Good Pop, Bad Pop finds the former Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker sifting through dozens of old boxes in his loft and reflecting on what he finds. Given his attic is only three feet high and stretches the width of his house, the sorting process “feels like mining. It’s dirty, uncomfortable work”. But it is also rewarding as he unearths ancient keepsakes from his youth, from a stick of chewing gum and an old sweatshirt bought from a jumble sale to a well-thumbed book of dirty jokes, many of which flew over his head at the time. Through these childhood artefacts, we get a series of Adrian Mole-ish snapshots of Cocker’s pre-fame, pre-art college life when he was called “a four-eyed get” by classmates on account of his glasses – which was nothing next to what they called him when his mum sent him to school wearing lederhosen.
Listeners to Cocker’s old show on BBC6 Music will be familiar with his verbal style, which is wryly self-deprecating and wonderfully intimate. Along with the sounds of him trudging up the stairs and rummaging through boxes, the audio version comes with a digital folder containing photographs of his attic discoveries which also include an exercise book entitled The Pulp Master Plan containing an early blueprint of a band that would make “offbeat pop songs” and wear Oxfam blazers and “rancid ties”. Essentially a memoir in disguise, Good Pop, Bad Pop pieces together the tale of a bookish schoolboy slowly finding his look, his sound and his place in the world.
• Good Pop, Bad Pop is available from Penguin Audio, 6hr 39min
Further listening
Black and British: A Forgotten History
David Olusoga, Macmillian Digital Audio, 24hr 27min
Kobna Holdbrook-Smith narrates Olusoga’s sweepingly comprehensive and frequently poignant history of Black Britons.
Making a Scene
Constance Wu, Simon & Schuster Audio, 7hr 53min
The star of Crazy Rich Asians reads her book of essays about life in suburban Virginia and her path to fame.
