I'm With Pulp, Are You?

by Mark Webber, Jarvis Cocker

When Mark Webber discovered Pulp as a teenage music fan in 1985, the band was on first-name terms with most of their limited audience. Over the next few years, Mark began to help out with stage sets and light shows, eventually becoming the group’s first tour manager and running the fan club. After being called upon to play guitar and keyboards at live shows, he began to contribute to songwriting and recordings before being asked to join the band in 1995. This incredible backstory—from being a fan to joining his favorite band—provides the unique perspective of I’m With Pulp, Are You?

The bookgathers material from Mark’s extensive collection of ephemera and objects accumulated over the last five decades of his involvement with the band. The lavishly illustrated pages combine images with Webber’s reminiscences to chronicle a history of the band told from the inside. It includes photographs, flyers, record covers, set lists, stickers, posters, press clippings, merchandise, and masses of promotional material. I'm With Pulp, Are You? also features a foreword by Jarvis Cocker, and newly commissioned essays by music writers Simon Reynolds and Luke Turner.

Genres: Nonfiction, Music, British Literature

288 pages, Hardcover

Published October 3, 2024

About the author

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Reviews

[S. Noelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

How thankful I am that multiple members of Pulp are self-described hoarders and—as a fan of the band and music ephemera in general—that they have been so generous with said hoards! It’s a gift to have access to Mark’s unique perspective as the Swiss Army knife of Pulp, as well as his extensive collection (particularly the many previously unseen photographs of the band) in such a lovingly curated book.

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Here's a confession - I bought this book by mistake. A couple of years ago I went to a book reading of So It Started There by Nick Banks. Money was tight at the time so I didn't actually buy the book. Then when I read something about Mark Webber's book recently, I somehow mixed it up with the Nick Banks one and bought it. Only after I started reading it did I think 'Hey, this is nothing like what I expected' and ' Wasn't he the drummer? Wait, Nick Banks is the drummer.'

Anyway, having bought the book I obviously read it. Honestly I'm not a very visual person so a lot of the memorabilia in here didn't interest me very much. I kept trying to read what was on things, which isn't always possible. Initially this bothered me but I eventually learned to just have a quick look at the items and focus on Webber's text, which is matter of fact in style and sometimes quite amusing. Occasionally I did get excited when I saw something I had a connection with - a copy of Truth and Beauty, a fairly large biography of Pulp's earlier years, which I own. A poster for a gig they played at King Tut's (I was not there due to only being about 9 years old). A poster for the tour they did for We Love Life, when I did see them play in Roseisle Forest near Elgin.