Jarvis Cocker, Britpop’s sharpest penman, was hired by British publisher Faber and Faber as an editor-at-large back in 2011. Now the Pulp frontman has signed his first book deal, locking down a history of British folk clubs written by author JP Bean.
As the Quietus reports, the book, titled Singing From the Floor, was recommended to Cocker by singer-songwriter (and Pulp associate) Richard Hawley. “When my friend Richard Hawley said he’d met ‘a man in a pub who had a book for me,’ I have to admit I was slightly dubious,” Cocker said in a statement. “But he was right. Singing From the Floor portrays an important movement in vernacular culture in the voices of the people who made it happen — and that’s not an easy task. Especially when the events in question took place many years ago and may have involved the consumption of alcohol. JP Bean has captured this moment before it is lost forever, and has made it live again on the page. He’s a very clever chap. Let’s raise a glass to him.” That Jarvis — always a class act.
Faber and Faber describe the title as “the story of an acoustic revolution that took place in Britain in the 1950s and ’60s. This was the folk revival, where a generation of musicians, among much drink and raucous cheer and influenced by the skiffle craze, rediscovered Britain’s own folk music tradition alongside the folk and blues coming over from America.”
Singing From the Floor features interviews with several key figures from this era, including Shirley Collins, Martin Carthy, and Peggy Seeger. The book is set to be published in April 2014 as part of the Faber Social series.
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Faber and Faber previously worked with Cocker to release Mother, Brother, Lover, a collection of the Sheffield-born singer’s lyrics, in 2011.
