Back home after last weeks 3 x Pulp shows. A new personal best! Unfortunately elements of those 3 shows - Melbourne and Sydney x 2 have blurred into each other and its harder to distinguish between what happened in what city.

I'll stick to the list review method.

Melbourne.

1/ I could only get stall seats so didn't really have to line-up as early but because I was enjoying my line-up experiences in Brisbane and Adelaide I got to the venue a little earlier. Spoke to one lady who looks like we stood next to each other at Pulp's 2011 Melbourne concert at Festival Hall because we both had the champagne memory of Jarvis passing his champagne along the front barrier. We both said see you in another 15 years.
2/ Strange venue dug into the ground - funnel-like with a big hill. I'm glad I didn't get tickets for the hill is all I'll say.
3/ ABBA song substituted in. It was a given. Heard it sound checked in Brisbane. Melbourne and ABBA go way back as it was the venue they played at when they toured Australia.
4/ Razzmatazz was very popular with the crowd.
5/ Jarvis was annoyed at the photographers. You could see him gesturing but it wasn't until I spoke with people in Sydney that I knew what this was about.
6/ Does Andrew know people in every single city! He was always wandering in and out with large groups of people.
7/ Jarvis and Jason visited MESS which is this library for synthesizers. I'm unsure if you have to be a member or just rock up but they have all these vintage synths and you can use them. Very Jarvis and Jason thing to do. Apparently they made an album? That was tongue-in-cheek.
8/ Sound wise of all the Australian shows I think Pulp sounded the loudest and the best in Melbourne.


Sydney - Night 1

1/ Started lining up about 10am-ish. Usual early gang of people. We were able to line up under the Opera House - where you walk in so that was good not being out in the heat. But did have to deal with hard concrete... 
2/ Soundcheck on that first day we were treated to Seconds, I Spy and Lipgloss. When Jarvis was intro-ing Seconds I think he was annoyed that we beat him to the surprise because we were yelling it out - sorry...
3/ Dancing and singing on the forecourt of the Opera House. Some very bemused tourists.
4/ So many younger Pulp fans who tonight  - or this tour was their first time seeing them. I felt like the 'old guard' talking about previous Jarvis tours from almost 20 years ago or seeing them back in 2011. Its exactly how I felt about the folks and there were some in the line up who saw them in '98. Lots of stories exchanged - did you see them here? etc There was one person who I met in Melbs who said Pulp were her first ever concert at 17. Can you get any better? 
5/ My inflatable Jarvis from Select magazine came along. Silly and probably annoying now I think about it. Nick chuckled at it when they came down the front for the 'How we got back together' chat
6/ I thought maybe they looked a little tired during this show? Maybe the venue was overwhelming? Maybe the heat? I don't know. It was just a vibe. Probably just my vibe. Glad to see they were being hydrated with coconut water.

Sydney - Night 2

1/ All day we were talking about the weather. The rain was tracking our way about the same time Pulp were due to come on...
2/ The rain did indeed arrive - not torrential just a little annoying but I feel like it added to the vibe of the crowd and the gig
3/ No soundcheck with the band - either to hot or to annoyed at the line up group knowing what special songs you were playing or better things to do ie. We're in Sydney.
4/ Like A Friend played. YES!! Its like the little song that could. It always amazes me how popular this song is with people.
5/ OMG talking to wife of AcrylicAfternoons website. God that website meant everything to me in the late 90s. Any update was like being told some very special thing. I also told her how I traded some tapes (both cassette and VHS) with Giles back when and I still have them (albeit digitised now). Anything on the band was treated with such reverence!
6/ Raining...
7/ Why do Pulp concerts go so quickly? All those hours travelling and waiting around for those incredible 2 hours.
8/ Inflatable Jarvis came again to 2nd concert. Huge cheer on the big screens before the gig when the cameras panned to the audience. That made me even more happy. And the amount of people who came up to me after the first night and said oH I had one of those.
9/ My better half came to this concert and was on photo duty especially during TIH and AA. Those were my instructions.
10/ Yep still raining ...
11/ Where did Mark get to for a big chunk of Acrylic Afternoons? Was it a toilet break? Its like where is Mark? He needs to get on his keys.
12/ The orange Aus-themed poster that was posted about on Jarvis's account was passed around by a young fan during the day in the line-up. They were concerned they might not get up the front so asked if we were able to get on the barrier to pass it up. I said you will definitely be up the front to get this to them. She asked us all to sign it and write messages. It makes me happy that it got on stage and Nick held it up and its now gone into the Pulp archive. I loved how Nick was inside a kangaroo pouch but still playing his drums and Mark was wrestling with a snake!
13/ Then it was all over.

Set wise Auckland got the best because it got My Sex and Hymn - my absolute favourites from More which I would have loved to have heard live. Can't complain as were privy to the ABBA cover live + Seconds + Lipgloss. 

As the tour was getting closer I was thinking that I need to make sure that after the final Sydney gig is over I can't be sad about it. I may never see Pulp again - I don't know what lies ahead. People were asking are you coming to South America or Germany and I always said that I'm not a good traveller these days. I don't think I ever really was so I have to make do with these Australian concerts. Of course this band and its incredible music that has soundtracked my life but meeting many lovely people and having great chats across these 2 weeks made me also very happy. I got so much energy from them. As I said in previous posts its just what I needed.