Jarvis Cocker

Jarvis Branson Cocker (born 19 September 1963 ) is an English musician and radio presenter.

Mac Cocker was a radio DJ in Sydney, with Double J in the 1970s and then Triple J in the 1980s.

By the time of his son's visit, Mac Cocker had moved to a hippie commune in Darwin, Northern Territory.

For much of the 1980s, Cocker lived on unemployment benefits in a derelict factory.

In his twenties, Cocker squatted in London.

Cocker founded the band Pulp originally under the name Arabacus Pulp (named after a tradable commodity he learned about in an economics class) at the age of 15 while he was a pupil at City School.

As the founder, frontman, lyricist and only consistent member of the band Pulp, he became a figurehead of the Britpop genre of the mid-1990s.

Following Pulp's hiatus, Cocker has pursued a solo career, and for seven years he presented the BBC Radio 6 Music show Jarvis Cocker's Sunday Service.

Cocker was born in Sheffield, he grew up in the Intake area of the city and attended City School.

His father, Mac Cocker, a DJ and actor, left the family and moved to Sydney when Cocker was seven, and had no contact with Cocker or his sister, Saskia, until Jarvis was in his thirties.

Following their father's departure, both children were brought up by their mother, Christine Connolly, who later became a Conservative councillor.

Cocker credits his upbringing, almost exclusively in female company, for his interest in how women think and what they have to say.

After numerous line-up changes, and shortening the name to "Pulp", the band eventually found fame in the 1990s with the success of the albums His 'n' Hers (1994) and Different Class (1995).

Cocker was Pulp's frontman, and part of his trademark image was his glasses, which seemed to "stay magically on his face" no matter what antics he performed.

This feat was achieved using "a huge rubber band round the back" of his glasses.

Pulp released two more albums (This Is Hardcore and We Love Life) to critical acclaim, though neither achieved the commercial success of Different Class.

He was a frequent guest on TV shows in the 1990s, and hosted an art series for Channel 4 – Journeys into the Outside.

In the series, he took a trip across the globe, meeting so-called "outsider artists", people who create wacky and wonderful works of art, trying to understand what compelled them to do so.

Cocker's penchant for TV appearances was reflected in a parody of "Common People" ("Showbiz People") which was featured on the satirical comedy show Spitting Image in 1996.

While attending the 1996 Brit Awards, Cocker and Peter Mansell (a former Pulp member) invaded the stage in a spur-of-the-moment protest against Michael Jackson's performance.

Jackson was performing his hit "Earth Song" while surrounded by children and a rabbi.

Cocker was detained and interviewed by the police on suspicion of assault.

He was accompanied by the comedian Bob Mortimer, who was attending the Brit Awards; Mortimer is a former solicitor and represented him in that capacity.

Cocker was released without charge.

Opinions from the press on Cocker's actions were mixed.

Blur frontman Damon Albarn did not approve of Cocker's actions, saying to have found them "really disturbing": "He's got some very odd ideas about reality. [...] I think it's a collective responsibility to say 'No you can't go and do what you're doing', not just to ridicule him."

Melody Maker's edition of 2 March 1996 suggested Cocker should be knighted, and Noel Gallagher of Oasis said that "Jarvis Cocker is a star" and should be awarded an MBE.

Though a number of people described Cocker's stunt as "mooning Jackson", Cocker denied it, saying that he merely turned his bottom waving.

Jackson said about the incident, "I'm sickened, saddened, shocked, upset, cheated and angry, but immensely proud that the cast remained professional and the show went on."

Cocker said, "My actions were a form of protest at the way Michael Jackson sees himself as some kind of Christ-like figure with the power of healing. I just ran on the stage. I didn't make any contact with anyone as far as I recall."

He also clarified that his actions were nothing personal against Jackson and he was even a fan of his music.

He wrote a song ("A Little Soul" on This Is Hardcore) about being abandoned by his father and working briefly as a butler; in 1998, Cocker and his sister travelled to Australia to meet their father for the first time in nearly 30 years.

After releasing a greatest hits album, the band went on hiatus from 2003 to 2010, then returned to activity in 2011.

Cocker is also renowned for his wit and observations of the cultural scene.

On 2 July 2009, soon after Jackson's death, Cocker appeared as a panellist on the BBC discussion program Question Time.

He said that Jackson's death had been over-hyped by the media, adding that, "If there's a tragedy about the whole thing, I would say [...] if he had kept making great records like he did in the mid-80s up to now that would have been great but for some reason for the last 20 years he didn't do that."

When asked what he objected to about Jackson at the time of the Brit Awards incident, he reiterated his earlier comments about Jackson and Christ.

When asked, "Otherwise as a performer you thought he was a genius?"

Cocker replied, "Yeah, he invented the moonwalk."

Cocker said he forgave his father (who died in 2016) for abandoning them, saying, "I don't feel any bitterness towards him at all. I feel sorry for him."