I've been lent a time machine by a kind Pulp fan extrordinaire, so I'm off to 2nd July 1986 and a trip to the Library Theatre in Sheffield.

This gig falls neatly into the extant gap between the Adelphi in Hull in May and the final extant performance by the Freaks lineup in November. Let's go...!

This review is written "as I'm listening" and, as such, I have no idea of what's coming next. If you'd prefer the gig to not be spoiled, then please don't read any further, but bear with me a few days and you'll have your own copy.

Any spelling/awful grammar are the author's own responsibility. And I've not checked this either!

There's some guitar and keyboard twiddling and a bit of feedback. It sounds like the start of 'Space' in some ways. The sound quality is comforting, quality-wise. And the traditional bass and drums start to build, making this even more Space-like. Russell seems to be summoning the non-dead ghost of Duane Eddy into making his twangy guitar travel. And then we crash into 'Dogs are Everywhere' as at Hull. The vocals are almost crystal clear on this tape, far moreso than the music itself. Good to hear Jarvis actually remember the words this time, too. The guitar plinks along, the drums rattle along and the keyboards are crystal clear. Lovely. But Jarvis' voice is by far the best singing he's done thus far at any extant live gig. Glorious to hear. Even his shouty rant in the middle of the song is a little more tuneful than usual. Let's hope for some obscurities at this gig, as the lyrics should be easily decipherable.

Well, that's that. A very competant performance. Definitely the best live version I've heard of this one, and also the last recorded performance by the lineup that recorded it.

"It's because of my magnetic personality. Metal. D'you see?"

Good applause, too. They're clearly onto a good thing here. And now we're into There's no Emotion. Never usually one of my live favourites, especially when Candida's holding the first note down for a prolonged amount of time whilst the rest of the band get ready. Ouch! Sonic terrorism! The song itself is a great version, although it's never been a particular favourite. The clarity helps though and it is a very competant version.

"This song is called, er, Didn't Feel a Thing"

Yes!

It kicks in, sounding as good as any rehearsal-room demo, with the scraping, scratching violin digging under the skin as well as ever, although slightly more quietly than in previous versions. The sound guy turns it up a little, but it's not quite as prominent as in the - to my mind best version - Hull version.

Ooh...and here we go...lyrics. All of them! Not quite crystal clarity, but it looks like this'll be a great one to try and transcribe. The vocals are less frantic than previously, which makes the sound even more threatening in a way. Oh no...here we go. Yeah, he's off. A good balance between that quiet/loud thing so beloved by bands. It works to good effect here. Yes, he sounds genuinely impassioned and rather angry in the louder bits. Such a shame this remained unrecorded, but I suppose it just misses out on 'Freaks' and it was nixed during the early days of the Banks/Havenhand lineup. Steven...if you're there...were you familiar with this one?

"Short pause while l ...my spectacles...can't see either..." A few seconds later there's applause.

"...I can see all you beauitful people." Laughter.

And straight into Never Ending Story, complete with pounding kettle drums. Powerful! This is the final time this would be played that we know of and, again, it's certainly a good 'un. There's some violin pieces that aren't present on the album too, for completists! The audience loved it...and so did I. A cracking powerful performance.

"Now this is a song and...97 Lovers and er...I suppose there's a few lovers out there in the audience...that's a very great observation isn't it....?"

97 Lovers! Documented as being played three times, but either no tapes exist or are not in circulation, so this is the only live version we have. Jarvis is singing very tenderly...and a little sinisterly. It tells you there's something very...wrong about this version. The violin creeps in a more sinister way than the recording...and the kettledrum pounds harder. The song is very tense and threatens to break into a creature of fire and menace...and slowly it builds. How fortunate that this one surviving version should be such an impressive one. Jarvis' voice is notably more conventional by this time compared to the recording and it's a much better listen than the one we're all so used to.

"This song's a suffocation song"

And so it is.

"1, 2, 3, 4..."

It's good, but nothing too far head and shoulders above previous versions, although again there are some further violin twiddles that aren't familiar on other versions. I suppose that's worth the price of admission. It's still one of the best versions out there, if not the very best. Just after the previous numbers it's not such a gob-smacking highlight!

"Turn the bass sound down a bit" shouts an audience member (or is it the sound guy?), and a bit of bass checking takes place.

And then...the menacing keyboard's back. It's Fairground. Hurrah! Russell makes every consonant of every word count as his echoey voice takes over from Jarvis' more traditional singing, but Jarvis does join him here on the chorus for, I think, the only recorded instance. There is only one more live recording of this song to have survived, but this is easily the best I've heard. We get the traditional differences of a couple of words between live and studio recording, too. Jarvis' co-vocal is interesting as he tries valiantly to get some vocal range out of the piece, and I suppose it works. Some good guitar parts on the 'fish eyed foetus' verse, too. Some sweet lyrical fluffs on this verse too, as Russell forgets where he is and tries to head to the chorus early. Perhaps it was the guitar parts that threw him? I imagine that he would have been particularly pissed off having messed this up. "It's a pity that people aren't more..." he mutters before the song enters its final chorus although the final yells are more akin to those on a Scary Ghost Train than the depths of hell, so maybe he's not too upset. A few horrid violin scrapings finish the thing off and the audience are, again, very vocally happy.

Russell fills the silence between this and "this is a new song" with some further string twanging. Does he have a tremolo? It sounds like it.

What is the new song? Wow! It's Down by the River again! Not too new, having been played two months ago in Hull, but again a real rarity to hear it being played this early. The guitar line shows why Russell was messing with his twangs earlier. This is a much better version than Hull, although slightly less clear, but I think this is the general trend here. Better performances, but not quite such clear sound. It's odd hearing Magnus playing such a restrained part on this song. Perhaps the onset of 'disco Pulp' didn't sit so well with his own musical desires as this is definitely one of his most pedestrian parts.

And the tape gets turned over for LIfe Must Be So Wonderful, that overplayed Freaks stalwart. A good version, and the best vocal of any I've heard. This wasn't played at Hull, so it's good to have here. However, the crossover between this gig, the Hull one and the November '86 gig makes it clear that Pulp were, perhaps, stagnating a little by this point. There's still new material appearing, but the workrate is so much slower than it had been a year or so earlier. Perhaps they weren't gelling quite so well, so less tunes were coming?

"Right, this is the last song...Master of the Universe". I have high hopes for this one, and the well positioned offbeat, almost ska guitar does not disappoint. This is the version that continually appears on live tapes in order to mock the album version, but this is probably the best of the bunch. The drums kick in hard, the vocal gets louder to compensate and the offbeat guitar gets more and more abrasive, yet both bass and keyboards are well balanced too. I think that this is probably the definitive version of one of the more famous of the early Pulp tunes. It would have one more recorded performance with this lineup, but I think this is definitely the best there is. It's making the hairs on my arms stand up and I'm willing it to make it to the end without falling apart or the tape cutting out.

And it makes it, with Jarvis as impassioned Dalek wringing the song of passion right through to the end. There's the largest applause of the night and continued cries for 'more'. Will they oblige? Sadly, I do already know that they will...but I don't yet know with what (the benefit of unlabelled mp3s!) The applause continues for a few minutes...and they're back!

"I've just been advertising now because our record is actually in the shops now. Dogs are Everywhere. Five tracks. Who's got it?" Laughter. "Who's got it? Oh. It is actually there. Virgin won't have it because..." says a very softly spoken and almost shy Jarvis.

HMV however, will have it.

"Is that enough advertising?" "Anyway, stop..."

There's requests for 'Little Girl' but just one request for 'Maureen'.

"Little Girl, yeah alright, pandering to the audience..."

A perennial setlist favourite from '84 to 1991, this is still a pretty good version that can stand up with most (apart from maybe La Cigale or the White Room).

"This is definitely the last song now and this is actually a song that we haven't played for a very long time...not that that should interest you at all. Maureen it's called"

Wow! First appearance in about two years, although it will rear its head again at the November gig.

Great scratchy guitar, wonderful hammering drums, although the latter do begin to demolish the rest of the song. But still Magnus is definitely having fun, and who are we to deny that? The sound engineer boosts the vocals and Jarvis yells louder to compensate (!) They're having fun with this, and it's a great idea to end the set with something to energetic after some of the miserablism that's gone before.

And that was Pulp at the Library Theatre. Wow. I was told it was a good 'un, but I think it's probably the best 80s tape to have yet surfaced.

And why am I teasing you with this? Well, it'll be the next Portfolio - just give me a few days to sort an appropriate cover and pull it together.

PS appropriate cover suggestions welcome!