October 10, 2012 19:45

Jarvis Cocker: 'I love The Beatles – even though I haven't named any of my kids after them'

The Pulp frontman says the Fab Four 'pissed all over' art created by the 'establishment'

Photo Gallery: Jarvis Cocker
Photo: Dean Chalkley

Jarvis Cocker has professed his love for The Beatles, even though, he says: "I haven't named any kids after them."

Writing in the Guardian, the Pulp frontman explained:

I love the Beatles. I haven't named any kids after them but I still really love them. They were the first group that I was ever properly aware of. In my early teens I would sometimes stay in and listen to the radio all day in the hope that I would catch a song by them that I'd never heard before and be able to tape it on my radio-cassette player.

He added that the power of The Beatles rested in their 'ordinariness'.

He said they were "four working-class boys from Liverpool who showed that not only could they create art that stood comparison with that produced by 'the establishment' – they could create art that pissed all over it. From the ranks of the supposedly uncouth, unwashed barbarians came the greatest creative force of the 20th century."

Cocker made the comments in a review of the Hunter Davies edited book The John Lennon Letters, in which he also asks why 1990s Britpop was doomed to failure. In answer to his own question, he writes: "Too many factors to go into here, but one was: too much information. Too much reverence. Wearing the same clothes and taking the same drugs will not make us into Beatles. It will make us fat and ill."

Yesterday it was revealed that Jarvis Cocker will resurrect his Relaxed Muscle project in order to provide a live soundtrack to a contemporary dance production from the Michael Clark Company.

The shows will take place at London's Barbican from October 17-27 and will also see the company performing to music by new wave band Scritti Politti.

The world's greatest music magazine is now available as a digital edition! For exclusive content you won't find on NME.COM, download here on your iPad/iPhone and here on your Kindle Fire or Nook.

Share on Facebook