Amazed That They Exist: Hatherley on Pulp
Hatherley is a compelling chronicler of English cities, and this sensitivity to place lets him capture the feel of Sheffield as well as Cocker did himself in ‘Sheffield: Sex City’. The narrator of that song wakes up his girlfriend for a pre-dawn walk through the seven hills: ‘we went walking through the sleeping town… down deserted streets… Frozen gardens grey in the moonlight… fences… down to the canal… Creeping slowly past cooling towers… Deserted factories… looking for an adventure… I wandered the streets calling your name…’ The city is a woman and you’re making love to the city.
Max Dunbar reviews Owen Hatherley‘s Uncommon.