Cocker vows to bring back Pulp

Pulp star Jarvic Cocker has assured impatient fans the band are merely "hibernating" and will return, silencing reports they had split for good.

The charismatic Common People singer's outfit were a major force in the mid- 90s alongside rival British bands Oasis and Blur, but following poor sales of their 2001 album We Love Life, Pulp dropped out of the music industry.

However, Cocker has delighted longterm followers they will be back with fresh material - once he's finished working on solo projects, including the soundtrack to Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

He says: "We're far too lazy for that kind of dramatic-ness. Pulp, as I'm sure you kind of know, has undergone many periods of hibernation and stuff. I don't know whether we'll do anything again.

"I've been doing Pulp since I was 15 years old and I'm now a 41-year-old man. Even though we've never released that many records I was always doing it and I just thought, 'I'll try summat else.'

"I've been writing some songs. When I've got enough ones that I think are fit for human consumption then I'll try and decide what to do with them.

"The main thing that I've done recently is to write some songs for the Harry Potter film, but that's just a shameless effort to try and ingratiate myself with kids."