Pulp
Sydney Opera House
6 March 2026
If push came to shove, I think Britpop is my favourite musical genre. Even beyond the usual Oasis verses Blur debate, there was lots of music that I really liked. It was melodic, it was guitar driven (but not too heavy) and it was exciting.
However, while the music of Britpop was great, there were some definite downsides. The lad culture, the low-key misogyny and the boozy louts were all things that are best left behind in the 90s.
Pulp (along with my favourite Britpop band Suede) mostly stood outside of much of this. They wrote little vignettes stories of everyday life. Jarvis Cocker was always a chronicler of human stories and emotions.
In 2025 Pulp recorded a new album (24 years since their previous one) called More. Jarvis continued his kitchen sink dramas, but this time he was telling stories of middle age. Farmers Markets feature for god’s sake! Commuting and worrying about wrinkles do too, for that matter. But he was older so had some wisdom to share. It was an album for older people. But not old people. It was excellent.
The concert itself was incredible. A fair section of More featured, but the bulk of the set was drawn from their classic Different Class album. They also played other hits and deeper cuts. In fact, they played pretty much every song that you would want to hear. The opening of Sorted for E’s and Wizz and Disco 2000 was as good an opening of a concert as I’ve seen and they kept the momentum up for the whole set.
Unfortunately push did come to shove at various points in the show. Some of the crowd may have had a few too many drinks before Pulp arrived on stage. Maybe they were trying to reclaim their youth (there’s nothing sadder than a bunch of middle-aged men who still think they are still 20 and can handle their drink like they used to). Or maybe they were just dickheads. A few idiots shouldn’t ruin the show, but it did take me out of the performance for a couple of songs.
It makes me wonder if these people actually listened to the songs that were being performed or were they just singing along to the catchy choruses. They were definitely the worst part of Britpop culture personified.
But in the end, it didn’t matter. Pulp were excellent. And you can’t do much about dickheads.
Pulp = 5 stars. The audience (where I was standing) = 1 star.
