A truly special performance from Pulp at the Southbank Centre had the band run through their first album in 24 years, More, for the first time. Frontman Jarvis Cocker noted the group had never done anything like this before. A start-to-finish performance of More with a few notes on inspirations and origins for the songs, some of which have been around since the late 1990s. Pulp pulled out all the stops during their Royal Festival Hall performance, providing key context and little anecdotes about these new songs, some of which are their best to date. A run-through of an album that had Pulp on their biggest headline tour, and it’s where they remain. Getting into the little details of More is a thrill at home, spinning it on your record player over and over again, let alone when Cocker and the band point out where these songs come from, and how they came to be.
Rough Trade celebrates its fiftieth birthday and pulled out all the stops to do so. Pulp is their flagship signing at the moment, and it makes sense to enlist the Cocker-fronted band for a playthrough of More. Spike Island still sounds as striking and upbeat as it did when it dropped on 6 Music, a thrilling addition to Pulp’s discography that works even when perched on a padded seat in the Royal Festival Hall. Cocker plays with the atmosphere well, asking the audience to scream later in the show during a riotous Begging for Change, contradicting that grandeur that comes from being in the Royal Festival Hall. Before that is a run-through of More, pulling at the likes of Grown Ups and Slow Jam, featuring all those little charms that elevated the studio work on the stage. From Cocker distancing himself from the microphone, scuttling backwards as he repeats that everyone “should be having us a slow jam.” Tina receives a few flying hands for the instrumental break and brings back all those 2025 tour memories.
Further on in More is a collection of songs that are tearjerkers and classics in the making for Pulp’s discography. Should you find yourself having moved from the North of England into London and losing sight of the mainland, The Hymn of the North will have you bawling your eyes out. Partial Eclipse is stellar before that and the segue into The Hymn of the North is nicely worked. What you might see through the tears and smudged glasses is what has developed to be Pulp’s best line-up. Candida Doyle, Mark Webber, and Nick Banks are in exceptional form as ever, while the team of Jason Buckle, Adam Betts, Emma Smith, and Andrew McKinney are on hand to give Pulp that extra instrumental texture. The Elysian Collective is on hand for some extraordinary moments, not least when Cocker launches into Wickerman for the first time since 2012. A truly special song from We Love Life, seeped in the memories and misfit experiences that guide Tina, but with the sentimentality and sharpness of The Hymn of the North and A Sunset.
Throw in This Is Hardcore, Something Changed, and a cover of ABBA’s The Day Before You Came and you’d hardly notice that Common People didn’t make an appearance. The Royal Festival Hall isn’t the right place for such a blowout, not least because the band wanted to make the most of having The Elysian Collective on hand. They do that well enough with a rousing This Is Hardcore and an ever-emotional Something Changed. But what shines through the show despite those classics and a couple of deep cuts is the vibrancy, energy, and thrilling sound the band has conjured with this new album. A year on from More, and it sounds as strong, if not stronger than it did on release. There are little grooves and places of origin that prove truly surprising for the context of the album. A 24-minute drone track was the start of Farmers Market, Got to Have Love had what can generously be described as a questionable lead vocal back in the 1990s. It’s all context, and it adds layer after layer to one of the band’s very best works. We can only hope there’s more after More.
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