VIA PRESS RELEASE | Pulp has announced a reissue of their 1995 Mercury Prize winning and chart topping album, Different Class, to be released October 24 via Island Records/UMe. The album will be available as both a quadruple LP set and on double CD format and is expanded to include their legendary 1995 Glastonbury Festival set in full. It will be the first time that the Glastonbury performance has been released. Preorder here.
Following the release of Pulp’s recent number one album More and an acclaimed UK and Ireland arena tour, European headline shows and a weekend-defining set at this years Glastonbury Festival—the reissue of Different Class builds on what has already been a very special year for the group.
Jarvis Cocker explains how this new edition presents the album in an improved format, “This 45rpm double album version of Different Class will make it sound a whole lot better. We were obsessed with the fact that this was our ‘Pop’ album (we had finally achieved some ‘popularity’ when ‘Common People’ was a hit) and, as everyone knows, all pop albums have 12 songs on them: 6 tracks per side.
Only problem: this took the running time of the record to 53 minutes. We were told this would compromise the audio quality of the vinyl record—but we were more bothered about not compromising the quality of our Pop Dream. Now, 30 years later, we are finally ready for Different Class to be heard in all its glory. Different Class indeed.
The Glastonbury performance in June 1995 will always be the most significant concert of Pulp’s career. Three weeks after “Common People” hit No. 2 in the national charts the band filled in for The Stone Roses at the last minute. We played ‘Sorted For E’s & Wizz,’ ‘Mis-Shapes’ & ‘Disco 2000’—all receiving their live debut. This is first time the whole concert (including the long, drone-based intro) has been made available. Your chance to relive an historical moment.”
Formed in 1978 by 15-year-old Sheffield schoolboy Jarvis Cocker, Pulp released three albums between 1983 and 1992 on the Fire label before achieving prominence and commercial success in the mid-1990s on Island Records with His ‘n’ Hers (1994).
The follow-up, Different Class (released October 30, 1995) was a major critical and commercial success, bringing Pulp international acclaim, winning the 1996 Mercury Music Prize and debuting at No. 1 on the UK Album Chart. It also produced four Top 10 singles, including the number two hits “Common People” and “Mis-Shapes/Sorted for E’s & Wizz” and “Disco 2000” (No. 7). To date it has sold over 1.4 million units in the UK and over one million across Europe.
Four months prior to the release of the album, the band had made a triumphant appearance headlining the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury Festival on Saturday, June 24 (standing in for The Stone Roses at short notice). This legendary performance, the audio released here for the first time, has been paired with the remastered album to celebrate the 30th anniversary of what is widely regarded as one of the best records of the era.
The deluxe 4LP set is presented in a sturdy slipcase with a comprehensive, 28-page booklet featuring a newly commission essay based on new interviews with the band members, plus many previously unseen images from photographers Rankin and Donald Milne (who took the photos for the original release) and the band’s own archives.
The original “aperture” sleeve design, which encouraged purchasers to “Choose your own front cover,” came with six double-sided inserts/art cards of alternative cover images depicting cardboard cutouts of the band members captured in a variety of situations. This has been fully recreated for the LP set, which will also include a 12″ by 12″ poster featuring miniatures of the cutouts themselves, which fans can excise if they wish and place in the settings of their choice.
The 2CD set comes housed in a digi-sleeve with 28-page booklet. The remastering/mastering (and lacquer cutting) by Geoff Pesche at Abbey Road, who co-mastered alongside Kevin Metcalfe, Different Class for its initial release three decades ago, has been overseen by Jarvis Cocker and Mark Webber.
In 2013, NME ranked the album at number six in its list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, while Rolling Stone ranked it number 162 in their 2020 revised version of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.
“We don’t want no trouble, we just want the right to be different. That’s all.” “Funny, phenomenally nasty, genuinely subversive, and, of course, hugely, flamingly POP!… Different Class is a deft, atmospheric, occasionally stealthy and frequently booming, confident record.” —NME
