Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis has addressed the recent speculation surrounding his wife, Danae Stratou, stating that she was “the only Greek student of sculpture at St Martin’s College” during the time in which Pulp’s Common People was written.
For those not up to date on the curious links between the Syriza politician and the indie anthem, last week it was suggested that Stratou, who attended Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design between 1983 and 1988, is the student with a “thirst for knowledge” mentioned in the lyrics.
While neither Cocker nor Stratou has commented, Varoufakis – who became finance minister when the Syriza party won the Greek elections earlier this year – coyly tip-toed around the subject in a recent interview.
“Well, I wouldn’t have known her back then. But I do know that she was the only Greek student of sculpture at Saint Martins College at that time,” he told the BBC World Service. “And, from personal experience, she is a very fascinating person.”
Greek publication Athens Voice first drew attention to the possible link between Stratou and Cocker, who attended a film studies course at the London institution, noting that her biography reveals she studied sculpture at Saint Martins and that her (“loaded”) father is industrialist Phaidon Stratos.
The Cypriot artist Katerina Kana had previously told a Greek magazine that she was the inspiration behind Pulp’s hit, but Cocker’s memory remains muddied: “On that BBC3 documentary [The Story of Common People], the researchers went through all the people who were contemporaries of mine at Saint Martins and they tried to track her down,” he told Uncut in 2014. “They showed me a picture and it definitely wasn’t her. I dunno. Maybe she wasn’t Greek. Maybe I misheard her.”
On the same documentary, Cocker even seems to suggest he made the whole thing up: “I say in the song, ‘She studied sculpture at Saint Martins College’, which is actually untrue.”
