This is Hardcore posed the question of this Pulp film back in 1998. It seems only now that the Jarvis Cocker-fronted band has an answer. A run of reunion shows in 2023 led somewhere unexpected: a new album, More, and a new generation of appreciation for timeless songs. Garth Jennings’ work on What Do You Do for an Encore?, a blur of documentarian stylings and concert film thrills, is consistent enough to get the Pulp story across. He leaves much of the why and what of it all in the shadows. It’s a bold move to make a documentary that’s somewhat light on detail, but it works in the band’s favour as Cocker narrates us through a brief history of Pulp. There’s a lot to cram in after nearly fifty years of the band existing, much of that spent in the small-scale venues of Sheffield. But the slow crawl to stardom and rapid fallout with its glistening highs is charted well here. There’s enough for those well-versed in Pulp’s history, and enough too for those who only know a song or two.
What Do You Do for an Encore? Is a much more successful documentary than previous Pulp feature film, Life, Death & Supermarkets. Where director Florian Habicht sat the band down to talk through their reunion, Jennings goes the opposite direction. He doesn’t want to talk to the band, he wants the band to talk through their career. Cocker, mainly. Mark Webber, Candida Doyle, Nick Banks, along with mainstays Steve Mackey and Russell Senior, are present in the documentary but we don’t hear a word from them. With materials from Cocker’s Good Pop, Bad Pop book being used to pad out the early years, What Do You Do for an Encore? can start to feel like a bit of a one-man show. But it never drifts far enough away from the core of the band to do that. Jennings is light on the details of why the band sought to reject fame after Different Class, and lighter still for their reasons to get back on the road, but sometimes people do things without much of a reason.
For Pulp it felt like enough of a reason was to simply do it. Cocker asks why the band wouldn’t get back on the road again, and that’s the question that lingers during that fantastic live rendition of Common People. Pulp clearly enjoys what they do but all bands need a break. If Jennings’ work is to be believed, Cocker and company haven’t had so much fun on stage, and a lot of that comes from what they’ve learnt in the pop stardom arena, as Mackey once called it. Now that the route to success has shifted, the staying power of an artist lingering longer. Thanks to social media and dedicated fans who can connect with each other at the front of a barrier or a pub down the road from the venue, Pulp is still living on in their on-stage absence.
What, then, do you do for an encore? Release a chart-topping album, tour for four years, put out a live album, and then a concert film blurred into a documentary. Pulp has found the answer. But even after concluding their encore, there’s still a hint of even more to come. Cocker says as much himself in this documentary, openly unsure of what will happen next for the band. Something will happen, all signs point to movement down the road, but until then, fans have a perfect package of offerings from a band who look as though they thoroughly enjoy being back out there. The live footage is miraculous and ripped from the aptly titled Live! Album. Some may hope to see a full concert film, Help the Aged, O.U., and all, but that’d be wishful thinking. You’re not going to learn too much in the way of detail about the band, but what Jennings captures is the spirit of the group, what brought such a spirited response to the reunion. The door is left wide open for Pulp in what seems to be a final note in this encore. The call for more has been answered, but there’s still appetite, seemingly from artist and audience, to do it all over again.
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