Eamonn wrote:

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True but as much as I'm enjoying Weeds/Weeds II, they seem a random staple for 2023 when you have Help The Aged, Party Hard, A Little Soul, Mile End and possibly even Bad Cover Version which would all be far better known by casuals.

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 Similarly you have Pink Glove, fantastic, wonderful, hope they never stop playing it - but Razzmatazz, Lipgloss, Monday Morning are all likely more familiar with people. And Like a Friend is amazing, but not as well-known as, say, Bar Italia, or Pencil Skirt. It feels like less a 'Hits' setlist, more a selective Island cross-section.

Eamonn wrote:

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Agreed, though I would cap the DC songs at the current number (8?) just so other eras get some respect.

Forgot about Lipgloss, feck sake, think I want to hear that one above everything else. C'mon, I'm sure Emma has the chops for it.

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 Agree about DC, they played enough of that last time. Although my gf wants to hear Bar Italia, so that gets an exception.

I agree on Lipgloss (and so does she) - Emma could absolutely do it (maybe better than Russell could live!). Adam could also add extra guitar if they need to beef out the sound. It's the one song I really, really want to hear...

A couple of pics (I cheated and photographed the giant screen).

To my knowledge Jarvis and I were the only two in Finsbury Park wearing velvet jackets last night 

Simply Fuss Free wrote:

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They do have 2 more indoor shows in London at the end of the month that will be more intimate. I reckon you'll see more diverse setlists there. (Wish I had a ticket to one of those instead but they went on sale the very day I completed on a new flat so money is a bit tight)

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 I didnt get a ticket at the time due to cost alono with something else that was happening that weekend which was subsequently cancelled.  Should be some tickets on Twickets, seemed to be a lot for Finsbury Park in the last day or two.  Will see how things are going at month end as July is pretty busy for me right now.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/music/concerts/pulp-finsbury-park-review-jarvis-cocker-festival/

Pulp, Finsbury Park, review: A nostalgic celebration of one of the truly great Britpop-era bands   5/5

Jarvis Cocker was all energy as the thrillingly tight band took to the stage once again in a night fused with nostalgia 

When Pulp last played Finsbury Park in July 1998, the Britpop movement to which they were attached had been all-but snuffed out by the pre-Millennium angst of OK Computer-era Radiohead. That night, the Sheffield band played 11 tracks from their downbeat recent album This is Hardcore, a record so bleak that Melody Maker described the songs as introverted chasms of torpor and despair. 

Now on their second reunion after splitting up in 2002 and temporarily reforming in 2011 Jarvis Cockers troupe of outré outsiders are mercifully free from the vagaries of changing musical trends. This concert was a nostalgic celebration of their hits pure and simple. Finsbury Park became a Britpop temple for a fevered congregation of 45,000 believers with Cocker expertly orchestrating the ceremony from the Pulp-it.

Its hard to believe that Cocker turns 60 in September. He took to the stage in a dark corduroy suit and thick ad-exec-meets-Elton-John glasses. He was all energy - throwing spidery shapes, his twitchy fingers accentuated like an eccentric maths teacher.

As the whispered opening lines of I Spy - backed by a string section - gave way to a driving beat, it was as though the Pet Shop Boys Its A Sin had been reimagined by John Barry whilst being played by a lascivious gang of Scott Walker-inspired art school misfits. 

No-one does strings n sleaze like Pulp. I Spy, from the bands Mercury Prize-winning Different Class album, perfectly summed up the bands story-telling: it was a mini kitchen sink drama focusing on the minutiae of English working class life with an amorous bent (in this case, voyeurism and sex across the class divide). 

Ive been sleeping with your wife for the past 16 weeks You see I spy for a living, disclosed our very own Peeping Tom Courtenay. And it continued from there. I dont know all your names, so Im going to call you Finsbury Park, he said dryly

Throughout, Cocker threw shapes like Robert Peston at a karaoke party during a Blair-era Labour Party conference. New technology was even ignored. His microphone had a cable. And how Nineties is that?

Disco 2000, an upbeat song released in 1995 about meeting up with friends in the year 2000 when were all fully grown, sent the crowd bananas (under a cloud of yellow and orange streamers). Its now, obviously, 23 years on from the year 2000 and fans sprightly reaction suggested that theyre not fully grown after all. Well, not all the time anyway. Perhaps there was so much abundant joy because the Nineties were a simpler time: pre-9/11, pre smartphones, pre social media, pre cancel culture paranoia.

Ballad Something Changed, about forks in the road and lifes grabbed opportunities, was lush and moving. The band were fantastic all the way through, particularly Candida Doyles synth and Nick Banks drums. Take nostalgia out of the equation and you still had a thrillingly tight band.

They finished the main set with Common People, probably the greatest large-crowd anthem to have been written in the last 30 years. It belted along, building to a stunning crescendo. Fans were treated to old favourite Razzmatazz at the very end.

The Britpop revival continues next weekend when Blur play two nights at Wembley Stadium. But a quarter of a century after their last Finsbury Park gig, this weekend unquestionably belonged to Pulp, pops most enduring and gloriously loveable nerds

lipglossed wrote:

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ArrGee wrote:

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Was disappointed there were no other Hardcore songs other than Hardcore as it is 25 years old this year and I couldnt make it to Finsbury Park 25 years ago.  Hasnt even figured in the Jarvis solo gigs.  I wonder if the band dont really care to relive those days.

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 Decent theory for sure, and maybe especially without Steve it's hard playing songs from back then. Although, apparently Jarvis is very keen on Dishes. 

 its one of those songs I like a lot which along with Live Bed Show that I have yet to hear live.  Finally heard My Legendary Girlfriend at Roundhouse a couple of years ago.  Doubtless they will play Dishes and Live Bed Show at Hammersmith as I havent got a ticket...

Barcroft wrote:

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I do think it's good to hold back on big hit. It demonstrates depth of quality, and also leaves it as a rare surprise on the special occasion when it is pulled out. Supergrass used to do it with Alright.

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 Pulp didnt play Common People at Brixton in 2002. Imagine that!

Live Bed Show's an interesting one. It was the most constant DC live album track (with F.E.E.L.I.N.G.C.A L.L.E.D.L.O.V.E.) after 1996, never really left the live setlists and then - with the 2011 reunion - never really came back. I mean they played it a bit, maybe Russell lobbied for it as I know he liked it, they had that wonderful extended version... but it was played very frequently in the late 90s, fitting in well with the Hardcore era, and then lost out a little to more upbeat tracks.