Neighbourhood Weekender, Victoria Park, Warrington
Ably led by the ultimate disco dad in Jarvis Cocker, mass sing-songs blended with darker moments to prove Pulp can still do reunions with panache
Reunion tours have become a common feature of the live circuit nowadays, but Pulp do them with panache. Having originally split in 2002 after their huge Britpop-era success, they toured again in 2011-12 and now, more than a decade later, they have not forgotten how to make an entrance. An electronic drone grows louder and louder before Jarvis Cocker ascends from beneath the stage – like a boyband member half his age – and launches into 1995’s I Spy, a dazzling tale of working-class revenge that includes the marvellous line: “Take your year in Provence and shove it up your arse.”
Having formed in 1978 and been influenced more by the likes of Sparks and Roxy Music than, say, the Beatles and the Kinks, Pulp were always the oddballs who crashed the Britpop party. Now, they may seem an unlikely band to be such a hit at a festival with a young audience. They pepper the setlist with deep cuts, the breeze blows the sound around for the first half an hour, and many in the audience won’t have been born when the band headlined V festival here in 1996. However, a mix of parents, radio, YouTube and Spotify seem to have taken their songs to a whole new generation.
