Pulp has reached the end of the line with their End of the Road festival performance. The Jarvis Cocker-fronted group performed deep cuts, gave some songs their live debut, and ended with their We Love Life track, Sunrise. Though it may be billed as the band’s last show, both Cocker and Pulp drummer Nick Banks have hinted that it is not the final show.
Pulp has been on the road since their reunion in 2023 and appears ready to take some well-deserved time off. But it’s not a permanent farewell from the band, just a temporary hiatus. Cocker and Banks have both posted on various social media sites and suggested this is merely a break from touring and being an active band, and that they could soon return to the stage. A specific time for their return has not yet been revealed and is likely not going to be.
Banks wrote on Threads: “So, it’s come to this: the end of the road – quite literally. The folk down Dorset-Wiltshire way will thrill to the last vibrations of the Pulp More period. It’s been an amazing 3-1/2 years of tune-age and gig-stuff. Tonight’s show is (we think) Pulp’s 600th concert ever so seems a good point to stop does it not? Deep thanks to the crazies who attend every show wherever it is. You know who you are. Ta-a-lot to our Tom for setting up me stuff and all the pulp crew.
“Mahoosive thanks to Mr Liam and Edie for getting us there every time. We will feel stabs of emptiness with no more Pulp family expeditions to look forward to… and there we are; the end of the line, we’ve seen the storyline. Thanks for coming with us. Ta-ra ‘til next time…”
A separate post from Banks, ahead of the Wythenshawe Park show in late August, saw the drummer tease this was merely the end of the More era, rather than the band as a whole. He added: “As someone once said, ‘the rain falls hard on a hum-drum town..’ However, we shall rail at the rain gods to have mercy on us today. Manchester, so much to answer for. We move to our penultimate show of our More phase: Wythenshawe Park. Let’s show the mothers how it’s done r8? Ok.”
Cocker has also teased that the band are not quite done with touring for good. He took to Instagram the day after the band’s End of the Road performance and wrote: “We all hope for a beautiful sunset to mark the end of our labours and we got one tonight. I also got to shout down a loudhailer.
“Our show at End of the Road tonight was unbelievable and also the last one for a while. But not for ever. Thank you.” The band featured deep cuts like Death II and Deep Fried in Kelvin during their final show, snubbing the likes of Disco 2000 and Sorted for E’s & Wizz in favour of their early works.
A full setlist for Pulp’s End of the Road festival show can be found below.
- I Spy
- Little Girl (With Blue Eyes) (First performance since 2012)
- The Mark of the Devil (First performance since 1992)
- Background Noise
- Tina
- Forever in My Dreams (First performance since 2000)
- Deep Fried in Kelvin (Live debut)
- Death II (First performance since 1992)
- O.U. (Gone, Gone)
- Babies
- Razzmatazz
- Lipgloss
- Do You Remember the First Time?
- Spike Island
- Got to Have Love
- Underwear
- Common People
- This is Hardcore
- We Are the Boyz
- Something Changed
- Sunrise
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