Pulp's Glastonbury Surprise

Worthy Farm’s annual mega music event has been and gone for another year, with some calling this year’s edition of Glastonbury one of the best yet. Unfortunately though, Glasto will be a no-show next year as the farm looks to take a fallow year, coinciding nicely with the London Olympics. The great Michael Eavis (founder of the festival in case you didn’t know) himself said that he wanted to make up for next year’s absence by bringing out all the stops with a stellar line up packed with variety. And undoubtedly, Mr Eavis did this by bringing out a multitude of stars and breaking new bands over dozens of stages. However, the star act of the weekend was nowhere to be seen on the line up. Billed as special guests on the Saturday, Pulp followed suit from Radiohead who surprised thousands of fans the day before on the Park Stage. When I say surprise, though, I mean it was one of the worst kept secrets of all time.

A record 30,000 attendees flocked to the Park Stage after it had been exposed by The Sun that 90′s Indie legends Pulp would return to Glastonbury as special guests after headlining the event in 1995 and 1998. Led by the dapper wordsmith Jarvis Cocker, the crammed crowd were left astonished by a career-spanning greatest hits set which featured anthems like ‘Disco 2000′ and ‘Do You Remember The First Time?’. Finishing on their biggest hit, ‘Common People’, the six-piece collective once again marked their stamp on the festival’s history whilst also providing the perfect soundtrack to this year’s Somerset gathering.



After a nine year hiatus it seems like we need Pulp more then ever to offer us a nostalgic revisit back to Jarvis’ quirky lyrics and the catchy tunes that helped to define the Britpop era as well as cementing Pulp’s place as one of Britain’s greatest Alternative acts. The evening can be summed up very aptly with Cocker’s greeting to the gargantuan crowd: “Well, you didn’t think we’d let you down, did you?”

Pulp played:

‘Do You Remember The First Time?’
‘Joyriders’
‘Razzmatazz’
‘Acrylic Afternoons’
‘Something Changed’
‘Disco 2000′
‘Sorted For E’s & Wizz’
‘Like A Friend’
‘Babies’
‘Mis-Shapes’
‘Live Bed Show’
‘This Is Hardcore’
‘Sunrise’
‘Common People’