Pulp Are a Cut Above at London’s O2 Arena: 7 Best Moments

Thirty years on from Britpop’s commercial zenith, the U.K. still can’t get enough of the scene’s so-called big three. In 2023, Blur scored a hard-won victory lap with their plaintive eighth album, The Ballad of Darren, and followed that up with two shows at London’s Wembley Stadium, their biggest ever performances. Oasis, meanwhile, will swagger back on stage in early July for the summer’s most-anticipated live shows.

And then there’s Pulp, whose moment of reappraisal has been waiting in the wings. In 2023 they returned for a slate of reunion gigs, but the moment morphed into More, their first album for 24 years. Frontman Jarvis Cocker said that the album — recorded with Nick Banks (drums), Candida Doyle (keyboards) and Mark Webber (guitars) — came together quickly in sessions with producer James Ford (Blur, Depeche Mode, Arctic Monkeys). They knew that nostalgia for the classics — namely 1994’s His N Hers and 1995’s Different Class — will only last so long and reunion tours can fizzle out.

More is suitably tasteful for a group of sexagenarians, but there’s vim and vigor in the record’s highlights “Spike Island” and “Got to Have Love” alongside the sanguine, wryness of “The Hymn of North” and “A Partial Eclipse.” Upon announcement, Cocker said, “this is the best we can do,” but beneath the playful veneer, there’s great reason for them to be chuffed with how this LP turned out. 

Now the surviving members of its classic lineup — minus late bassist Steve Mackey, who passed away in 2023, and guitarist Russell Senior — have embarked on a U.K. and Ireland arena tour, including two sold-out nights at the 20,000-capacity O2 Arena in London. A long-awaited return to Glastonbury Festival at the end of June is also rumoured. 

Here are the best moments from Pulp’s show at London’s The O2 Arena on Friday (June 13).