Former Pulp star Jarvis Cocker hired a professional lookalike to pretend to be him during gigs to promote Pulp's 1998 album THIS IS HARDCORE. Cocker asked GARETH DICKINSON, a student who had imitated him on British TV singing contest STARS IN THEIR EYES, to impersonate him on stage, but he never let DICkinson sing one of his songs because his voice was "awful". Cocker explains, "I had got into my head that I could no longer be the person that people wanted me to be, so I came up with what I thought was a fantastic brainwave. "I would employ him to be the me that people wanted to see. So each gig would start with him lit up from the back, striking some classic Jarvis poses. "Meanwhile, I would be doing the singing, hidden behind the speaker stack because his voice was awful. I mean, I'm not saying mine's brilliant but at least I sound like me. He didn't sound like me at all." And Cocker is glad his fame has waned in recent years: "Being at that level of fame where you have professional lookalikes isn't especially enjoyable."