Sheffield · 1978 to 2025
PRESS A KEY
White keys are Sheffield. Black keys are London, Pilton and the family house.
A Casiotone MT500 · bought second-hand in Notting Hill
He went back later and bought a Casiotone MT500 keyboard, and wrote on it the riff that became Common People. Play a few notes of your own, then see what the band thought.
MT500 READY
Play at least four notes.
Steve Mackeybass
…
Russell Seniorguitar and violin
…
Nick Banksdrums
…
Candida Doylekeyboards
…
In 1994, with the words finished, the band rehearsed it in an attic above a pottery shop run by Nick Banks’s family. Then it went to London.
38 Notting Hill Gate · Before 1994
Jarvis Cocker had a part-time job at the Record & Tape Exchange in Notting Hill and lost it after not turning up.
A second-hand music shop has traded at No. 38 as Music & Video Exchange. Check it is open before you go; Notting Hill Gate station is next door.
Long Acre, Covent Garden · September 1988
In September 1988 Jarvis Cocker went to Saint Martins in London to study film, at a time when Pulp seemed stalled. A wealthy sculpture student from Greece told him she was moving to Hackney, in the East End, to live among working people. She inspired the song.
He says Saint Martins was on Long Acre then, and that the building is a branch of Gap now. He got in with films shot on a Super 8 camera bought at a jumble sale.
Long Acre runs from Covent Garden station towards Leicester Square. The building is a shop now; walk in.
1978 to 1994 · sixteen years before a Top 10 album
Pulp formed at school in 1978. Their first Top 10 album came in 1994. In between, Sheffield.
The van is empty.
6 Leadmill Road · 16 August 1980
On 16 August 1980 Pulp played a festival at the Leadmill, second on in the afternoon. Jarvis Cocker says it was their first time on a proper stage.
They brought their gear in a mobile grocer’s van belonging to a man across the yard, and arrived smelling of cabbage. When the bass player got feedback he walked to the front of the stage and fell off it.
The Leadmill opened in 1980 and was Sheffield’s longest-running venue. Its operators were ordered to close in May 2025, after a court ruled for the building’s owner. The owner, Electric Group, said it would relaunch the building as Electric Studios in spring 2026 after a £2 million refit, for 1,050 people at gigs and 1,450 at club nights.
The building’s owner planned to reopen it in spring 2026 as Electric Studios, for 1,050 people at gigs. Check its listings before you go.
1978 · Stradbroke Road, Stradbroke, east Sheffield
Pulp formed at City School in Sheffield in 1978.
Their first live concert came two years later, at Rotherham Arts Centre in July 1980.
A working secondary school. Look from Stradbroke Road; the grounds are not open to the public.
Childhood · Intake, south-east Sheffield: a private house on a main road
Jarvis Cocker grew up on Mansfield Road in Intake. The house now sits behind a barber’s and a dog-grooming salon.
Stanhope Road, close by, is named in the Pulp song Babies.
A private family house. Named here, never mapped; the photograph shows the road, not the house.
Mid-1980s · West Street, Sheffield city centre: a basement club, now gone
The Limit was a basement club on West Street that opened in 1978. Its last night was in 1991.
Pulp played an important early gig in the basement, alongside the Comsat Angels, Cabaret Voltaire and ABC.
The club has gone. West Street is a busy street of bars with a tram line down the middle; walk it at night.
Mid-1980s · Division Street, Sheffield city centre
In the mid-1980s Jarvis Cocker fell out of a window doing a Spider-Man impression to impress a girl. The Sheffield Tribune places the fall on Division Street.
He hurt his hip and ankle, spent two months in hospital and played gigs in a wheelchair.
Stuck in bed, he asked his mum to bring in a keyboard, and wrote Dogs Are Everywhere on it.
A street of cafés, bars and vintage shops, a few minutes’ walk from West Street. Look up at the windows over the shops.
His teens · Exchange Street and Castlegate, Sheffield city centre
Jarvis Cocker had a Saturday job in the fish market. The 2014 film Pulp: A Film about Life, Death & Supermarkets goes back to the fishmonger’s where he worked as a teenager.
The director, Florian Habicht, found many of the film’s people at Castle Market, and the film is a requiem for it.
The market has gone. The site is being turned into a park around the remains of Sheffield Castle; for now you see it from the streets around Castlegate.
Castle Market · June 2014
The director, Florian Habicht, found many of the film’s people at Castle Market, and the film is a requiem for it.
The remains of Sheffield Castle lie in the old market’s foundations. The council is exposing them for a new park and opening up the River Sheaf for the first time since 1912, with completion expected in summer 2028.
Sheffield city centre
A four-star hotel of 89 rooms in a building first planned as a grammar school, on Leopold Square, a step off West Street where the Limit was. 5% off booking direct; parking nearby at £16 a day.
See roomsTownhouse Studio 2, Shepherd’s Bush · Before May 1995
Common People got two weeks of sessions in Studio 2 at the Townhouse, with Chris Thomas producing and David Nicholas engineering.
The rhythm track was played live: Nick Banks on drums in the big room, Russell Senior in a booth with guitar and violin, the rest in the control room.
The song starts at 90 beats a minute and ends at 160. Four or five takes went down with no click; the best start and the best ending were stitched together. The overdubs, a violin and a Stylophone among them, filled the 48-track tape.
Tape rolling. Nothing on it yet.
Virgin opened the Townhouse in 1978. It closed in 2008 and was turned into homes. The studio is now private homes. Named here, never mapped; the photograph shows Goldhawk Road, not the building.
Worthy Farm, Pilton · June 1995
The Stone Roses pulled out the week before the 1995 festival and were replaced by Pulp.
The van is back on Leadmill Road.
Pulp played the Pyramid Stage on the Saturday at 9pm, after John Squire was hurt in a cycling accident. About 80,000 people came. Tickets were £65 and sold out within four weeks.
Common People had come out in May. Sound On Sound calls the Glastonbury set the peak of Pulp’s fame.
Farmland outside festival time; you reach the Pyramid field with a festival ticket. Check the festival’s own site for the next one.
Town Hall Square, top of Fargate · Different Class, 1995
The fountain in Disco 2000 is the Goodwin Fountain, which stood at the top of Fargate.
It was moved to the Peace Gardens. The Town Trust planned a sculpture for Town Hall Square in its place, but the project was abandoned, and nothing replaced it.
An empty square by the Town Hall.
Stand at the top of Fargate by the Town Hall, where it was; then walk two minutes to the Peace Gardens for the fountains there now.
Sheffield Arena · April 1995 and 8 December 2012
0
seats papered, a thousand a roll
On 8 December 2012 Pulp played the Arena, their first Sheffield gig since 2002. They covered the 12,000-seat hall in toilet paper, a nod to the cheap alternative to pyrotechnics they used when they started.
Twelve rolls for twelve thousand seats.
Dan Hayes of the Sheffield Tribune saw Pulp at the Arena in April 1995, about two months before Glastonbury.
Former members, Jarvis Cocker’s sister Saskia among them, joined them for My Lighthouse. After the confetti, Cocker led the hall in White Christmas.
A working arena, now called the Utilita Arena. Arena/Olympic Legacy Park is the stop on the Supertram yellow route.
Hillsborough Park · 25 July 2025
From the stage Cocker took the crowd round Sheffield places from the band’s past, the Limit among them, and asked where Pulp’s first Sheffield gig had been. The answer was the Leadmill.
Pulp headlined the Friday of Tramlines in Hillsborough Park on 25 July 2025, opening with Spike Island from the new album, More. Richard Hawley joined them, and they played Last Day of the Miners’ Strike live for the first time.
On 4 May 2015 Pulp received a PRS for Music Heritage Award and unveiled a plaque at the Leadmill. At Tramlines, Cocker said the band still needed that plaque taken down.
A free public park with a walled garden, on the Supertram yellow route at Hillsborough Park.
11 places you can visit; 9 of the 13 are in Sheffield. The family house in Intake and the old Townhouse studio are private: named, never mapped.
Pins mark public places; private homes are named but not pinned.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: building · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. The building’s owner planned to reopen it in spring 2026 as Electric Studios, for 1,050 people at gigs. Check its listings before you go.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: area · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. The club has gone. West Street is a busy street of bars with a tram line down the middle; walk it at night.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: area · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A street of cafés, bars and vintage shops, a few minutes’ walk from West Street. Look up at the windows over the shops.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: area · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. The market has gone. The site is being turned into a park around the remains of Sheffield Castle; for now you see it from the streets around Castlegate.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: area · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. Stand at the top of Fargate by the Town Hall, where it was; then walk two minutes to the Peace Gardens for the fountains there now.
6 Leadmill Road, Sheffield city centre
On 16 August 1980 Pulp played a festival at the Leadmill, second on in the afternoon. Jarvis Cocker says it was their first time on a proper stage.
The building’s owner planned to reopen it in spring 2026 as Electric Studios, for 1,050 people at gigs. Check its listings before you go.
West Street, Sheffield city centre: a basement club, now gone
The Limit was a basement club on West Street that opened in 1978. Its last night was in 1991.
The club has gone. West Street is a busy street of bars with a tram line down the middle; walk it at night.
Division Street, Sheffield city centre
In the mid-1980s Jarvis Cocker fell out of a window doing a Spider-Man impression to impress a girl. The Sheffield Tribune places the fall on Division Street.
A street of cafés, bars and vintage shops, a few minutes’ walk from West Street. Look up at the windows over the shops.
Exchange Street and Castlegate, Sheffield city centre
Jarvis Cocker had a Saturday job in the fish market. The 2014 film Pulp: A Film about Life, Death & Supermarkets goes back to the fishmonger’s where he worked as a teenager.
The market has gone. The site is being turned into a park around the remains of Sheffield Castle; for now you see it from the streets around Castlegate.
Town Hall Square, at the top of Fargate, Sheffield
The fountain in Disco 2000 is the Goodwin Fountain, which stood at the top of Fargate.
Stand at the top of Fargate by the Town Hall, where it was; then walk two minutes to the Peace Gardens for the fountains there now.
Stay
The Leopold Hotel, on the square a step from where the Limit was.
Sheffield city centre
A four-star hotel of 89 rooms in a building first planned as a grammar school, on Leopold Square, a step off West Street where the Limit was. 5% off booking direct; parking nearby at £16 a day.
See roomsGo there
Guided walks round Sheffield city centre and London music walks on the marketplace.
Sheffield
Live marketplace results for guided walks round Sheffield city centre. Check each itinerary for Division Street, the Town Hall and Castlegate.
Live marketplace results · itineraries change
Compare toursLondon
Live marketplace results for London music walks, from Notting Hill to Covent Garden. Check each itinerary for its stops.
Live marketplace results · itineraries change
Compare toursWhat’s on
The Here Comes More tour ended in August 2026 and no Pulp date after today has been announced.
No current dated events are listed. Check providers for the latest programme.
Take it home
An original 1995 poster from our own store, Cocker’s memoir and selected words, the band’s biography and four albums from 1994 to 2025.
An original 1995 Pulp poster designed by Blue Source, from the year of Common People and Glastonbury. 20 × 30 in, rolled, mint.
In stock
View posterJarvis Cocker
Jarvis Cocker’s own book about his early life, Sheffield and how Pulp began.
Find the bookMark Sturdy
A biography of the band, published by Omnibus Press in 2003.
Find the bookJarvis Cocker
Cocker’s own selection, the book he marked up to show Florian Habicht round Sheffield. Faber, 2011.
Find the bookPulp · CD, Island CID 8025, 1994
The 1994 album that ended sixteen years of waiting.
Live marketplace search · listings and condition change
Find a copyPulp · CD, Island 524 165-2, 1995
Common People from Townhouse Studio 2, and the fountain at the top of Fargate.
Live marketplace search · listings and condition change
Find a copyPulp · CD, Island CID 8066, 1998
The 1998 follow-up to Different Class.
Live marketplace search · listings and condition change
Find a copyPulp · CD, Rough Trade RT0541CD, 2025
The 2025 album; Spike Island opened the set in Hillsborough Park.
Live marketplace search · listings and condition change
Find a copyDates, prices, rooms and stock change: confirm with the provider before you travel or buy. A stay or tour is described as a filming location only where the card says so.
Every place and moment behind this page, with sources.
13 of 13 places · 16 of 16 Moments
Stradbroke Road, Stradbroke, east Sheffield
Pulp form at City School.
Intake, south-east Sheffield: a private house on a main road
Jarvis Cocker grows up on Mansfield Road in Intake.
6 Leadmill Road, Sheffield city centre
Pulp’s first proper stage, reached in a grocer’s van that smelt of cabbage.
A PRS for Music Heritage Award plaque at the Leadmill.
West Street, Sheffield city centre: a basement club, now gone
Jarvis Cocker spends six years at the Limit.
Division Street, Sheffield city centre
Cocker falls from a window, then plays gigs in a wheelchair.
Exchange Street and Castlegate, Sheffield city centre
A Saturday job in the fish market.
Florian Habicht’s film goes back to Castle Market.
Town Hall Square, at the top of Fargate, Sheffield
The Goodwin Fountain at the top of Fargate, the fountain in Disco 2000.
Broughton Lane, Attercliffe, east Sheffield (now the Utilita Arena)
Pulp at Sheffield Arena, two months before Glastonbury.
Home for Christmas: the Arena papered in toilet roll.
Middlewood Road, Hillsborough, north-west Sheffield
Pulp headline Tramlines in Hillsborough Park and walk the crowd round Sheffield.
38 Notting Hill Gate, London W11
Cocker buys a Casiotone MT500 and writes the riff of Common People on it.
Long Acre, Covent Garden, London WC2
Cocker starts a film course in London and meets the sculpture student.
Goldhawk Road, Shepherd’s Bush, London W12: now private homes
Two weeks in Townhouse Studio 2 for Common People.
Worthy Farm, Pilton, Somerset
Pulp take the Saturday on the Pyramid Stage in place of the Stone Roses.
