Typical. You spend ages researching the perfect, quiet Shepherd’s Bush café in which to meet Jarvis Cocker on a Monday morning. You find a quiet, tucked away table and order coffee. But then, when Jarvis Cocker — long, done-up overcoat, casual trousers, those NHS specs — turns up, bang on time, having walked from his home nearby, the speaker just above the away-from-prying-eyes spot you have carefully selected for him to sit in suddenly starts blasting out The Verve’s ‘Bitter Sweet Symphony’, from all the way back in 1997.
‘I don’t mind, but it’s a bit... distracting,’ he smiles, as I reassure him that I haven’t orchestrated this situation and we make our way into the garden.
