In 1991, I was a young music writer starting out when I came across a pre-fame Pulp (pictured above) at a short-lived event called Piece Hall Live in Halifax. They shared the bill with the long-forgotten Bob, Levellers 5, and wondrous Todmorden oddballs Langfield Crane. The courtyard was sparsely populated when Pulp finally went on under the moonlight to perform a set containing the hardly chart-bound likes of Death II. However, they were absolutely captivating, and the setlist also included cult-classic single My Legendary Girlfriend, and Babies, which became the first of the run of killer singles which took them to bigger things two or three years later. Despite his messy hair and a fluffy jumper that looked like he’d found it in a skip, singer Jarvis Cocker was clearly a superstar in the making. “Top of the Pops by Christmas”, I wrote in Melody Maker. I never said which Christmas. Dave Simpson, Guardian music critic