Just finished watching it. Very endearing to see him struggle to remember certain lyrics (particularly when wrongly correcting the presenter on the opening line in Something Changed - 'No, it's ''Four hours before we met''!).
Nice selection of songs too. Enjoyed Joyriders in particular.
One thing that was a little worrying was his straining to reach some of the high notes in most of the songs. Now you could argue that's always been the case to a certain degree but it seemed more noticeable here. Maybe that was down to him being out of practice with regard to singing Pulp material, as he managed Auschwitz To Ipswich fairly well. Still...I hope it's not the first indication of his voice being shot in a few years...is he still on the fags? He sounded great on the pre-Christmas tour so perhaps I'm reading too much into it.
One gripe of the programme would be that considering they started at the very beginning of JC's songwriting with Shakespeare Rock (charming but easily the most naive and throwaway of early Pulp) and ended on a song from his most recent record, it's a shame both This Is Hardcore and We Love Life were glossed over. Or even something from Seperations...suppose there's only so much you can put into 45 minutes.
And seeing as the programme's theme was the art of songwriting, steering Jarvis' attention towards the piano might have been a good idea - the fact that he learned how to play it when writing his first solo album could have led to a rendition of I Will Kill Again/Disney Time/Big Julie.
All told though, a real treat to hear some new 'live Pulp' for the first time in...what, six years?
Eamonn wrote:One thing that was a little worrying was his straining to reach some of the high notes in most of the songs. Now you could argue that's always been the case to a certain degree but it seemed more noticeable here. Maybe that was down to him being out of practice with regard to singing Pulp material, as he managed Auschwitz To Ipswich fairly well. Still...I hope it's not the first indication of his voice being shot in a few years...is he still on the fags? He sounded great on the pre-Christmas tour so perhaps I'm reading too much into it.
One gripe of the programme would be ... both This Is Hardcore and We Love Life were glossed over. Or even something from Seperations...suppose there's only so much you can put into 45 minutes.
And seeing as the programme's theme was the art of songwriting, steering Jarvis' attention towards the piano might have been a good idea - the fact that he learned how to play it when writing his first solo album could have led to a rendition of I Will Kill Again/Disney Time/Big Julie.
He was never the greatest singer, reedy is how he once described himself. I suspect bad vocal technique means age will reduce his range which wasn't that wide to start with. It's pretty common for rock singers to lose their voices, I heard Elton John live recently, and his voice was totally knackered. Jarvis could do with some vocal coaching to hit those highs but he could end up sounding quite different. From A to I is less demanding with a pretty limited range. Also it can be easier to just sing rather than sing and play, so that could be another explanation.
The show was too short. A two hour show on each album from separations to we love life wouldn't be long enough!
mmmm, I don't think Jarvis was too keen on showing off his prowess on the piano. He was struggling with the casio. Maybe he did that and they cut it!
Lovely. His version of "Joyriders" reminded me of the acoustic version Pulp did of the song on the common people single. But as said before 45 min is way to short. It would be fun to hear him play more b-sides and rare stuff, like "Shakespeare Rock". But besides from that..lovely.
New memberships appear when other ones expire due to non-use or abuse, which is very often if not all the time. You just have to keep trying and you'll get lucky within a day or so. I know it sounds like a lot of bother but I think it's worth it all-in-all.
Finally got to see it, a very interesting show but altogether too short as has been mentioned above. And talking on about the Dmaj7 and G as the sexy origins of Babies is mildly frustrating: where did the lyric come from? I've heard the story of him falling asleep in a wardrobe on holiday, but I'd love to know more about the development of that song.
As for his voice, I reckon he just sounded a bit under-rehearsed on the older songs. He was definitely giving it more on From A To I, so maybe he still has mixed feelings about revisiting his past.
I like the old "Anyone-can-do-it" business. Innovation (or just any interesting art) often comes from unfamiliar limitations or perameters, and preconceived notions of "How. Things. Are. Done." usually result in boring stodgy work.
I just watched it. (Thank you to those who seeded it online.)
Two things stood out as interesting: 1 - Jarv's stripped down performance of Joyriders really highlights the strength of the songwriting. I think I prefer this to the glossed up album version. 2 - You know how Jarvis developed the nervous tick of sticking his tongue out every few seconds? Well, I didn't see him stick his tongue out once in this video. Either he was really comfortable, or somebody told him to stop. This makes me very happy. (now if we could just get him to stop picking his nose)
I don't think it means anything, Jarvis playing Pulp songs. It's a programme about his musical career, and he was in Pulp for 22 years, but has only being doing solo stuff for three years, so it's only natural that he'd do much more Pulp stuff. The new solo stuff is amazing, I'm not really interested in a nostalgia reunion of Pulp. (unless Russell was involved possibly... but even then, you can't recapture the magic of Pulp 1992-1996. I'd rather have great new stuff than a slightly embarrassing greatest hits tour where everyone looks old and fat)
I liked the show. I was nice to see Jarvis performing again.
Well, the Pulp reunion. If they come back together I think it'll be to record an other album and tour that one. Pulp never was a greatest hits band, when they released TIH and WLL they played more of the new songs than the old ones. Not like Oasis who are playing the same setlist since 2000. They'll be more like The Verve, but playing more new songs. I guess.
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This is the sound of someone losing the plot, making out that they are okay when they are not. You're gonna like it, but not a lot.
2 - You know how Jarvis developed the nervous tick of sticking his tongue out every few seconds? Well, I didn't see him stick his tongue out once in this video. Either he was really comfortable, or somebody told him to stop. This makes me very happy. (now if we could just get him to stop picking his nose)
sorry pal, i just spotted this when i was cutting Something Changed...
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mad about captioning http://www.youtube.com/user/proudrobot