IT’S A MINI ADVENTURE

From £10,300 on the road. Car shown MINI One £10,710. 08000 836 464 mini.co.uk

Four blokes attempt round the world trip in new MINI.

Broom, broom.

basic performance. the way they used to record before they could afford to lavish production and studio time on their records. But it wasn‘t always set in stone that another album would follow This Is Hardcore. and Jarvis says. without a hint of melodrama: ‘l'm glad that we made another record after ll(ll'(/('()I'(’. I wasn‘t sure we would. The only reason was to prove that it could be enjoyable and make something that didn‘t have an agenda. I find (this record) more open than our others. We had a tendency to over-complicate things. generally trying to throw everything but the kitchen sink in. So we tried to record more naturally. just playing in the studio. and leave a bit more space so that when you listen to it you can feel more "inside" it. rather than admiring it from a distance.‘

Jarvis has been explaining his feelings about trees to foreign

journalists for the last week and. understandably. sounds a little

washed out. The first salvo of retaliation from the allied forces against Afghanistan coming on the eve of his conversation with The List hasn’t helped. ‘Even though I have spent two-and-a- half years of my life doing this record. it seems very trivial. it pales into insignificance: it seems daft to be going “don’t bother about that. listen to our record instead".'

And while London is. he points out. not the best place to be. he doesn't want to leave and is glad that their forthcoming tour won't have them trailing all over Europe. beyond one show at Les lnrockuptibles festival in Paris early next month. ‘I was supposed to do lots of intemational press the week after it [the attack on the US] first happened. and I said I wasn‘t going; if anything happened I wanted to be around people I know. I didn‘t want to be stuck in a hotel room in Frankfurt. But I’m not planning to go to ground in some bunker in the wilds." Jarvis Cocker and Steve Mackey play as part of the Sonic Mook tour, Fri 26 Oct, CCA, Glasgow; Pulp play Barrowland, Glasgow, Thu 22 Nov; We Love Life is released on Island, Fri 26 Oct.

Success. The End.

18 Oct-l Nov 2001 ‘ml LIST 21