Nick Banks - nephew of the great Gordon Banks – saw a note pinned by his favourite band to a wall in 1986, his Sliding Doors moment: ‘Pulp Want Drummer. Call Russell or Jarvis’. What happened next he records in his memoir ‘It Started There: From Punk To Pulp’. We talk to him about life in Sheffield in the ‘70s and ‘80 and why it took 15 long years for Pulp to crack it. Among the highlights …

… why punk rock was like “Harry Potter’s Sorting Hat”.

… what drummers bring to groups.

… Pulp’s stage act in 1982 – “trombones, backing singers, orange paper fish”.

… being denied a Number One by Robson & Jerome.

… the band’s response to Jarvis Cocker’s brave new direction – “Barry White meets the Pet Shop Boys”.

… what happened at the BRITS and who’s to blame.

… real life in what promised to be “the gilded palace of stardom with limousines and dancing girls”.

… the moment that caused “the raised eyebrows of disdain” in the Pulp story. 

… and his first sighting of “that mesmerising, bespectacled, lanky streak of piss”.

Order Nick’s memoir here …

https://www.amazon.co.uk/So-Started-There-Punk-Pulp/dp/1915841100

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