Jarvis Cocker from the band Pulp will be appearing at the Liverpool Playhouse on Friday 30 September for a question and answer night looking at some memorable stories and items from his time leading the britpop outfit.
All proceeds from the show will be going towards ‘Ron’s Place’ in Oxton; a unique British example of what is often called ‘outsider art’.
Jarvis Cocker is patron of Ron’s Place and talked about his interest in the unusual venue, “I think that’s one of the things that attracts me to outsider art: you feel like you’re seeing art in a purer, more primal form. An environment takes it to a different level.
“There’s a complete, 100% commitment to whatever vision they’ve got, because they’re sleeping it; they’re eating in it. And that’s quite a thing to behold.”
“With environments like these, you get a complete work of art that somebody is living in and that they’ve established the rules. It’s like a personal universe”.
Who is Ron and what is his place?
For 33 years until his death in 2019 aged 79, Ron Gittins obsessively painted walls, ceilings and floors of his rented flat, creating an idiosyncratic living monument to his passion for ancient history. Ron also sculpted four massive concrete fireplaces, most notably, one in the form a roaring lion’s head and another in the form of a minotaur.
Much of the work was completed in secret and it was not until after Ron’s death that the full extent of his creativity was discovered. Sadly, the landlord immediately began to destroy the external sculptures.
Due to this, a crowdfunder campaign began to save the interior from a magnolia-make-over. Jarvis Cocker joined the battle and the money raised was used to continue paying Ron’s rent and bills over the last 18 months.
The goal is to create a space that encourages and celebrates the creativity of untrained makers, where Ron’s Place forms part of a wider scheme that emphasises and facilitates the benefits of creativity to health and wellbeing, particularly amongst neuro-diverse people.
What will happen on the night?
Jarvis will be discussing his unique life, Pulp, 20th century pop culture, the good times, and the mistakes he’d rather forget.
We all have a random collection of the things that made us – photos, tickets, clothes, souvenirs, stuffed in a box, packed in a suitcase, or crammed in a drawer. When Jarvis Cocker cleared out his loft, he found a jumble of objects that catalogued his story and asked him some awkward questions.
Now Jarvis takes us through the accumulated debris of a lifetime, revealing his creative process – writing and musicianship, performance and ambition, style and stagecraft.
He’ll also be asked the latest on Pulp’s reformation in 2023.
Jarvis will be signing copies of his book Good Pop, Bad Pop after the show.
Welcome to Ron’s Place, a house with an interior like no other.
In Birkenhead, across the river Mersey from Liverpool, stands a house with an interior like no other. Welcome to Ron’s Place, home of the late Ron Gittins. A complex and colourful character, to say the least, Ron’s obsession with ancient Egypt, Greece, Rome and all things romantic led him to transform his rented flat into his very own highly ornate classical ‘villa’. Many people were intrigued by the extraordinary totemic sculpture at the entrance but very few knew of the astonishing fantasy world that lay within.
Tickets start at £13 and are available here:
Jarvis Cocker in Conversation: Good Pop, Bad Pop | Liverpool Everyman & Playhouse theatres 
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