96, while Michael Jackson and a dozen children stood warbling 'Earthsong'. And also because he rhymed 'Your name is Deborah' with 'It never suited ya' (in 'Disco 2000'). (Humo)

Or rather, in a nutshell: life as it is … Jarvis Cocker. The ex-PULP frontman is still the conceiver of classic Britpop-albums like ‘This is Hardcore’ and also ‘Different Class’ and author of hits like ’Common People’ or ‘Disco 2000’. Jarvis Cocker has been doing it solo since ’01, even though it was ’06 before his solo debut of the same name was released. In the meantime Jarvis remained an interesting and busy bee. Together with Beth Ditto (The Gossip) he covered Heaven 17’s ‘Temptation’ at the NME Awards, could be heard on the most recent Air album and was curator of the Meltdown Festival in the South Bank Centre, where he invited the likes of The Jesus And Mary Chain, Devo and Motörhead. He also contributed to the Scott Walker tribute in ’08 in London's Barbican (where Gavin Friday and Damon Albarn were also present). Jarvis’ second solo-album is soon to be released, it doesn't have a title yet but is planned for May. How's it going with that Jarvis? “It’s an embryo that's around the fifth or sixth month. It's got arms, got eyes, it's not quite ready to come out yet, but getting there". These days Jarvis gives readings about ‘the art of lyrics’ under the title ’Saying The Unsayable’ whereby he analyses lyrics from his own songs and those of The Beatles, David Bowie and Leonard Cohen and even had the idea of including these in his shows... We're curious, certainly after his previous, extremely successful visit to AB in ’07.

JARVIS on the Rough Trade 30th Anniversary Special

JARVIS en BETH DITTO (The Gossip) ‘Temptation’