A classic album from the beloved British band Pulp missed out on a Mercury Prize awards win for a tragic reason. The Jarvis Cocker-fronted band would go on to win the award just a year later, but their first brush with acclaim was swiped from them in a neck-and-neck race to first place.
Pulp were founded in 1978 but spent over a decade working, performing, and recording before entering the Top 40 singles chart for the first time in 1994. The song would not be the group’s first brush with chart success though it did mark the first major awards nod for the group. His ‘n’ Hers, which released on this day in 1994, would be the band’s first Mercury Prize nomination.
Though the band missed out on the Mercury Prize win, they would go on to provide some of the 90s’ most anthemic pieces, including ‘Common People’, ‘This is Hardcore’, and ‘Disco 2000’.
Fans have since remembered the first time Pulp were nominated for a Mercury Prize for Album of the Year – and the competition was almost too tight to call.
The award instead went to M People’s album, Elegant Slumming – but Pulp’s awards nod marked a major turning point for the band. When performing on The White Room, a British rock show, host Mark Radcliffe suggested Pulp’s 1994 album, His ‘n’ Hers, lost out on the Mercury Prize win by “one measly vote”.
A Reddit post celebrating the album’s anniversary suggested the album and band were stronger than their contemporaries, with Pulp’s opening show supporting Oasis tipped as far stronger than the Gallagher brothers’ show.
One user wrote: “I adore this album and was fortunate to see them in Sheffield supporting Oasis in 1995. I honestly thought they were better than Oasis. Jarvis kicked a can of beer off the stage and it landed over a security guard. Classic!”
Another thread suggested Pulp were worthy winners that year but faced stiff competition from Blur’s ‘Parklife’ album, as well as The Prodigy with their Music for the Jilted Generation.
It would not be long before Pulp received Mercury Prize acclaim, however, as they won the Album of the Year award just two years later for their ‘Different Class’ album.
That same year, the band won Best Song Musically and Lyrically for ‘Common People’ at the Ivor Novello Awards, as well as Best Live Act at the NME Awards.
A third Reddit thread celebrating the album’s 30th anniversary last year saw some listeners suggest ‘His ‘n’ Hers’ was a superior album to the Mercury Prize-winning release that followed.
One suggested: “I prefer this album over Different Class. Babies is a Britpop classic.”
Another fan wrote: “I know the production can be a bit divisive among pulp fans (I like that it gives a bit of a dreamier quality, contrasts nicely with their later sound), but the only blemish in the album to me is that they left some of their best songs of their career in the b-sides.”
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