Pulp – Utilita Area, Birmingham – Live!

By Kevin Stanley on 20th June 2025 • ( Leave a comment )

Pulp – Utilita Arena, Birmingham – Thursday 19th June 2025

Welcome Back Pulp. We’ve been waiting for you. The 2023 This Is What We Do For An Encore tour was a delicious taste of what was to come. This is More… and this run of shows are the hottest tickets across the country right now… bar none.

High on good vibes

After such a long time away from the spotlight only the most fervent Pulp fans dared to dream of a comeback from the band from Sheffield. But Pulp were never content with just being background noise. They’ve always demanded the full attention of their listeners and somehow a return to the studio, arenas and the peak of the charts was always going to happen. It was written. It was inevitable.

Pulp are riding high on a wave of good vibes and critical acclaim with audiences desperate to see their favourite band of misfits. Their new album More sits atop of the UK album charts, a staggering 27 years after they last achieved that feat with This Is Hardcore. They may have had a long hiatus but a number one album is undeniable proof that they’ve lost none of their appeal. And Jarvis has already hinted that this isn’t just a one off, there may be even more.

Jarvis is the teller of stories in music form. He has the most delightfully perverted attitude towards life, sex, love and just about everything else. Influenced by Mike Leigh and dressed by Wes Anderson he’s been called the Alan Bennett of pop.

so many highlights

There are so many highlights of tonight’s show. Other than the obvious crowd-pleasers there is the existential musings of Spike Island which opens the show with a blast, the disco beats of Got To Have Love and the twisted love story of Tina.

Second song in the set tonight is Grown Ups and captures everything that makes Jarvis so lovable. The story of the journey into adulthood and making mature life decisions, before it takes a weird dream-inspired turn into the story of building a space rocket and going on a journey to another planet. And why is he telling us this story? He doesn’t remember. But when Jarvis asks “We having fun yet?” the crowd erupts. Slow Jam with its musing on Jesus is next… Is Cocker comparing himself to Jesus again? Well… he’s got the same initials.

Pulp songs are built up layer by layer, they’re dense. Nick Banks, drummer and percussion section is another Sheffield native, his beats are the foundation for Pulp’s sound along with Candida Doyle’s distinctive keyboards. Mark Webber gets chance to let loose on a few solos as well, notably Common People, The Fear and Razzmatazz – which was voted for by the audience. The core four members of Pulp have been joined by additional musicians including a strings section and this gives them an even bigger sound. Every instrument on the stage is all working together perfectly to make this undefinable sound. The band exist almost entirely in their own sphere. No one sounds like Pulp.

born to perform

Jarvis constantly throwing shapes, thrusting, shouting and pointing – performing is what he was born to do. And as he kneels down and whispers into the microphone conspiratorially, inviting the audience in closer to be part of the secret he’s engaging the audience in a way that few others would even attempt. He oozes an odd style, a warm charm and an unconventional sex appeal that’s difficult to define. He’s the council estate Prince of the misfits, the outliers, the freaks and above all the common people. And when he sings it, you’ll believe it.

Pulp might now be in their sixties singing about farmers markets and mature life decisions, but a clever call back to Common People – as Jarvis asks the audience once again in Grown Ups “Are you sure?” Oh yes, we are sure. We are having fun. Pulp are energetic and perhaps fresher than ever. They’re exciting to watch. They’re full of life. Jarvis’s witty lyrics, and idiosyncratic delivery and energetic live performances are special. Pulp are simply stunning.

One last sunset? One final blaze of glory? It’s all about the journey… and what a journey Pulp are taking us on… and it looks very unlikely to be the end. The liner notes on More say “This is the best we can do.” No one could have expected more. Its glorious. And experiencing it live along with a set packed with classic hits including Sorted for E’s & Whizz, Help The Aged, Do You Remember The First Time? and Babies – all enthusiastically sung by the entire crowd – is just breathtaking. It’s exactly what we all need right now in what has been a rather dreary five or six years. Ain’t it time we started living?

Got To Love towards the end of the second set is amazing live. It grabs you from the beginning and doesn’t let go until it’s done with you. Jarvis appears to be telling us what’s happened to him over the past 25 years – trying and failing to write a new album – locking himself away from love, from life, from fame. It tells of the one thing that we all need. It’s the one thing that can save us, and bring us all back to life. Jarvis looks at the audience and asks us a question, everyone of us, without exception – “What do you need?”

What we need is obvious – it goes P-U-L-P. Yeah. You spell it P-U-L-P. Yeah.