On this day in 2014, the woman who inspired Pulp’s hit song “Disco 2000” died shortly after being appointed an MBE – Member of the Order of the British Empire.
Deborah Louise Bone, from Lancashire, England, was a mental health nurse and a childhood friend of lead singer Jarvis Cocker in Sheffield. Cocker had “fancied” Bone in his youth but could never impress. Cocker sang:
“Our mothers said we could be sister and brother
Your name is Deborah, Deborah, it never suited ya”
Bone later reflected, “My claim to fame is growing up and sleeping with Jarvis Cocker, well someone had to do it, and it was all perfectly innocent! I have been told and like to believe that I am the Deborah in the Number 1 hit ‘Disco 2000’ but we never did get to meet up by the fountain down the road.”
“Disco 2000” was released as the third single from Different Class in November 1995. It reached number seven on the UK Singles Chart. It also charted highly in Austria, Finland, Hungary, Iceland, and Ireland, and it became Pulp’s only top-50 hit in Australia.
“Disco 2000” has seen critical acclaim and has been labeled by many as one of Pulp’s greatest songs. AllMusic praised its “glitzy, gaudy stomp.” NME said it “is probably not their finest moment of late but it’s typical on-form Pulp with an achingly gooey chorus and sexual frustration by the lorryload. Which is good enough for most of us.” Spin wrote, “This band has quoted disco riffs before, but the way it alludes here to Laura Branigan’s ‘Gloria’ approaches genius.”
Cocker performed “Disco 2000” at Bone’s 50th birthday party.
Bone died due to cancer, 11 days before her 52nd birthday and the day her MBE was announced. Bone appointed an MBE for her services to children’s mental health.
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