Don't know how many times I rewound the version of Laughing Boy from The Park Is Mine (taped on VHS from a TV broadcasr of it on New Year's Eve 1999!) just to hear it again.

Instantly became one of my fave Pulp songs (even though Mark's guitar cuts out early on and he's reduced to spectator until the last part!) and I didn't hear the official/studio version until a year or two later.

Always found it a little odd from then on, the actual B-Side being the easier version to find and listen to; because the stylings of the live rendition had already lodged themselves fully in my happy-brain area.

Yeah. Chris Thomas' production was ideal for Different Class, but some of the Hardcore tracks sound so stodgy on the album, and live they're absolutely different beasts, the band played them so much better.

I listened to some live bootlegs of 'I'm a Man' earlier, and wow - it could've been an absolute live staple. Would've been effective even for those who'd never heard it before.

SarahAWilson wrote:

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Ticketmaster have finally pulled their thumbs out of their arses and issued the mobile tickets.

So is there a Bar Italia meetup planned somewhere?

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 I very much hope so, as I'll be on my own lol

www.hamhigh.co.uk/news/23621707.pulp-finsbury-park-banned-items-bag-policy/

I'm here. Look for someone in black jeans black shirt with a red velvet top underneath.

-- Edited by SarahAWilson on Saturday 1st of July 2023 01:28:25 PM

I'm down the front. I'm down the front. Mentally tying my bladder in a knot already.

What an entrance. Possibly the most rock & roll moment Ive ever had the joy to witness. Mind, despite Finsbury Parks best efforts, I am a little drunk. Hope everyone made their trains okay!

Very fair assessment I think. Bar Italia is a sad omission. But yes, joking aside, lets hope for something like Joking Aside at Sheffield and beyond for the cognoscenti

-- Edited by superchob on Sunday 2nd of July 2023 12:21:11 AM

Barcroft wrote:

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Pulp were brilliant as usual.

...

All in all, another great gig, but diversity is desperately needed now, given the way tickets were sold, many hardcore are attending multiple dates. 

 

Thanks for a great night to Pulp and all associate. Despite my constructive feedback I had a blast x

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 Yes, they were superb. I was hoping Dishes could have squeezed in as it was played in opening gigs and there were a few references to 25 years ago.  I missed that one as I was on honeymoon.

As for set variety, that will happen at Hammersmith (and maybe Sheffield) in the same way it happened last time out at Brixton.  There are probably only up to 18 songs that will be played at the other dates as the lighting is set up for them.  The audience tonight was far from hardcore.  Don't know why the couple next to me at barrier turned up, they left halfway through. Probably should have gone to Hyde Park.

Best show I have ever seen from Pulp, but what is it with Jarvis and stairs? Theatre Royal 1994, Different Class tour 1995 and now this tour.

PS when I wrote best show, I meant best stage, lights etc.  However they probably will never be as exciting as they were in 1993 and 1994.  But who was ever that good?

From memory- the songs they played, in maybe not correct order:

I Spy
Disco 2000
Mishapes
Pink Glove
Something Changed
Weeds
Weeds 2 (truncated again)
FEELING
Sorted
This is Hardcore
Babies
Sunrise
Like a Friend
Underwear
Common People
Razzmatazz

They didn't play DYRTFT, or any I forgetting?

The only thing that might be considered a surprise was "Like a Friend", which it would seem has now become a new staple of their set lists. I've heard Like a Friend live a few times since the 2012 tour, and its previously never worked but they got it right this time.

Just back home now. Grateful to live this close to a Pulp gig having put many miles in for previous shows, this time round and especially during the last reunion (Spain, UK, Ireland and Italy).

Of course they were fantastic again. Only slight moan is the lack of variation in the set but that's partly my own fault for having the time/money/privilege of being able to go and see them three times already this summer.

The twonks in charge put the "Goodnight and Safe Home" message on the big screens at a quarter past ten, presumably thinking that Common People was the last song and there was no encore. Understandable to a degree I guess, what do you do for an encore after that behemoth?

And then we got Razz, which again, is so much better live now that Jarvis doesn't play guitar to it, slowing the tempo down. I thought Emma's work on the guitar, playing slide, was fantastic and I don't recall that having been deployed previously on Razz live.

But the time was 22:22 when that song finished so they had time for two more songs or at least one and Jarvis looked like he wanted to continue. If it's a half ten curfew, keep it going until half fookin' ten! We've all paid a lot of money to be here...

And I'm still a bit sad that apart from the title track and a b-side nothing off This Is Hardcore is getting a look-in. The brilliant rendition of Glory Days at Brid has proved to be a false dawn.
If any gig was gonna have more songs from the album, I thought tonight might be it as Jarvis alluded to the 1998 Finsbury Park gig more than once. Oh well...fingers crossed that when they go back indoors, and aren't beholden to the lighting bespoke to so many of these perfromances of the songs, we'll get tour debuts for a handful of other tunes.

Jarvis' reciting of that poem, an ode to the moon, was a bit random. Someone, should have told him (you had gone...).

And fair play to Baxter Dury for his little tribute to Pulp, Jarvis and Steve, especially considering the charmless London geeza he inhabits both when performing his songs and during the crowd interaction. It felt the most genuine thing he uttered through his whole set. I still rate him though.

-- Edited by Eamonn on Sunday 2nd of July 2023 01:28:19 AM

No.Was Wes with him?

Oh and no one has mentioned the little bit of footage they showed on the screens before Pulp came on, from The Day That Never Happened!