The Star photo that Jarvis Cocker says explains the Pulp phenomenon

But now its significance to Sheffield's musical and cultural history has been revealed.

Jarvis Cocker says the image, taken by a Star photographer around 1978, is a significant representation of the story of his celebrated band Pulp.

The importance of the picture, taken by his grandmother, came out first to an audience 9,000 miles away in Australia.

It emerged when Jarvis, now aged 60, was being interviewed by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

He was asked to explain why he had been holding 'a tortoise' in the black and white shot.

The Pulp frontman, who grew up in the Intake area and had attended City School at the time, first sought to put the picture and its era in context.

He recalled trying to attract the attention of John Peel, a disc jockey on BBC Radio.

"He was a very pivotal figure in the UK in the early to late '70s; he was the only person who really played new wave and punk rock music. It was a massive musical education for me."

It was every Indie band's dream to be allowed to play a Peel session in London, he said.

"I was no different so I heard that he was coming to Sheffield to do some DJ'ing at the Polytechnic (now Hallam University.) As luck would have it Pulp had recorded their very first demo about two weeks before."

The starry-eyed Jarvis fashioned a sleeve for his musical offering, made out of cardboard, and rocked up to the Peel roadshow.

"I spent the whole evening trying to think when am I going to give him this cassette?" said Jarvis.

"Finally the roadshow came to an end he was packing his records up.

"I walked to the stage...and I presented this tape and just said: 'Please Mr Peel will you listen to this?'

"A week later the unthinkable happened.

"There was a phone call; actually it was taken by my grandmother" he said, explaining his grandfather had "done some creative wiring" so the couple could take telephone calls at their adjoining home, next door.

"My grandmother answers the phone and there's this guy saying: 'Hello I'd like you to come down and record a session for John Peel and she went: 'Oh I think you want our Jarvis!' "

Cocker said he thought: "I've not even finished school we're going to do a John Peel session. This is it stardom is just around the corner!"

Newshounds at The Star discovered the offer, he said.

A staff snapper took the picture which, oddly, showed him holding "a radio in the shape of a tortoise."

Later Jarvis had sought to explain the significance of that.

"I leaped on the symbolism of the fact that I'm holding this tortoise because we all know the story of The Tortoise and the Hare...the hare is doing things quicker the tortoise takes his time.

"When that photograph was taken I thought pop stardom was just around the corner.

"In fact it wasn't until 14 almost 15 years that Pulp first had a hit record so I found a poignancy in that photo...obviously some form of projection on my part.

"Could it be that somewhere I knew that I was destined for life in the slow lane?

"That it would take so long for me to realize this ambition that I'd had since seven years old?

"Obviously it's impossible for me to have known it, but there is photographic evidence of me holding a tortoise."

The singer concluded: "Sometimes the past will really surprise you.

"Maybe I had this this kind of inkling that I was a tortoise - it was a strange moment!"