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Good evening.

This is a night you will remember for the rest of your life.

You're about to see...

Pulp.

This performance is an encore.

An encore occurs because the audience wants more.

So, make some noise.

I said...

make... some... noise!

It can only be Pulp!

They're back, they're better than ever.

- Pulp. - Pulp.

- Pulp. - Pulp, come on now!

You're looking good as well!

I mean you can't see yourselves but you look very, very pretty.

Your feelings have been noted.

Your feelings have been noted.

Let the show... begin.

Something stopped me dead in my tracks

I was headed for disaster and then I turned back

I was wrestling with a coat hanger, can you guess who won?

The universe shrugged, shrugged, then moved on

It's a guess, no idea

Just a feeling

Not a voice in my head

Just a feeling

And by the way

Spike Island come alive

And by the way

This time I'll get it right, oh

Not a shaman, or a showman, ashamed that I was selling the rights

I took a breather and decided not to ruin my life

I was conforming to a cosmic design

I was playing to type

Until I walked back to the Gardеn of Earthly Delights

I was born to perform

It's a calling

I exist to do this

Shouting and pointing

And by thе way

Spike Island come alive

And by the way

This time I'll get it right, oh

No one can ever understand it

And no one can ever have the last word

Because it's not something you could ever say

So swivel

Ah, it's a guess, no idea

It's a feeling

Not a voice in my head

Just a feeling

And by the way

Oh, Spike Island come alive

And by the way

This time I'll get it right, yeah

And by the way

Ah, Spike Island come alive

And by the way

Huh

This time I'll get it right, oh

Ah-ah, ooh-ooh, ooh-ooh...

Spike Island was the first song Pulp played

at our 566th show

at the O2 Arena in London on 13th June 2025

to an audience of over twenty thousand people.

Those are the statistics but how did we get to a moment

where we were playing our 566th show?

That's a long story.

I'll tell you it, if you've got the time.

You'll be seeing more of the concert in just a moment

but before that, let's take a commercial break.

This film is going to be like being at a jumble sale.

And all because the lady loves Milk Tray.

Sifting through piles of visual rubbish

to find the "gold" we need to tell a story.

So you're seeing inside me now, is it?

The Pulp Story.

You're within my personal zone.

And you're seeing the real me.

Our journey starts here on sunny Stanhope Road.

This is where the young Jarvis Branson Cocker grew up

in one of these humble abodes.

As a child, I longed to be able to blend into the background

and not draw attention to myself.

I was also embarrassed by my name.

I remember telling people that my name was John

just to avoid having to say "Jarvis" in public.

When you've got a surname like "Cocker"

you couldn't really call him "Everhard".

I could tell you ever so many stories,

but I promised him I wouldn't.

Go on then.

He said, "Don't embarrass--"

Well, there was one time, me husband was very good with his hands,

he could make anything, and he made him this time machine

and he didn't know anything about it, you see.

- Oh me dad had never seen... - Daleks.

- It was a Dalek. - Oh that was it.

At the time, I thought my grandad's recreation of Doctor Who's nemesis

was an exact replica.

I thought the man was a genius and it was interactive.

The Dalek had a hinged door at the back so that I could get inside

and roll around the house shouting, "Exterminate."

My very first attempts to entertain the public.

Exterminate!

It was a noisy Christmas that year.

He liked fantasy, he lived in a bit of a fantasy world.

When I was a child, most of my ideas about the world

came from watching TV.

I was extremely short-sighted but this wasn't diagnosed

until I started school and was unable to see the blackboard.

The real world was out of focus,

but by sitting at the right distance to the screen,

the television world was pin-sharp.

Dangerous situation.

It all went in.

Space was everywhere on TV when I was a kid.

The moon landing and Star Trek, my young mind was boggled.

The borderline between fiction and reality fatally compromised.

I became convinced

that I was gonna be spending my adult life in outer space.

It was here after an English class

that Jarvis hatched his plan for pop stardom.

He grabbed the three most unpopular kids in school and formed a band,

changing Sheffield forever.

This is an exercise book in which the fifteen year old me

wrote his ideas about being in a band.

It's my Dead Sea Scrolls and it begins with clothes.

Buy the clothes at a jumble sale and then find the people to wear them.

Very Field of Dreams.

But I'm glad it didn't work out that way.

Control is overrated.

Mmm, the music's started.

Time to go back, back to the future.

Oh, is this the way they say the future's meant to feel?

Or just 20,000 people standing in a field

And I don't quite understand just what this feeling is

But that's okay 'cause we're all sorted out for E's and wizz

And tell me when the spaceship lands

'Cause all this has just got to mean something, oh

Alright

In the middle of the night, it feels alright

But then tomorrow morning

Ooh

Oooh, then you come down, ah

Oh yeah, the pirate radio told us what was going down

Got the tickets from some fucked up bloke in Camden Town

Oh, and no one seems to know exactly where it is

But that's okay 'cause we're all sorted out for E's and wizz

At 4 o'clock the normal world

Seems very, very, very far away

Alright

In the middle of the night, it feels alright

But then tomorrow morning

Ooh

Ooh, then you come down, ah

Just keep on moving

Everybody asks your name, they say we're all the same

And now it's, "Nice one, geezer"

And that's as far as the conversation went

I lost my friends, I dance alone, it's six o'clock, I wanna go home

But it's "No way", "not today", it makes you wonder what it meant

And oh...

And this hollow feeling grows and grows and grows

And you want to call your mother and say

"Mother, I can never come home again

"'Cause I seem to have left an important part of my brain

"Somewhere in a field near North Greenwich"

In the middle of the night, it feels alright

But then tomorrow morning

Ooh

Ooh, then you come down

Ooh

Ooh, then you come down

Oh

What if you never come down?

Oh, we were born within an hour of each other

It was said we should be sister and brother

Your name is Deborah, Deborah

It never suited ya

And they said that when we grew up

We'd get married and never split up

Oh, we never did it

Although I often thought of her

Oh, Deborah, do you recall?

Your house was very small

With woodchip on the wall

When I came around to call

You didn't notice me at all

And I said

"Let's all meet up in the year 2000

"Won't it be strange when we're all fully grown?

"Be there two o'clock by the fountain down the road"

I never thought that you'd get married

I would be living down here on my own

On that damp and lonely Thursday years ago

You were the first girl at school to get breasts

And Martyn said that you were the best

Oh, the boys all loved you but I was a mess

I had to watch them try and get you undressed

We were friends, that was as far as it went

I used to walk you home sometimes, but it meant

Oh, it meant nothing to you

'Cause you were so popular

Oh Deborah, do you recall?

Your house was very small

With woodchip on the wall

When I came around to call

You didn't notice me at all

And I said

"Let's all meet up in the year 2000

"Won't it be strange when we're all fully grown?

"Be there two o'clock by the fountain down the road"

I never thought that you'd get married

I would be living down here on my own

On that damp and lonely Thursday years ago

Do it

Oh yeah

Oh yeah

Oh, Deborah, do you recall?

Your house was very small

With woodchip on the wall

When I came around to call

You didn't notice me at all

And I said

"Let's all meet up in the year 2000

"Won't it be strange when we're all fully grown?

"Be there two o'clock by the fountain down the road"

I never thought that you'd get married

I would be living down here on my own

On that damp and lonely Thursday years ago

What are you doing Sunday, baby?

Would you like to come and meet me maybe?

You can even bring your baby

Ooh, ooh-ooh-ooh, ooh, ooh

What are you doing Sunday, baby?

Would you like to come and meet me maybe?

You can even bring your baby

Ooh, ooh-ooh-ooh, ooh, ooh

Ooh-ooh-ooh, ooh

Okay 1981, it's a year or so since I wrote that Pulp masterplan.

The transformation is well underway.

Let's consider my hair first.

I'm heavily into Echo and the Bunnymen.

I love the music but the image is important to me too

and foremost in that image is Ian McCulloch's hair.

But what about the thing on my chin?

Yes, I based my beard

on one worn by Stranglers frontman, Hugh Cornwell.

Looking back now, it crosses my mind it may not actually been a beard

but just a shadow cast by the cleft in his chin.

No, not a beard at all.

The glasses I'm wearing are the most obvious aspect of the look.

People shout, "Here comes Elvis Costello,"

when I'm walking through Sheffield city centre

or working at my Saturday job at the fish market.

The market traders did him a power of good

and stopped him being so airy-fairy

'cause he didn't mix with those kind of people.

He spent half his life in his bedroom writing music.

Here's another page from the manifesto.

Before Pulp, music is carrying on

in much the same way as it has done for centuries.

But after Pulp, the musical stave mutates

into writhing spaghetti like forms completely new to mankind.

Pretty rich coming from someone who couldn't, and still can't,

read a note of music.

The dream, as I think we've convincingly established by now,

knew no bounds

but what was happening back on planet earth?

Here they are, Pulp.

Is there any toilet roll left in the toilet?

No, I think if you wanna wipe your arse go in here.

These mythical songs weren't going to write or record themselves.

Anorexic beauty, underweight goddess

For concerts, you have to rely on a certain number of clubs,

which are usually quite small and not very good

or you have to get in the colleges,

and the colleges and universities often make you think

that you're being done a great favour to let you play there

'cause they think bands can put up with anything

and it doesn't really matter if they get electrocuted and die

'cause they're all Social Security scroungers anyway.

We made our first attempt at a professional demo recording

about three weeks before the John Peel roadshow came to town.

For the thirty-seven years John Peel was broadcasting at the BBC,

he was the only outlet for alternative music on British radio.

There is no way to quantify that.

Yeah, I won't say this is one day's supply of tapes but...

Everybody seems to have a home tape recorder.

- Yeah. - Not only do they have one,

they have a group, they make the tape and they send it to us.

If we wanted the whole world to hear our music

then here was our chance.

I went down to the roadshow.

I had the cassette of our four songs in my jacket pocket.

As luck would have it, after DJing,

John Peel descended from the podium and walked in my direction.

I intercepted him and awkwardly introduced myself.

There was a moment of eye contact

and then he said that he would listen to the tape on his drive home.

With that, he was gone.

A week or so later...

there was a telephone call.

John Peel's producer informed my grandmother

that he'd like her to come down to the BBC studios

to record a radio session.

She realised that the message was probably intended for me.

I know it's a cliché,

but it really did feel like I'd died and gone to heaven.

John Peel wants us, four school kids from Sheffield, to record a session.

If I had to choose the one event

that gave me the confidence to devote my life to music,

this would be it.

Are you ready?

Mis-shapes, mistakes, misfits

Raised on a diet of broken biscuits, oh

We don't look the same as you

And we don't do the things you do

But we live round here too, oh really

Mis-shapes, mistakes, misfits

We'd like to go to town, but we can't risk it, oh

'Cause they just want to keep us out

You could end up with a smack in the mouth

Just for standing out, oh really

Brothers, sisters, can't you see?

The future's owned by you and me

There won't be fighting in the street

They think they've got us beat

Revenge is gonna be so sweet, uh uh

We're making a move, we're making it now

We're coming out of the sidelines

Just put your hands up, it's a raid, yeah

We want your homes, we want your lives

We want the things you won't allow us

We won't use guns, we won't use bombs

We'll use the one thing we've got more of

That's our minds

Check your lucky numbers

That much money could drag you under, oh

What's the point of being rich

If you can't think what to do with it?

'Cause you're so bleedin' thick

Oh, we weren't supposed to be

We learnt too much at school

Now we can't help but see

That this future that you've got mapped out is

Nothing much to shout about, uh uh uh

We're making a move, we're making it now

We're coming out of the sidelines

Just put your hands up, it's a raid, yeah

We want your homes, we want your lives

We want the things you won't allow us

We won't use guns, we won't use bombs

We'll use the one thing we've got more of

That's our minds

Our minds

Ow

Brothers, sisters, can't you see?

The future's owned by you and me

There won't be fighting in the street

They think that they've got us beat

But revenge, revenge is gonna be so sweet

We're making a move, we're making it now

We're coming out of the sidelines

Just put your hands up, it's a raid, yeah

We want your homes, we want your lives

We want the things you won't allow us

We won't use guns, we won't use bombs

We'll use the one thing we've got more of

That's our minds

Yeah, that's our minds

Yeah, uh

Have a look at this.

You see this shiny object I have in my hand,

and can you see it has a number on it?

We as a band were presented with this earlier today.

Because the album, More , is number one.

In the official UK albums chart.

And you put it there!

So I'm going to applaud you.

So...

as you've probably read

and are probably fed up of reading in the press,

our first album for twenty-four years.

Oh, they're all getting on a bit, aren't they?

It's nice for them to have something to do when they're getting on a bit.

Fuck that.

So, would you like to hear a song from the record?

This next song is called "Grown Ups",

and it starts off with you clapping along to Nick's hi-hat, okay?

In time.

Not bad.

Don't speed up, you've got to keep it.

The moon went behind a petro-chemical plant

I had a feeling I didn't understand

I was shivering on crutches

More dead than alive

It was Christmas 1985

It was the night they let me out of the home

It was the night I caught the bus on my own

And the city slithered past the windows

Like a film that was just beginning

I was so excited I nearly missed my stop

It was quarter to ten, I was hopelessly lost

I arrived pretty late, but you didn't seem to mind

We are not the first, but we are golden tonight

Like two little children under the covers

Adrift in the night with the universe above us

And I'll be the dad and you'll be the mum

And we'll make out we know what it is that we've done

But whatever it is, I know, that it's only just beginning, yeah

Trying so, so hard

To act just like a grown up

And it's so, so hard

And we're hoping that we don't get shown up

'Cause everybody wants to grow up

Finally part of the pub conversation

Finally part of the next generation

And somehow this leads to mature life decisions

Like the one that I heard of from Jeremy Sissons

Who said he, he moved near the motorway

'Cause it was good for commuting

And I laughed in his face because I thought he was joking

But then I looked in his eyes and I saw he was not joking

No, he was trying

Trying so, so hard

To act just like a grown up

And it's so, so hard

And we're hoping that we don't get shown up

'Cause everybody's got to grow up

Everybody?

Are you sure?

Are you absolutely sure?

So you move from Camden out to Hackney

And you stress about wrinkles instead of acne

And you forget about Tina, get in a bad mood

And buy a computer and soon it will be time for some more food

Uh-uh uh

Yeah

Ooh

Later that night, I had a dream

A new planet had been discovered

And looking through a really powerful telescope

We could see the inhabitants

And they all seemed to be having a really good time

So we built a rocket and I was on it

They put us into suspended animation

For the length of the journey

And when we landed on that distant planet

We all woke up

And we realised we'd lost our memories

And we looked back at the planet we'd just come from

And everyone there seemed to be having a really good time

But we couldn't return

Because the rocket no longer had enough fuel left in it

Why am I telling this story?

Why am I telling you this story?

I don't remember

Why did Mowgli decide to come out of the jungle?

To play doctors and nurses and aunties and uncles

And Cavaliers and Roundheads and tarts and vicars

Playing all night to get in somebody's knickers

And I am not ageing, I am just ripening

And life's too short to drink bad wine and that's frightening

And it's nearly sunset and we haven't had lunch yet

And I'm sorry for asking, but are we having fun yet?

So, so hard to act just like a grown up

And it's so, so hard

And we're hoping that we don't get shown up

'Cause everybody's got to grow up

One final blaze of glory, one final sunset

And I know it's all about the journey

Not the final destination

But what if you get travel sick

Before you've even left the station?

That's Pulp, and I'll give you the line-up of the band now actually.

There's a Jarvis Cocker, wonder if he's any relation to Joe?

Genuinely don't know, suppose he could be,

even come from the same town, Sheffield.

The John Peel session did not lead to instant fame and fortune.

It was broadcast a couple of times and then that was that.

When Pulp finally had a hit record

fourteen years after these photographs were taken,

journalists were fascinated by this extended gap in my biography.

What could I possibly have been doing in the interim?

Out of sugar.

Would you be a dear and get a cup from the neighbours?

When school comes to an end, the rest of the band went off to university.

But I wasn't really ready to give up on the dream just yet.

Another lineup of Pulp formed and we made a record called 'It'.

And again, not many people noticed.

Time for plan B.

Could I borrow a cup of Crystal Sugar?

It's worth going out of your way for.

Did you get the sugar?

I'd been deferring a place to go and study English Literature

at Liverpool University.

Some nights, I wonder whether I've made the right decision?

The night I wrote these lyrics on my dole cheque envelope

obviously being one of them.

What prevented me from joining the legion of lost souls?

The band.

It may seem strange

To talk of love and then lighthouses

It's not strange to me

Hey, hey, hey, hey

Around this time, Russell Senior returned to Sheffield

when his university course ended, and asked what I was up to musically.

"Nothing," I said, "I'm going to University".

I'd known Russell since he wrote the very first Pulp live review

in his fanzine, Bath Banker.

He was interesting.

He persuaded me to have just one rehearsal with him

to see if he could make me change my mind about further education.

Within half an hour,

I knew I was never gonna study English in Liverpool.

Candida Mary Doyle joined Pulp during the Senior years.

Her brother, Magnus, was our drummer at the time.

Candida had attained Grade 3 in her piano playing

which made her the most musically educated member of the band by far.

But she brought much more than just her musicianship.

Being in a band is often a blokey, macho environment,

and the fact that Candida was around stopped that from happening to us.

Thank you.

Yes, we had a new sensibility and a new record about to be released

and then I went and spoilt it all.

You may have heard this story...

I went to a girl's flat in the centre of Sheffield

and tried to impress her by going out onto a window ledge

and then re-entering her living room via the next window along.

To her credit, the girl begged me not to go through with my plan

but to no avail.

Five minutes later, I was hanging from the ledge,

realising that I'd seriously overestimated

my physical capabilities.

The foremost thought in my mind was how undramatic the situation felt.

Life-threatening yet boring.

If it had been a scene in a film on my beloved TV set,

there would have been tense orchestral music

to heighten the atmosphere of peril.

It felt too normal.

This was the moment my worldview changed profoundly.

I realised that life is occurring in all its intensity, right now

and right under your nose.

Not on a screen.

The scales fell from my eyes.

Must have been the impact when I hit the ground.

I found myself eyeball to eyeball

with what I'd always been searching for,

something to write about.

I wanted to share this revelation with the world

but first, I had some bones to mend.

I listened to this cassette a lot when I was in hospital

recovering from my fall.

Of course I'd heard Barry White before

but only now did I fall deeply in love with his music.

There's something so open and joyous about it,

you can lie back and relax in it.

He makes it seem effortless.

Another revelation.

Make it look easy.

Something very important was happening to me whilst in hospital.

A convalescence, but also a coalescence.

A magic formula was brewing...

of Barry plus Eurodisco

plus gritty northern realism equals...

the future.

The room is cold

And has been like this for several months

If I close my eyes, I can visualise everything in it

Right down to the broken handle

On the third drawer down of the dressing table

And the world outside this room has also assumed a familiar shape

The same events shuffled in a slightly different order every day

Just like a modern shopping centre

And it's so co-o-o-o-old

Yeah it's so co-o-o-o-old

What...

is...

this...

feeling called love?

Why me?

Why you?

Why here?

Why now?

It doesn't make no sense, no

It's not convenient, no

It doesn't fit my plans, it's something I don't understand, oh

F-E-E-L-I-N-G

C-A double L-E-D

L-O-V-E

What is this thing that is happening to me? Oh!

So what should I do?

I've got a slightly sick feeling in my stomach

Like I'm standing on the top of a very high building

Yeah, all those things they tell you about in the movies

Only this isn't chocolate boxes or roses

It's dirtier than that

It's like some small animal that only comes out at night

And I see flashes of the shape of your breasts

And the curve of your belly

And I have to lie down

Lie down and catch my breath

And it's so co-o-o-o-old

It's so co-o-o-o-old

What...

is...

this...

feeling called love?

Why me?

Why you?

Why here?

Why now?

Oh, it doesn't make no sense, no

It's not convenient, no

It doesn't fit my plans but I got that taste in my mouth again, oh

F-E-E-L-I-N-G

C-A double L-E-D

L-O-V-E

What is this thing that is happening to me?

Oh yeah

Oh yeah

Oh yeah

Oh yeah

Oh yeaaah

'Pop' and 'Pulp' are interchangeable terms for me

because the idea that a culture can reveal more of itself

through its throwaway items

than through its supposedly revered artifacts was,

and still is, fascinating.

The little things in life are, are, are important

and they're not the little things in the end

because they are the things that you fill your life with

and then I like the idea of taking everyday things

and just the act of setting it to music amplifies it

and makes it something a lot, a lot bigger, you know.

I learnt about the world by looking at what it threw away

and through culture that was deemed "worthless".

This is the Pulp Aesthetic:

Sifting through the debris

to find an alternative to the official narrative,

using second hand items to tell a brand new story.

Which is pretty much the definition of the creative act,

as far as I can make out.

Boring git, you know.

Don't bother with him.

Mark, Nick, Steve, Candida and Jarvis,

- welcome to Live & Kicking . - And Russell.

And Russell did I... I'm sorry Russell.

I will not be taking part in this documentary

because I regard it as Stalinist.

Russell's smiling now! We better alert the tabloids.

- No, no he's not, sorry. - Okay.

We've never been a very neat...

it's not like a concept, you know, like nowadays bands,

it's almost like they've been designed by a computer in a way.

We're six very kind of disparate individuals

who haven't really got the same taste in anything

and are of very varying sizes, heights and ages.

You look more like a male heterosexual human being

which is presumably the look you're vainly attempting to achieve.

Oh no.

Did we really need that?

I didn't think they'd notice that.

You couldn't fit it in the lens, that's not surprising, I suppose.

- Come on do it again. - I can't do that again.

So, tell me first about your nail varnish, Mark

Well, I just kind of thought I'd try it one day

'cause I thought it would be like something glamorous

'cause I'm not that fussed about clothes

like some members of the group

I thought maybe it would be something interesting for me

if I was to have nail varnish.

I'm not very good at it, I tend to flood my cuticles.

Mark Webber's seriously underrated.

And the rest of the band, no-one really pays so much attention to them

because Jarvis is the lead singer but they are amazing as well as Jarvis.

If it wasn't all of them then it wouldn't be Pulp.

I think it's very important, the fact that myself and Steve

both went and studied film at college.

Jarvis is kind of you know he's, he's a director.

All successful bands are kind of arrow shaped

with someone at the front who has the final decision.

And there's a kind of pyramid of influence of certain members

and everyone adds something, but,

he writes some very personal lyrics and words about his life

and if he didn't feel comfortable with the music

then he'd find it difficult to sing these words on top of them.

Here's the cast-list for this film:

every Pulp member, past and present, is here.

It starts with school friends:

the other kids who weren't into sport or smoking.

Then school ended and the other band members went to university.

I attempted to enrol in the 'School of Life'.

Tough entrance exam.

The next members were people I met in pubs or bumped into at bus stops.

Musical ability was never a priority...

The ability to dream was.

A dream is more fun if you have other people to dream it with you.

One member was so into dreaming, he was very rarely conscious.

We called him 'Captain Sleep'.

He only lasted two shows.

Nick Banks arrived at his audition as Pulp drummer

accompanied by a dog that had followed him from the bus stop.

We spent his audition time trying to return the dog to its owner.

He got the job without hitting a drum once.

We were always a disparate group of individuals.

There was no band uniform.

There was no manifesto to obey.

The real life version of Pulp

has been far more interesting than anything I could have imagined alone.

Important lesson, that.

I don't know about you, but if you've been up at a pub all night,

it can make you a little bit allergic to sunlight.

It can hurt, and this is a song about that.

I used to hate the sun

Because it shone on everythin' I'd done

And made me feel that all that I had done

Was overfill the ashtray of my life

All my...

Achievements in days of yore

Range from pathetic to piss-poor

But all that's gonna change

Because here comes...

sunrise

Yes, here's your...

sunrise

I used to hide from the sun

I tried to live my whole life underground

Why'd you have to rise and ruin all my fun?

Just turn over, drew the curtains on the day

Oh but here comes...

sunrise

Yes, here's your...

sunrise

When you've been awake all night long

And you feel like crashin' out at dawn

But you've been awake all night

So why should you crash out at dawn?

The patch of grass that you can see on the screen

is in Weston Park, Sheffield.

It was filmed at around four o'clock on a Wednesday afternoon in February.

This is a patch of grass where on a summer's evening,

sometime during 1983,

I first had sex.

Jarvis Cocker, lead singer of Pulp, is a hot new talent.

Do we really need to see singers

wiping their faces with knickers?

This stunt was in bad taste for young viewers.

Led by the thinking hermaphrodite sex symbol, Jarvis Cocker.

Jarvis! So gorgeous! Jarvis, man! Jarvis.

He's very gorgeous, he's really sweet as well.

His lyrics are absolutely amazing and he's really good looking as well.

He's just a real sex god.

He's like, he's different from your average man.

It's like everyone fancies him, even all the men...

- Even me. - ...fancy him, yeah.

Yeah.

Why do you like Pulp?

Um, because I want to shag Candida.

This tour's been different to other one we've done before

'cause everyone's really liked us and uh,

We've got mobbed a little bit which has been quite weird.

That's Noel there,

David Bowie, I don't know if you know him,

Tricky there, I don't know who that was.

Cher, that's me, Van Morrison.

That is Eric Clapton's forehead.

As you can see, I'm overcome with emotion.

I suppose if you were about sixteen or so,

you'd think, "If you get a number one album,

"you're gonna go on a crazy two week long bender or something."

But it's not really like that because you know, it's been really busy

so you just kind of think...

"Ah, at last. Made it."

Could success have come sooner?

Well yeah, it could have, quite, quite a lot sooner, I guess.

They came to settle the arguments once and for all.

It was the Blur versus Oasis football match.

Also playing in other matches were Jarvis Cocker, out of Pulp,

and Robbie Williams.

The band that stopped Oasis picking up all the British music awards.

Pulp's Different Class .

Having your dreams actually come true

is not the kind of thing you can really prepare for.

You suddenly find yourself in a new world.

A world you've been trying to reach your entire life.

I had personally been trying to reach

the world I had glimpsed inside the TV set as a child.

I thought that if I accepted all the invitations I received

to appear on TV, I would eventually be allowed to live there permanently.

No responsibilities.

It didn't happen.

The Pulp masterplan was finally working.

For the first time, our songs were beginning to connect with people.

They found they could relate to them and perhaps more importantly,

they found they could dance to them.

But trouble was on its way.

You say you've got to go home

'Cause he's sitting on his own again this evening

And I know you're gonna let him bore your pants off again

Oh, God it's half past eight, you'll be late

You say you've never been sure

Oh it makes good sense for you to live together

Still you bought a toy that can reach the places he never goes

And now it's getting late, he's so straight

Do you remember the first time?

I can't remember a worse time

Oh, but you know that we've changed so much since then

Oh yeah, we've grown

Now, I don't care what you're doing

No, I don't care if you screw him

Oh, just as long as you save one piece for me, oh yeah, now

Ooh

You wanna go home

Well, at least, at least there's someone there that you can talk to

And you never have to face up to the night on your own

Oh Jesus, it must be great to be straight

Do you remember the first time?

I can't remember a worse time

Oh, but you know that we've changed so much since then

Oh yeah, we've grown

Now, I don't care what you're doing

I don't care if you screw him

Oh, just as long as you save one piece for me, oh yeah, now

Ooh

You want to go home?

You say you've gotta go home

You say you've gotta go home

Ooooh

You say you've gotta go home

Hey, hey, hey!

Do you remember the first time?

I can't remember a worse time

Oh but you know that we've changed so much since then

Oh yeah, we've grown

Now, I don't care what you're doing

I don't care if you screw him

Oh, just as long as you save one piece for me, oh yeah, now

Do you remember the first time?

I can't remember a worse time, no

Oh but you know that we've changed so much since then

Oh yeah, we've grown

Now, I don't care what you're doing

I don't care if you screw him

Oh, just as long as you save one piece for me, oh yeah, now

Ooh, you wanna go...

...home

I want you all to touch TV screens,

I'm going to telepath a message to you, concentrate.

Are we connected yet?

Are we connected?

Come on in Jarvis Cocker.

Hey!

- Ahoy. - Take a seat there sir.

The TV screen was certainly the first place

I saw people performing music.

Years and years before I saw a live concert,

I was an avid viewer of the BBC show, Top of the Pops.

They're one of the most original bands in the UK

and featuring a former Top of the Pops presenter, it's Pulp.

When Pulp actually got to perform on Top of the Pops

many years later, I insisted on miming my singing

rather than doing it live;

that was how all the performers had done it when I was a kid.

To me, pop had nothing to do with reality.

It was an improvement on reality.

Very dangerous belief.

So we'd always said we wanted to be a pop band,

and we wanted to be popular.

I like pop music, not rock music 'cause pop music's quite disposable

but in future years, it usually sums up a moment in someone's life.

How important was it for you to become famous?

The idea of being famous was probably like the same,

on a level of realistic thinking,

was probably up there with like wanting to be a spaceman.

It was just a fantasy.

Was it headlining at Glastonbury that brought it home?

Yeah, that was the one physical manifestation of it,

I suppose, yeah definitely.

Okay and this is because John Squire

broke his collarbone, didn't he, on a cycling accident?

Yeah, we replaced the Stone Roses at quite, at short notice.

We were quite scared because it was such a massive step up for us.

We kind of felt like we couldn't turn the opportunity down.

"What, Saturday night? Huh!"

And it was, you know, really kind of make your mouth go very dry

and go like, "Oh my God!"

"Common People" had been a hit but that's kind of abstract

but when you're on a stage and surrounded by all these people

who seem to know the words and you can hear them singing back at you

there's no denying it then.

You've stepped through some weird portal into another dimension.

Sing along with the Common...

And there's a realisation that you're connected, you know,

'cause that's what you always want to do if you're in a band

or in any kind of creative thing.

If you don't just do it in your bedroom and listen to it yourself,

you're looking for this kind of connection.

This is good, this a good thing that's happened here.

Us all in this place.

And do you know what's happening in the outside world?

And do you care?

When you go home on Monday morning,

you're gonna go home to a different world.

Yeah?

In 1995, over seventeen years since Pulp first formed

and fourteen years since our first session was played on BBC Radio One,

Pulp finally reached the summit we'd been dreaming about.

We had scaled Mount Pop.

And the view from the top of that dream mountain?

Hard to say. We were in a blizzard, the air was thin, it was very cold

and there was no television reception.

And the only signpost in sight was pointing down.

All the way down.

All the way down to the Hardcore Life.

You are hardcore, you make me hard

You name the drama, I'll play the part

It seems I saw you in some teenage wet dream

I like your get up if you know what I mean

I want it bad

I want it now

Oh, can't you see

I'm ready now

I've seen all the pictures, I studied them forever

I wanna make a movie, so let's star in it together, oh, oh

Don't make a move

'til- I say "Action"

Oh, here comes the hardcore life

Put your money where your mouth is tonight

Leave your make-up on and I'll leave on the light

Come over here, babe, and talk in the mic

Oh yeah, I hear you now, it's gonna be one hell of a night

You can't be a spectator, oh no

You gotta take these dreams and make them whole

This is hardcore

There is no way back for you

Oh, this is hardcore

This is me on top of you

And I can't believe that it took me this long

That it took me this long

This...

This is the eye of the storm

It's what men in strange raincoats pay for

But in here it is pure, yeah

This...

This is the end of the line

I've seen the storyline

Played out so many times before

Oh, that goes in there

And that goes in there

And that goes in there

And that goes in there, ooh

And then it's over

Oh

What a hell of a show

What I want to know

What exactly do you do for an encore, yeah?

'Cause this is hardcore

In a way, This is Hardcore was like being in a very dark tunnel

and it seemed not a good idea

to go any further down this dark tunnel

and in a way, we had to turn around and walk back towards the light

and then take a different path.

You suddenly get into the pop arena

and you just realise you hate it, you know,

it's full of people with values that you don't like.

They were one of Britpop's biggest bands

but now, Pulp have been pulverised by their record label.

Many people were shocked

that a band best known for writing upbeat tunes had gone all serious.

Who hasn't noticed the difference in Pulp?

Even the most diehard Pulp fans will admit

the indie darlings have lost their common touch.

It's career suicide if they want to be popstars.

I can't believe it, Jarvis Cocker just threw himself out of the window.

It's a lot safer than doing it the real way.

You know Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray

and the picture gets more and more twisted and horrible.

- Yeah. - And the person stays looking great.

Well that-- it's the other way around with me.

- So I thought I'll get rid of it. - Get rid of him.

The future starts now.

When releasing an album,

do you think it's important to top yourself?

No way.

That's an unfortunate phrase.

In English, if you say, "To top yourself"

- it means to commit suicide. - Okay, sorry.

A problem with the language here.

I think you have to wait, you know,

you have to wait until a bit of time has gone past since your last album

and then just kind of think to yourself,

"Well is there anything else I want to say or is that it?"

And you can't force that, you just have to find out

whether that feeling comes or not.

Alright, Malcolm.

- Wow look. - Archive material.

Look at this, this is the original sugar.

11/95, see it could be.

This sugar could have been used at the time.

Yeah, might not be sugar though.

You know everybody does things outside the band.

Some of them are visible such as me DJing now and again.

Others are invisible such as your tapestry work.

It would be nice if our records lasted more than

like three years or five years.

It would be nice if say, in twenty-five years,

people still liked our music.

Do you think you will continue to play?

No, no.

Well, you see, we've already played for fifteen years

which is longer than most bands survive, so you know.

But this is not your last, last album, is it?

It could-- well who knows, who knows?

I think you know, you can't see into the future which I'm glad about.

It was the year 2001,

the year after the future was meant to begin.

I took an air rifle...

We released our seventh studio album, We Love Life

just after The Twin Towers came down in New York.

We were all suddenly living in a completely different world.

We felt it was time to take a break.

I moved to Paris with my wife and newly-born child.

On the way to the ferry, my guitar fell off the roof rack of the car

and was run over by an articulated lorry.

Totally destroyed.

I took that as a sign.

When I got to Paris, I realised

that I couldn't understand the French programmes playing on the TV set.

So I stopped watching it.

Ten years later in 2011, the break ended.

It turned out it wasn't the end, after all,

it had just been a hibernation.

Pulp woke up and we reunited...

to play twenty odd more shows...

Do it! Oh yeah

Then once again, it was over.

And this time it seemed for good.

In late 2022, Pulp's bass player, Steve Mackey, became seriously ill

and only a few months after he'd been admitted to hospital,

he passed away.

Steve had been my closest friend in the band.

We DJed together, we drank together, we grew up in public together.

For the shows that Pulp began playing in 2023,

something had most definitely changed.

You're now gonna get an insight into how this tour came about.

Four of us met in a living room.

Those four people were...

Nick Banks...

Candida Doyle...

Mark Webber...

And me.

And also Steve Mackey, no longer with us.

We were wondering whether we could do something like this again

and so we decided just to play,

there were some instruments in this room

a very bad acoustic guitar, an out of tune piano,

a kind of African drum and we made a bit of a sound.

And it sounded a little bit like this.

This song, you may know it.

If you do know the words to it, you can sing along.

Okay.

Here we go.

I wrote this song two hours before we met

I didn't know your name or what you looked like yet

I could have stayed at home and gone to bed

I could have gone to see a film instead

I might have changed your mind and seen your friend

Life could have been very different but then

Something changed

Do you believe that there's someone up above?

Does he have a timetable directing acts of love?

Oh

Why did I write this song on that one day?

Why did you touch my hand and softly say

"Stop asking questions that don't matter anyway

"Just give us a kiss to celebrate here today"

Well, something changed

Oh, when we woke up that morning

We had no way of knowing

That in a matter of hours

We'd change the way we were going

Where would I be now?

Where would I be now if we'd never met?

Would I be singing this song to someone else instead

I don't know, but like you just said

Something changed

We're approaching the end of the concert and the end of this film.

You can sing.

Is there a moral to this tale?

After all, aren't you supposed to have learnt something

by the end of a story?

My personal revelation has been this:

real life is not televised.

And songs contain pockets of energy from your past life

which is released when you perform them again.

It's real time travel.

Much better than Doctor Who.

As for Pulp?

It's hard to say really, because the story of Pulp is not over yet.

It keeps going and I honestly have no idea where it's gonna go next...

...can you just do the intro there?

Which is fine by me.

You might be forgiven for thinking after all these years,

why do we keep going?

But I think the question you should really be asking yourself is this:

why wouldn't we?

Well, it happened years ago

When you lived on Stanhope Road

We listened to your sister

When she came home from school

'Cause she was two years older

And she had boys in her room

I listened outside, I heard her

Alright

That was all right for a while

But soon I wanted more

I wanna, I wanna see as well as hear and so I

I hid inside her wardrobe

As she came home 'round four

And she was with some kid called David

From the garage up the road

I listened outside, I heard her

Alright

Oh, I wanna take you home

I wanna give you children

And you might be my girlfriend

A-yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

When I saw you next day

You really couldn't tell

'Cause you might go and tell your mother

So you went with Neve

Who was coming on

And I thought I heard you laughing

When his mum and dad were gone

I listened outside, I heard you

Alright

Oh, I wanna take you home

I wanna give you children

And you might be my girlfriend

A-yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

Oh yeah

Oh well, I guess

Couldn't last too long

Came home one day

And all her things were gone

I fell asleep inside

I never heard her come

And she opened up the wardrobe

And I had to get it on, yeah

Oh, listen

We were on the bed when you came home

I heard you stop outside the door

I know you won't believe it's true

But I only went with her 'cause she looks like you

My god!

Oh, I wanna take you home

I wanna give you children

And you might be my girlfriend

A-yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

Oh

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

Yeah

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

Yeah

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

Cheers, thank you very much.

...yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah...

...yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

Reminds me of something.

Okay, we're not playing that one.

Oh, you're disappointed are you now?

Let's see whether you're still disappointed when you hear...

Common People...

...came from Greece, she had a thirst for knowledge

She studied sculpture at St. Martin's College

That's where I...

caught her eye

She told me that her dad was loaded

I said, "In that case I'll have a rum and Coca Cola"

She said "fine"

And then in thirty seconds' time - she said:

"I want to live like common people

"I want to do whatever common people do

"I want to sleep with common people

"I want to sleep with common people like you"

Well, what else could I do?

I said, "I'll... I'll see what I can do"

I took her to a supermarket

Don't know why, but I had to start it somewhere

So it started there

I said "Pretend you've got no money"

She just laughed and said "Ha, you're so funny"

I said "Yeah?

"Well, I can't see anyone else smiling in here

"Are you sure?

"You want to live like common people

"You want to see whatever common people see

"You want to sleep with common people

"You want to sleep with common people like me"

But she didn't understand

She just smiled and held my hand

Rent a flat above a shop

Cut your hair and get a job

Smoke some fags and play some pool

Pretend you never went to school

But still you'll never get it right

'Cause when you're laid in bed at night

Watching roaches climb the wall

If you called your dad he could stop it all, yeah

You'll never live like common people

You'll never do what common people do

You'll never fail like common people

You'll never watch your life slide out of view

And then dance and drink and screw

Because there's nothing else to do

Sing along with the common people

Sing along and it might just get you through

Laugh along with the common people

Laugh along even though they're laughing at you

And the stupid things that you do

Because you think that poor is cool

Like a dog lying in the corner

They will bite you and never warn you: look out

They'll tear your insides out

'Cause everybody hates a tourist

Especially one who thinks it's all such a laugh

And the chip stains and grease will come out in the bath

You will never understand

How it feels to live your life

With no meaning or control

And with nowhere left to go

You are amazed that they exist

And they burn so bright whilst you can only wonder why

Rent a flat above a shop

Cut your hair and get a job

Smoke some fags and play some pool

Pretend you never went to school

And still you'll never get it right

'Cause when you're laying in bed at night

Watching roaches climb the wall

If you called your dad he could stop it all, yeah

Never live like common people

You never do what common people do

Never fail like common people

You never watch your life slide out of view

And then dance and drink and screw

Because there's nothing else to do

...I wanna live with common people like you

I wanna live with common people like you

I wanna live with common people like you

I wanna live with common people like you

I wanna live with common people like you

I wanna live with common people like...

Oh yeah?

...I wanna live with common people like you

I wanna live with common people like you

I wanna live with common people like you

I wanna live with common people like you

I wanna live with common people like you

Like you

Like you

Like you

Like you

Oh, I want...

O2...

We love you, okay

I wanna live with common people like you

I wanna live with common people like you

Like you, like you, like you, like you, like you

Like you, like you, like you, like you, like you...

A ha-ha...

I've just got one more thing to say to you.

I wanna live with common people like you

I wanna live with common people like you

I wanna live with common people like you

I wanna live with common people like you

I wanna live with common people like you

I wanna live with common people like you

I wanna live with common people like you

I wanna live with common people like you

I wanna live with common people like you, la, la, la, la

Oh, la, la, la, la

Oh, la, la, la, la

Oh, la, la, la, la, la, la

Oh yeah

Yeah...

Yeah...

Yeah...

Yeah, yeah...

Yeah, yeah...

Yeah, yeah, yeah...

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah...

It's been the best day of my life.

Until tomorrow.

This day was also the first wedding anniversary

of my second marriage,

and my wife and my manager, and I, travelled home after the concert

on a boat on the river and it was beautiful.

It was a really beautiful journey.

Thanks for watching.

You only get to play five hundred and sixty-six shows

if someone comes to see you.

Thank you.

I scanned the menu options

I did not have a choice

I'd like to teach the world to sing

But I do not have a voice

So I bought myself a ticket

To the happening of the year

The sky lit up with colours

The crowd let out a cheer

"It's just a sunset" someone said

Something that happens every day

"Yes, it's a sunset" someone said

But now they've found a way to make it pay

I like to look at pretty things

I like to feast my eyes

I went to see the northern lights

But thеy were pale and wеak

And not as advertised

So now I'm learning about money

And I am learning about law

The first rule of economics

Unhappy people, they spend more

"It's just a sunset" someone said

Something that's coming to an end

"Yes, it's a sunset" someone said

And just exactly how much did you spend?

Oh, I'd like to teach the world to sing

But I do not have a voice

And I'd like to buy the world some time

Some time and a choice

Yes, I'd like to teach the world to sing

But I, I do not have a voice

And I'd like to buy the world some time

Some time, some time

And a choice

Thank you ever so much for being here.

We'll see you another time all right?

Bye, bye.