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  • Published: 6 June 2023
  • ISBN: 9781784707910
  • Imprint: Vintage
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 368
  • RRP: $24.99

Good Pop, Bad Pop

The Sunday Times bestselling hit from Jarvis Cocker



The funny, revealing, highly original and Sunday Times bestselling memoir from Jarvis Cocker

The Sunday Times bestselling hit memoir from Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker.

'It's real gold... its storytelling first class' Sunday Times

What if the things we keep hidden say more about us than those we put on display?

We all have a random collection of the things that made us - photos, tickets, clothes, souvenirs, stuffed in a box, packed in a suitcase, crammed into a drawer. When Jarvis Cocker starts clearing out his loft, he finds a jumble of objects that catalogue his story and ask him some awkward questions:

Who do you think you are?

Are clothes important?

Why are there so many pairs of broken glasses up here?

From a Gold Star polycotton shirt to a pack of Wrigley's Extra, from his teenage attempts to write songs to the Sexy Laughs Fantastic Dirty Joke Book, this is the hard evidence of Jarvis's unique life, Pulp, 20th century pop culture, the good times and the mistakes he'd rather forget.

This is not a life story. It's a loft story.

'Nostalgic, playful and beautifully designed' Daily Mail

'Brilliant...lurid, entertaining' Daily Telegraph

'Terrific... Very funny' Guardian

* A Book of the Year in the Daily Telegraph, Financial Times, Daily Mail and Uncut *

  • Published: 6 June 2023
  • ISBN: 9781784707910
  • Imprint: Vintage
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 368
  • RRP: $24.99

Praise for Good Pop, Bad Pop

Incredibly entertaining...a trip through the things that have made him who he is.

Evening Standard, *Books to Look Out For 2022*

Poignant in a subtle, understated way; Marcel Proust's In Search of Lost Time for the age of the Ford Cortina... This book is about a very normal childhood and the everyday detritus it left behind. Common people indeed.

Times

Brilliant... accessible, pithy, lurid, entertaining, even laugh-out-loud funny... we can only hope that Cocker has enough tat for a second volume.

Telegraph

Rummage through its pages - through the plastic and nylon, the tin and vinyl - and it's real gold, its shirts second-hand, of course, but its storytelling first class.

Sunday Times

Brilliant... Good Pop, Bad Pop is more than anyone dared hope for

i

Absolutely fabulous: at once very witty, self-depreciating and moving.

Evening Standard

Thoughtful and very funny... terrific

The Guardian

Engaging and evocative. He [Cocker] paints a vividly drab picture of the north of England under Thatcherism. And his book is beautiful to look at, too, set out like pop art.

Daily Express

Like a pop culture Proust... a testament to just how rich this junk is that Cocker can weave such a compelling take.

Record Collector

Insightful and delightful.

Hi-Fi Choice

Good Pop, Bad Pop... pulses with the thrilling energy of adolescence and early adulthood... Cocker uses his objects to tell real stories about the past, leaving in the dirt and disappointment around the moments of excitement.

Prospect

With laugh-out-loud passages of comedy and stylish illustrations... [this] is the story of how he [Cocker] made himself into who he is, his acquisition of a personal style and outlook... Hopefully we will not have to hang around long before his next trip to the loft.

Financial Times

Like little madeleines, each relic is offered up to the reader in the intimate, confiding voice familiar from Cocker's lyrics.

Sunday Times, *Summer Reads of 2022*

Good Pop, Bad Pop is a joy.

Choice

Good Pop, Bad Pop shows how he mapped out Pulp's path to glory at jumble sales and sparsely attended 1980s gigs... A winning formula on the page.

Uncut, *Book of the Year*

Extremely funny and almost over-stuffed with insights about the state of pop and the nature of creativity.

Daily Telegraph, *Books of the Year*

An entertaining quasi-memoir based on decluttering his loft.

Financial Times, *Books of the Year*

[A] nostalgic, playful, and beautifully designed book.

Daily Mail, *Christmas Gift Guide 2022*