Russell Senior

Last updated

Russell Senior
Birth nameRussell Senior
Born (1961-05-18) 18 May 1961 (age 64)
Sheffield, England
Genres
Occupations
Instruments
Years active1978–present
Formerly of

Russell Senior (born 18 May 1961) is a British musician and record producer. He is best known as the former guitarist and violinist of Pulp and Venini as well as his production work with The Long Blondes and Art Brut.

Contents

Early life

Senior was born and grew up in Sheffield. Whilst at University in Bath, [1] he formed the Dada Society (also known as the New Wave Society) and appeared as the lead role in a dramatic adaptation of Kafka's The Trial . He also had a band called The Nightmares and arranged for a gig at the University featuring his friends from Sheffield - Pulp. He obtained a 2.1 honours degree in Business Administration, and went back to Sheffield to join Pulp. During the miners' strike of 1984 he was a flying picket, taking part in industrial action including the Battle of Orgreave. [2]

Pulp

Senior first met Pulp in 1980 when he reviewed a show of theirs for his fanzine, also called The Bath Banker. He joined the third line-up of the band in 1983, the other members being Jarvis Cocker (vocals/guitar), Magnus Doyle (drums) and Peter Mansell (bass). During the mid-1980s he was a central member of the group, often taking vocal duties. He also played the violin on a number of tracks. [3]

In the earlier days of the band, Senior wrote lyrics and/or provided vocals for a number of songs such as "Fairground" and "Anorexic Beauty" on Freaks and "This House is Condemned" on Separations.

As the band became successful, Senior became dissatisfied with the touring, recording and publicity treadmill the band found themselves on after their long-awaited success, and on 20 January 1997 he left Pulp to work on other projects. [4] He commented that he did not like the Cocker-led song "Help the Aged", and that he didn't feel it was a worthy follow-up to "Common People", and so deliberately tried to sabotage it in the studio. [5] Soon afterwards, feeling his unhappiness was leading the atmosphere in the band to become poisonous, he told Cocker he was quitting. [5] In an interview he said that "I was very proud of being in Pulp. I thought it was the best band in the world when I was in it, but I want to be able to move on from it at some point." [3]

In 2010 he revealed he was still friendly with his old band members, and said he left in 1997 because, "I liked the idea of ending on a high, I didn't want to slowly fade away." [2]

In November 2010, it was announced that Pulp were to reform and play live in 2011, which included Russell Senior in the line-up. [6] [7] He however did not continue with the band for their 2012 tour.

In October 2015, Senior released his first book, Freak Out the Squares: Life in a Band Called Pulp. Within the book, Senior recalls stories of the band's earlier days, their rise to fame and his decision to leave. Alongside this, he gives personal recounts and diary entries of the reunion tour, and the toll it takes on him and his fellow band members. The book released to positive reviews, with an overall of 4/5 on Goodreads.

Other work

In 1999 he formed Venini with Debbie Lime (vocals), Nick Eastwood (bass - later with Dolly TV and Hiem), Bob Barton (drums - later with The Human League), and Danny Hunt (keyboards - later with Ladytron). [8] They released three singles before splitting in 2000.

Senior has also worked as a producer with Baby Birkin and more recently The Long Blondes. [9] In March 2006, British indie band Art Brut invited him to produce their second album.

He has co-written a musical about the 1980s miners strike, Two Tribes, with Ralph Parmar (DJ Ralph Razor). [10] [11]

Personal life

He continues to live in Sheffield with his girlfriend and has two children. [4] Aside from the music world he is also a dealer in antique glassware. [5]

References

  1. ↑ "Bath University, School of Management". The Independent . 12 December 2010. Archived from the original on 26 December 2024. Retrieved 14 June 2025.
  2. 1 2 "Discord of the miners' strike influenced a musical journey". The Yorkshire Post . 25 March 2010. Archived from the original on 26 December 2024. Retrieved 14 June 2025.
  3. 1 2 Hubbard, Michael (3 August 1999). "Venini - On Dwarves, Limes, Lorries and Inkies..." . MusicOMH . Archived from the original on 11 May 2008. Retrieved 14 June 2025.
  4. 1 2 "Russell Senior". Acrylic Afternoons. Archived from the original on 21 February 2025. Retrieved 14 June 2025.[ user-generated source ]
  5. 1 2 3 Simpson, Dave (2 June 2009). "The ones that got away". The Guardian . Archived from the original on 19 November 2024. Retrieved 14 June 2025.
  6. ↑ "Pulp Is Reuniting!". perezhilton.com . 11 August 2010. Archived from the original on 1 February 2016.
  7. ↑ Swash, Rosie (8 November 2010). "Pulp reunite for live dates in 2011". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 20 May 2025. Retrieved 14 June 2025.
  8. ↑ Bychawski, Adam (27 April 1999). "SENIOR BACK IN SERVICE". NME . Archived from the original on 4 March 2016.
  9. ↑ Webb, Rob (7 October 2008). "DiSection: Long Blondes - Singles track-by-track". Drowned in Sound . Archived from the original on 17 July 2021. Retrieved 14 June 2025.
  10. ↑ Lawson, Helen (20 January 2012). "Russell Senior behind plans to bring 1980s miners' strike to the Sheffield stage as musical". The Stool Pigeon . Archived from the original on 20 October 2013.
  11. ↑ "'Our music was like trying to put a ballgown on Ken Loach'". The Yorkshire Post. 13 March 2012. Archived from the original on 15 October 2024. Retrieved 14 June 2025.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.