Ending the week with perennial favorites Pulp in concert for BBC Radio 2, recorded on May 29th as part of Radio 2’s In Concert series.
Although probably unjustly pigeonholed as part of the vanguard Britpop genre of the 90s, Pulp became spectacularly popular during that decade, after spending a decade of struggle and borderline anonymity, the pigeonhole probably worked in their favor.
With lyrics characterized as “kitchen sink dramas”, Pulp created an indelible impression as a band who proudly wore social consciousness on its sleeve. – a direction sadly a lot of bands and artists don’t take.
They are probably more relevant now than they were in the 90s – which is why their reunion is a milestone and bearer of one of those “just in the nick of time” moments. A new album, their first in 24 years still has the cutting edge and razor-sharp lyrics they’ve had since the “His n’ Hers” days which gave us such anthems as Common People, a song which maintains its currency after all that time.
The band have obviously gone through a number of changes over the years, aside from the sad passing of bassist Steve Mackay from a long struggle with Cancer, they’ve maintained the core of primarily founding members.
So, a new album, a reunion and crossed fingers this one sticks for a while (there was a previous reunion which didn’t for a number of reasons). Pulp haven’t aged – have maintained their freshness and perennial relevance.
This concert was very much anticipated and the Radio 2 presentation was also a streaming video (we don’t do video on this website, for a lot of reasons), so my guess is; if you’ve been a fan of the band for any period of time you have no doubt seen it – grabbed a copy via YouTube and know all about it since it did happen a little over 2 weeks ago.
But in the event you’re not familiar – missed it, or wasn’t able to catch the video because the BBC won’t let you watch it outside the UK, here’s the next best thing. BTW: There was also a session done for 6 Music right after this show – I will run that one in the coming weeks – stay tuned.
They often say that music matches the times – for once, they were absolutely right.
Here comes the weekend – get ready – take a break – get ready for next week.
