Pulp played their latest album More in full with deep cuts, fan favorites and even an ABBA cover thrown in, NME reports. The show was on Saturday, July 18, at London’s Royal Festival Hall and featured a special orchestral section to celebrate 50 years of Rough Trade, the Sheffield indie band’s iconic label. Frontman Jarvis Cocker, aided by a Powerpoint presentation, talked through the story of each song on More while also playing demos of “Spike Island,” “Grown Ups,” “Farmer’s Market,” “Got To Have Love” and Richard Hawley’s beautiful early take of “A Sunset.” Most notably, the band played their deep cut “Wickerman” for the first time since 2011. You can watch here:
Cocker addressed the crowd before starting his presentation: “You knew when you bought the tickets this is Powerpoint presentation. Well, it’s going to have elements of a Powerpoint lecture.” Cocker also paid tribute to the album’s producer James Ford, who was in attendance. He then led the crowd in singing “Happy Birthday” to Rough, who signed to the band signed 2024 ahead of the release of their comeback record.
Cocker also shared a story of the band hiking Kerlingarfjöll in Iceland to attach one of a tie belonging to their late bassist Steve Mackey to a mountain rock in his memory. He then introduced the b-side “Open Strings,” which was written about and played in tribute to Mackey.
Pulp also played fevered rendition of the political “Begging For Change” from their recent War Child ‘Help(2)’ contribution, We Love Life deep cut “Wickerman,” a lush outing of “This Is Hardcore,” a cover of ABBA’s “The Day Before You Came” and a tender closer with the classic “Something Changed.”
Pulp Set List:
“Spike Island”
“Tina”
“Grown Ups”
“Slow Jam”
“Farmers Market”
“My Sex”
“Got to Have Love”
“Background Noise”
“Partial Eclipse”
“The Hymn of the North”
“A Sunset”
“Open Strings”
“Begging for Change”
“Wickerman”
“This Is Hardcore”
“The Day Before You Came” (ABBA cover)
“Something Changed”
Photo Credit: Marv Watson
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