Let The Day Begin...Let The Day Start!: Day 304 - Pulp

 Different Class - Pulp

Island Records

Produced by Chris Thomas

Released 30th October 1995

UK Chart #1

Personnel
Pulp:
    Jarvis Cocker – vocals, Vox Marauder guitar, Ovation 12 string guitar, Sigma acoustic guitar, Roland Vocoder Plus VP-330, Roland SH-09, Mellotron, Micromoog, Synare
    Russell Senior – Fender Jazzmaster guitar, violin
    Candida Doyle – Farfisa Compact Professional II organ, Ensoniq ASR 10, Korg Trident II, Minimoog, Fender Rhodes piano, Roland Juno 6, Roland SH-09
    Steve Mackey – Musicman Sabre bass
    Mark Webber – Gibson ES 345 guitar, Gibson Les Paul guitar, Gibson Firebird guitar, Sigma acoustic guitar, Casio Tonebank CT-470, Fender Rhodes piano, Roland Juno 6
    Nick Banks – Yamaha drums, Zildjian cymbals, percussion

Additional musicians:
    Matthew Vaughan – programming
    Olle Romo – programming
    Anthony Genn – additional programming
    Mark Haley – additional programming
    Chris Thomas – additional guitar and keyboards
    Anne Dudley – orchestral arrangement and conducting
    Gavyn Wright – orchestra leader

Singles on Different Class

    Common People (Full Length Version) / Underwear / Common People (7" Edit)
    Released: 22 May 1995
UK Chart #2

  

Mis-Shapes / Sorted for E's & Wizz
    Released: 25 September 1995
UK Chart #2 

Disco 2000 (7" Mix)  / Disco 2000 (Album Mix) / Ansaphone / Live Bed Show (extended)
    Released: 27 November 1995
UK Chart #7  

    Something Changed / Mile End (From the Film Trainspotting) / F.E.E.L.I.N.G.C.A.L.L.E.D.L.O.V.E (The Moloko mix) / F.E.E.L.I.N.G.C.A.L.L.E.D.L.O.V.E (live at the Brixton Academy)
    Released: 25 March 1996
UK Chart #10

***************************

Different Class was the fifth Studio Album from Pulp. It took a long time for Pulp to get major success having been formed in Sheffield in 1978, doing their first John Peel Session in in 1981, releasing their Debut Single (My Lighthouse / Looking For Life) in 1981 to having their first Charting Single in 1993 (Razzmatazz / Stacks / Inside Susan / 59 Lyndhurst Grove - reached #80) and their first Charting Album  in 1994 (their fourth Studio Album His 'n' Hers - peaked at #9), their first Top Twenty Single (The Sisters EP in 1994 reached #19).

Different Class seemed to elevate them into a different league altogether starting with the two massive hit singles that both just missed out on the #1 spot - Common People* (May 1995) and E's & Wizz** (September 1995) - peaking at #2.

(* This is the John Peel Session Version & ** This is the Live version from Glastonbury in 1995)

They won the 1996 Mercury Music Prize and Different Class has sold enough to be classified as a four times Platinum album! In 2013, NME ranked the album at number 6 in its list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.

PopMatters retrospective review in 2004 opined that "nearly nine years after its release, Different Class has aged very well, possessing that timeless quality that is present in all classic albums, but is still obviously a product of its time, a snapshot of mid-'90s life in the UK. Along with Blur's Parklife, it remains the high point of the Britpop era; music, lyrics, production, artwork, it's as perfect as it gets."


One of my favourite Cover Versions has to be William Shatner's take on Common People from his Has Been album and released as a Single in 2004.
 

 

 

Let The Day Begin...Let The Day Start!