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Walking through the neatly arranged Pine forest towards
the natural amphitheatre where the concert was to be
held, traipsing behind all the other fans and teens
intent on cheap lager and a brief flirtation behind
the trees, I thought of no more apposite environment
for Sheffield's Pulp to play in. Songs for the polite
and sexually restrained.
We Love Life has been described as the group’s
swansong for Jarvis’s interests of sleaze and comeuppance
for the self-assured. The pre-determined retirement
of Pulp for the press is more because of the age of
the band’s members. Cocker himself is 38 and with an
increasing time spent between albums, there is a sense
not that the group will announce an end, but will come
to a fitting close, ceasing to exist.
 This
idea is most noticeable in the time lapse between launching
the last album and committing themselves not only to
a tour but one with an attendant idea behind it. Nearly
eight months have passed and now the band has just prised
themselves out of their abodes to pop in to our backyard
for a bit of a sing-song. Sheffield's Pulp is now a
band comfortable enough not to flog a dead horse, rather
tame a tired old cat with a carpet beater.
Although the easy reference points for Pulp this time
around and their new excellent ream of songs is of supposedly
Jarvis getting back to nature. Once past this nothing
is further from what has always been there - the perennial
obsession with sex, urban malaise, seedy personalities
and a dilapidated urban environment. I’m not grumbling,
the sex, soft drugs and car parks are what many of us
who bought late into Pulp with Different Class
still revel in, even when Pulp has added a hint of apple
blossom aroma.
The hormonal flesh rampage barely suppressed by good
manners walking around me is definitely an interest
of Cocker’s and it works so well, directly feeding back
into the people who buy his records and attend his concerts.
It may sound creepy that a man of his esteemed age is
still interested in the adolescent frustrations of compromised
sex, but this is so much of the appeal to the pierced,
young and beautiful turning up this evening. And when
it comes to such matters any way, we can all continue
to act as if ensconced behind the bike sheds with a
bottle of poppers and Samantha from the History class.
Nothing is more heady than a bottle of 20/20 and amour.
When making it on-stage Jarvis steps backwards in to
the glare of the stage lights underneath a green parka.
Not fools are we when the rest of the band just saunter
on without having to announce themselves, Cocker has
always been the object of fascination, so why shouldn’t
he shroud himself before the screams? Milk that adulation.
Starting with 'Trees', just to strengthen the point,
Pulp you begin to realise is a group that has retained
quality. Whilst Blur aim to be taken seriously by exploring
the preserve of the Can buying minority and Oasis lapsed
in to self-parody by the time everyone noticed Liam
had hairy knuckles. Pulp the other major group of Brit-pop
has survived with sales and justified admiration. Jarvis
and cohorts may not have the same prostrate number of
apostles praising louche lifestyles; instead they have
not had to sacrifice making good stuff in favour of
the Met bar. All this was avoided by Jarvis’s one man
mission to revel in his celebrity once it was won and
jettisoned it when it left him dissatisfied, so the
fans do not praise cocaine consumption and stick to
the awkward and charming personality that he is.
The songs played tonight play out a career handsomely
erected. 'Bad Cover Version' fits well in to the wardrobe
alongside 'Something’s Changed' and 'Babies'. 'Birds
in Your Garden' dons Pulp in the garb of the mentioned
sexual intrigue but the bike shed has now become an
adult’s bedroom. While 'Sunrise' is a shock to find
Pulp, one of the heirs to Morrissey and Marr’s parochial
England, releasing themselves from meticulous written
pop and venturing in to a guitar raga, playing out a
Verve rock coda.
Pulp has refreshed in this way, not completely turning
away from the glam-stomp of their mid-nineties incarnation,
I Love Life' retains the T-Rex speed of His and Hers.
Yet the extra touches as when 'Common People' has now
been altered, performed to aspire to Kraftwerk, shows
that the band may not be around indefinitely but Pulp
will not leave people with the horror of seeing a once
great group churning out the old numbers at Butlins
for the blue rinse brigade. Hopefully Pulp will be playing
material to a wizened audience at the Conference for
Memories of Cheap Drink and Quick Gropes.
more info:
Pulp
People
Pulp
Biography
Pulp
Acrylic Afternoons
Will Jenkins for Crud Magazine© 2002
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| 04/02 1 Giant Leap - My Culture
04/02 Elfpower Interview - Andrew Rieger - Creatures
04/02 Frou Frou Interview - Guy Sigsworth/Imogen Heap
04/02 Gomez Interview - Ian Ball
04/02 Idlewild - Live - London Astoria
04/02 K's Choice Interview
04/02 Leaves - Live - Camden Dingwall
04/02 Longwave Interview - Exit
04/02 Lucy Mongrel Interview
04/02 Oasis - The Hindu Times
04/02 Phantom Planet - Interview
04/02 Unwritten Law - Interview
04/02 VUE - Coordinates Interview
05/02 BRMC - LIve - Kentish Town, London
05/02 Breeders - Title K
05/02 FC Kahuna - Machine Says Yes
05/02 Moco - Live - London Monarch
05/02 Need New Body - Interview
05/02 The Soundtrack of Our Lives - Live - Soundhause, Northampton
05/02 The Bellrays - Meet The Bellrays
06/02 Fleadh Festival - Finsbury Park
06/02 Frou Frou Coordinates Interview
06/02 Incubus - Interview - Mark Einziger
06/02 North Mississippi Allstars - Interview
06/02 Papa Roach - She Loves Me Not
06/02 Proud Mary - Live - Northampton, Soundhaus
06/02 Pulp - Live - Sherwood Pines, Edwinstowe
06/02 Reindeer section - You Are My Joy
06/02 Silverchair - Diorama
|  | 06/02 Something Corporate - Leaving Through The Window
06/02 Soinc Youth - Interview
06/02 The Burn - The Smiling Face
06/02 The Coral - Live - Roadmender, Northampton
06/02 The LIbertines - Live - The Social, Nottingham
06/02 The Vines, Sheffield Leadmill
06/02 Trik Turner - Interview
06/02 Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Live, Soundhaus, Northampton
07/02 12 Stones Interview
07/02 Arolo -Interview
07/02 Buy To Let Doncaster - Anti Social Behaviour
07/02 Cassius - Interview
07/02 Farrah - Interview
07/02 Glassjaw - Interview
07/02 Neil Michael Haggerty - Interview
07/02 Hoobastank - Running Away
07/02 Leaves - Interview
07/02 LL Cool Jay Interview
07/02 Oasis - Live - Finsbury Park, London
07/02 Polyphonic Spree - Live - Camden Monarch
07/02 Queens of the Stone Age - Songs For The Deaf
07/02 Super Furry Animals - Interview
07/02 The Beatings - Live - Metro Club London
07/02 The Bellrays + The D4 - Virgin Megastore, Oxford Street London
January 2001
July - August 2001
September - October 2001
November - December 2001
January - March 2002
April - July 2002
August - December 2002 | |
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