Bravo! Pulp finally in Italy. Nice part of the country too.

Like the Mexicans, there will be a lot of fans there who have waited a long time to visit. Only 32 Euro, presumably a longer show than a normal festival and Madness are playing the next night. Might be worth a visit.

I attended this last night. Really good gig, they played for almost an hour and three quarters. Festival was outdoors, quite a small arena (maybe equivalent to the third/fourth biggest outdoor stage at a Glastonbury/Leeds Reading, 5,000 capacity perhaps) in a small town in the north-east of Italy.

Setlist-wise: everything from Different Class minus Live Bed Show/Monday Morning/FEELING CALLED LOVE.
Plus Pink Glove, Acrylic Afternoons, Babies, DYRTFT, This Is Hardcore, Like A Friend, Bad Cover Version, Sunrise

Most amusing thing of note: Just before they finished the main set with Common People Jarvis did the whole "So thats it then, we have played everything. We started with DYRTFT, then Pinki Glove, then we did that and that and...what have we missed? Master of the Universe did you say? Alright then!" Cue Candida impressively quick on the draw with the opening keyboard line to MOTU, Jarvis singing the first two lines before stopping!

Some poor bloke had made a banner with "Razzmatazz" on it but Jarvis spotted it fairly early and rather harshly said "Nah, we're not playing that one".

He was on really top form though, the crowd appreciated his attempts at Italian, calling Babies "Bambinos" etc. Some other banter: He introduced Bar Italia by saying "It's only taken us 17 years for us to play this here". Before Bad Cover Version: "We are the real thing. We're not the Australian Pulp. Do you know there's an Australian Pink Floyd. Is there an Australian Doors too?"

I had mentioned to my Italian friends before the show that Pulp had never played in their country but had appeared on that crazy music show on Italian tv with the presenter who recited all the words to Common People in Italian while Pulp patiently waited to mime it - it's on the DVD. (you know, when an excited female audience member shouts to the presenter who translates to Jarvis: "Er, she says she wanna give you a kiss". - "Er, maybe later". Anyway, Jarvis did mention the programme.

The whole band really seemed to be enjoying themselves, Steve in particular beaming from ear to ear throughout.

The one slight annoying thing was that Party Hard was on the set-list as part of the encore with Misshapes but Jarvis said they were already over-running and he didnt want to piss off the neighbours so it was dropped. It was also slated for Brixton#1 as I recall but wasnt played then either. Hopefully I get to hear it in Sheffield!

Across the major neighbouring town where I'm staying, Pordenone, there are big billboards advertising the Pulp concert and Madness who are performing tonight. It's great to see, two genuinely iconic British bands playing full sets at great prices (35 EUR) especially when back in Dublin images of the Red Hot Chilli Peppers and Madonna in particular have been plastered across buses (apparently the Madonna tickets were priced exorbitantly high and they are looking at a loss on the concert).

Time to get ready for the Nutty Boys now. A presto!

You might be onto something there, hasn't he mentioned that song jokingly several times since they reformed?

Great review, looks like a pretty good set too, still annoyed I haven't yet heard Acrylic Afternoons live yet!

First two lines of MOTU can be heard here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L13ET1R8euA

aren't russell's kids in their 20s now? it seems more likely they'd want to do that than the teenagers. Nick's kid looked at us like we were nuts for wanting to get a picture with his dad.

sort of unrelated but when I went to the UK I was totally alarmed at how big Madness are. everybody knows them and the people I stayed with in London were raving about them but over here they were pretty much just a one hit wonder...which is really more than you can say for Pulp I guess, but still.

I would love to hear MOTU live - on most of the old 80s bootlegs it has a real power and awkwardness that is entirely lacking on the record. It'd be great to hear how Nu Pulp would tackle it...

How popular are Pulp in Italy? Does anyone know? Curious, cause I'm Italian by passport and both my parents were born there. I go back a lot but come from the south, not sure many bands play gigs there? I'm London based, so have seen my favourite band many times but would be great if they played in the south while I am there! Would love a list of Pulp's Italy gigs. X

I'm from Molise, not too far from Bari? I have the Pulp hits DVD where they did an Italian TV performance, would love to see the whole set though! Was it just Common People? Do you know? They translated it, and Jarvis's and Mark's faces we're hilarious haha!!! Do you have family in Italy too?? X