Here’s the story of the couple getting married on the cover of Pulp’s ‘A Different Class’

31 March, 2024

Pulp - 'Different Class' artwork

The story behind the wedding image on the cover of Pulp’s 1995 album ‘Different Class’ has been shared by the man who first introduced the couple to each other. 

The cover artwork features a photograph of a wedding party, with black-and-white cardboard cutouts of the members of the band interspersed among them. 

And now, Billy Reeves, a BBC local radio journalist, has shared his memories of first introducing the married couple, Dom and Sharon O’Connor, both of whom he was already friends with. 

Writing in a thread posted on X, Reeves said: “I introduced the couple getting married on the Pulp artwork. It’s a real wedding, Teddington.” 

“Dom I knew from work, Sharon from my local in Egham. They both came to my club night in Ldn. ‘You two have something in common, I’ll get you a drink while u work it out.” 

Reeves continued that the thing his two friends had in common was their surname, adding that in the end, he was unable to attend the wedding because he had shingles at the time. 

He also confirmed that the couple are still together and “going strong”, and claimed that the photo itself was unplanned, as the “designers just drove around with the cut-outs”. 

However, Reeves went on to clarify that Dom O’Connor reached out to him to correct him on two details: the wedding took place in East Molesey in Surrey, and the photo was not so much unplanned, as Dom’s brother went to university with the photographer. 

‘Different Class’ was Pulp’s fifth studio album and went on to be their most successful record, selling over a million copies in the UK and winning the 1996 Mercury Music Prize. It entered the UK Albums Chart at Number One, and included four top ten singles: ‘Common People’, ‘Sorted For E’s & Wizz / Mis-Shapes’, ‘Disco 2000’ and ‘Something Changed’. 

It became one of the defining releases of the Britpop era and was later named by NME as the sixth greatest album of all time. 

Pulp recently announced a North American tour, their first shows in the UK for over a decade. They will play a total of eight shows in September, taking in Chicago, Toronto, Brooklyn, San Francisco and Los Angeles. Visit here to purchase tickets. 

As for new music, Pulp debuted new song ‘Background Noise’ at a show in Mexico in December. Drummer Nick Banks also recently hinted to NME that more news could be on the way from the band this year, but wasn’t so certain about new music any time soon. 

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