A Different Class of music for Pulp frontman Jarvis

The Sheffield-born singer is joining forces with reunited Culture Club and chart-toppers Clean Bandit to team up with the BBC Philharmonic for a series of concerts, broadcast across BBC radio stations, designed to broaden the appeal of orchestral music.

Pulp frontman Cocker will work with the orchestra on a special edition of his BBC Radio 4 show Wireless Nights for a one-off broadcast in October, where will see them “discover tales of the nocturnal in the world of classical music,” the BBC announced.

The series of events, which begin next month, will unite seven of BBC radio networks as well as featuring a live performance in CBBC show Blue Peter.

Clean Bandit - who feature string players in their line-up - are to perform a new symphony based on their debut album New Eyes which will be performed live on Radio 1 on September 10 to begin the season.

The band’s single ‘Rather Be’ reached number one in January, and combines elements of classical music with a dance beat.

Culture Club, who announced their comeback earlier this year, will perform their album Colour By Numbers, which included hits Karma Chameleon and Church Of The Poison Mind, accompanied by the orcestra, in a show to be broadcast on Radio 2.

The acclaimed US singer-songwriter John Grant will be backed by the 90-strong orchestra for a Radio 6 Music concert in which he will play songs from his album Pale Green Ghosts.

Radio 3 will team up with Blue Peter for a concert featuring music from the BBC’s Ten Pieces project, which aims to introduce youngsters to classical works such as Grieg’s In The Hall Of The Mountain King, Mars from Holst’s The Planets and A Night On The Bare Mountain by Mussorgsky, while Radio 5 Live will broadcast The Symphony of Medinah which tells the story of the 2012 Ryder Cup through music, narration and poetry.

The BBC Philharmonic Presents season also includes a BBC Asian Network celebration of the music of Indian composer RD Burman, while the recollections of a First World War soldier are set to music for a BBC Radio Manchester performance.

The concerts will be recorded at the BBC’s Salford base, where the 90-strong BBC Philharmonic will be joined by radion presenters including Zane Lowe from BBC Radio 1, Sara Cox from Radio 2 and Suzy Klein from Radio 3.

Simon Webb, general manager of the BBC Philharmonic, called it “an outstanding line-up of varied and imaginative collaborations across our national radio networks”.

He added: “This range and variety is a key element to the BBC Philharmonic’s work that we’re looking forward to sharing with audiences across the board.”

Bob Shennan, director of BBC Music, said: “These unique collaborations will bring together the internationally renowned BBC Philharmonic and globally acclaimed artists, showcasing some wonderfully diverse music to our audiences and engaging listeners across the country through our national radio networks.”

Tickets for all shows in the BBC Philharmonic Studio are free and will be allocated via random ballot. Those who want to be in the audience should visit bbc.co.uk/philharmonic and sign up to the BBC Philharmonic newsletter ‘Quay Notes’ to be notified when ticket applications are opened.

JARVIS COCKER founded the band that would later become Pulp when he was 15 years old and still school in Sheffield.

First championed by John Peel in the early 1980s, it wasn’t until the 1990s and the height of Britpop that Pulp really found success, with the albums His ‘n’ Hers (1994) and Different Class (1995), and a headline slot at Glastonbury in 1995.

During the height of the band’s success Cocker became a national love/hate figure when he invaded the stage during Michael Jackson’s performance at the Brit Awards in 1996.

The band took a hiatus from 2003 to 2010 when Cocker moved to Paris, had a brief solo career, and wrote three songs for, and appeared in, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. His broadcast career began with a slot on BBC Radio 6 Music in 2010.

• JARVIS COCKER founded the band that would later become Pulp when he was 15 years old and still at school in Sheffield.

First championed by John Peel in the early 1980s, it was not until the 1990s and the height of Britpop that Pulp really found success, with the albums His ‘n’ Hers (1994) and Different Class (1995), and a headline slot at Glastonbury in 1995.

During the height of the band’s success, Cocker became a national love/hate figure when he invaded the stage during Michael Jackson’s performance at the Brit Awards in 1996. The YouTube clip above sees him interviewed at The Warehouse Club in Leeds in 1993 for a TV programme.