Russell Senior

Russell Senior (born 18 May 1961) is the guitarist and violinist of the band Pulp.

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 Bath Bankers 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 Miner's strike of 1984 he acted as 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]

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."^[6]

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."^[7]

In November 2010, it was announced that Pulp were to reform and play live in 2011, which included Russell Senior in the line-up.^[8][9] He has however not continued with the band for their 2012 tour.

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).^[10] They released three singles before splitting in 2000.

Russell has also worked as a producer with Baby Birkin and more recently The Long Blondes.^[11] In March 2006, British indie band Art Brut invited Russell Senior to produce their second album.

He has co-written a musical about the 1980s miners strike, Two Tribes, with Ralph Parmar (DJ Ralph Razor).^[12][13]

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.

References