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Jarvis Cocker – speccy icon, latter-day pop sage and one of the UK’s best-loved cultural figures – became the 14th artist who accepted the invitation to head Southbank Centre’s Meltdown.

Born in Sheffield in 1963, Jarvis Branson Cocker is one of a long line of English pop stars and eccentrics – like David Bowie, Brian Eno, Ian Dury and Johnny Rotten before him – to have emerged from art college, armed with a sharp wit, an acid tongue and a talent for capturing the moment with razor sharp lyrics and an eye for fashion.

Jarvis Cocker came to national prominence as the lead singer of the band Pulp. Famously, it took over a decade before Pulp found chart success, finally hitting the top of the charts with the 1995 album A Different Class, released at the height of Brit pop fever and including the era-defining songs ‘Common People’ and ‘Disco 2000’. Their success came in no small part down to the dogged support of the late John Peel, Meltdown director in 1998, who had given the band a chance to record a Peel Session as early as 1981.

Jarvis Cocker continually transcends attempts to pigeonhole him. Although feted as one of the iconic faces of the 1990s pop scene, he was among the first to prick the Britpop balloon and to explode the hollow claims of ‘Cool Britannia’.

Highlight of Cocker’s Meltdown programme included Iggy & the Stooges; Motörhead; The Jesus and Mary Chain; the first ever UK performance by 13th Floor Elevators’ frontman Roky Erickson; art-rock legends Devo; the sublime film music of John Barry; and what is surely a never-to-be-repeated show featuring the likes of Grace Jones, Pete Doherty, Nick Cave and Shane McGowan singing songs from Disney films.
www.jarviscocker.net
www.myspace.com/jarvspace