I saw Pulp play an utterly compelling two hour show with songs old and new
Jarvis Cocker leads Pulp through an extended rock opera of a set, mining the band’s catalogue for pop classics, subversive lyrics and moments of whimsy.
I first saw Pulp play in Glasgow at the SECC in November 1998, as the band set out to subvert the mainstream popularity they earned from the release of Different Class with follow up album This is Hardcore. There was one more album, We Love Life, in 2001 before Pulp disbanded the following year.
Reunion gigs since then have been an exercise in nostalgia, revisiting anthems from an era when Pulp stood apart from their peers, with thoughtful lyrics featuring social commentary, delivered with keen pop sensibilities using all musical tools at their disposal, from electronica to the cello. Their latest tour, More, that opened last night in the Hydro, is about moving forward as well as looking back.
More is the eighth studio album by Pulp - their music output stretches back to 1978 when the band was formed in Sheffield when Jarvis Cocker was 15 years old. It was released this week and songs were integrated into the band’s set for the first time at their Glasgow gig. Well received by critics and fans, the album tracks continue Cocker’s ability to conjure up a short story through song, painting pictures of characters, love unrequited, aspirations, while musing on changes in life.
“And I am not ageing, no, I am just ripening” Jarvis sings in album track Grown Ups. There’s plenty of evidence from last night to suggest Cocker, a compelling presence on stage, may be truly moving into a new stage of his frontman career, led by a renewed sense of purpose and with some of the finest guitar music in recent memory to place around new tracks.
Pulp are a band finally comfortable with their place in pop culture and ready for the next act. While new music and lesser-known fan favourites are to the fore for a two hour set split into two parts, it’s the unbridled joy that greets hits like Sorted for E’s and Wizz, Disco 2000, Babies and Common People that remind the audience of what a Pulp show is all about.
Pulp at the Glasgow OVO Hydro
Set 1:
‘Spike Island’
‘Grown Ups’ (live debut)
‘Slow Jam’
‘Sorted for E’s & Wizz’
‘Disco 2000’
‘F.E.E.L.I.N.G.C.A.L.L.E.D.L.O.V.E.‘
‘Help the Aged’ (first live performance since 2012)‘
‘Tina’
‘Farmers Market’
‘This Is Hardcore’
‘Sunrise’
Set 2:
‘Something Changed’
‘The Fear’ (first live outing since 2012)
‘O.U. (Gone, Gone)’
‘Seconds’ (as voted for by the crowd over ‘Dishes’; first live outing since 1994)
‘Acrylic Afternoons’
‘Do You Remember the First Time?’
‘Mis-Shapes’
‘Got to Have Love’
‘Babies’
‘Common People’
Encore: ‘A Sunset’