Pulp – Sorted… Live at Glastonbury ’95 Review

One of the great, seismic moments in Glastonbury Festival history happened when Pulp headlined the main stage. It was a chance to hear the alternative in the spot where popular bands reigned. Pulp were by no means unpopular at this stage of their careers but they were, as they still are, part of the counterculture which felt a level below the chart success of their peers. No longer is that the case, and it arguably started here, on the Worthy Farm stage. Sorted… Live at Glastonbury 1995 is a near-perfect remastering and first-time album release of a spectacular performance from a band whose defining song, Common People, had released just weeks before. This performance is a lightning in a bottle experience the band, somehow, captured again thirty years on from their headline performance. Pulp are made for the main stage and prove as much here. First-time listeners of this well-bootlegged set are in for a treat as the touch-ups to the sound quality on the Different Class thirtieth anniversary release are magnificent.  

These are the hits and they’re all played out with that Pulp charm. Part of the appeal is the slight imperfections the band present. It exists even now, but it’s not a distraction, nor does it detract from the quality of their work. Disco 2000 has a few minor vocal jitters, not because of the production but because frontman Jarvis Cocker is trying to remember the words to a new song. It’s those little moments which add a lot of charm to a live performance and you can hear it even now, in audience videos of Spike Island from the OVO Hydro show in Glasgow, for instance. Little moments of interest to the returning listener, and for those who mark their first time experience with the polished Sorted… set, this is the very best live album from Pulp so far. A shame it isn’t available anywhere but the recent remaster, but it’s a lot of quality tucked away in that £100 boxset.  

All those little details are what you need to cherish about this set. Not just the wider thrills of a thrilling Do You Remember the First Time? or the “take it down” request towards the end of Common People, but those space-age-like noises and the emphasis Russell Senior and Candida Doyle bring these songs. Outstanding keyboard work and memorably cutting violin pieces are what marks this as such a thrill. Those moments can only survive on steady work from Nick Banks, Mark Webber, and Steve Mackey, whose instrumental build and flow, considering how fresh some of these songs are, is remarkable. It’s about as perfect a show as you can get from Pulp, and part of that thrill is the little imperfections. They’re a band whose professionalism incorporates a scrappy, underdog attitude that exists even when they’re on sold-out stadium tours.  

Cocker promised people would “go home to a different world” before Monday Morning, and that magic still remains on Sorted… Energetic performances of inspired works which still stand as defining, life-affirming songs. That’s the spirit of Pulp, and that much is captured by their Glastonbury Festival performance. Part of it is happenstance; the location does not bring out the thrill of Pulp, not entirely. Underwear is the perfect example of that. That transition from the breakthrough kitchen sink dramas of His ‘n’ Hers to the voyeurism of Different Class. Expressive in all the right ways, a performance which is still beyond the pale. Sorted… Live for Glastonbury ‘95 is a magnificent listen not just because it captures the feeling of the time, but because that feeling is still alive thirty years on. Hallmarks of what Pulp still do on stage can be found here in a carefully remastered, vital new live album.