Birmingham Academy 31.10.01

Triumph is not really the word absolutely brilliant is more like it - what a nite Jarvis giving his all to make it one of the best gigs i've seen in ages !!! (Alison Francis)

I had a brilliant night at Birmingham. I thought Pulp played really well, & Jarvis sang & performed fantastically, despite the iffy sound system. It was wonderful to see them again (been over a year for me) and it was my second best concert, second only to the Garage which I doubt could be topped ... ever!! Can't wait for Rock City now. For the record, I love 'We Love Life' & it turned out to be worth the wait. The whole album is really strong, full of shades of Pulp from their early days, but still very much Pulp now. Oh, one thing, what a brilliant idea - the bouncers handing us glasses of water. You can get dehydrated if you want to 'ride the rail' (daren't drink much beforehand cos you can't go to the loo & lose your spot!) (Toni Sutton)

I have seen Pulp previously in Cardiff, Reading and Guildford but i can safely say last night in Birmingham was by far the best.  I managed to get right at the front and be able to see the set list.  The lack of old songs looked disappointing on paper but worked perfectly live.  It was as if Pulp
had moved on to a better happier place.  Jarvis was at his funniest making jokes about Bin Laden and rivers.  His one aim was to please us, he got the cameraman and security out of the way and several times held his hand out to us.  Every song was as good as the one before, even Origin and Wickerman worked perfectly live.  Minnie Timperley, Sunrise, Party Hard and obviously Common People have to be the stand out tracks though.  It was the best 15 I've ever spent and quite possibly the best night of my life.  I just hope the film  took comes out.  Thank you Jarvis. (Steve Pike)

Jarvis was on top form and as charismatic and charming as ever. Although he claimed to be nervous about the live radio play and the new set, he did us proud, shared the odd joke and there were a couple of intimate moments between "his nibs" and the audience. One of my favourite moments was just before Wickerman, when Jarvis raised huge cheers from us by just mentioning the names of a few rivers…only to be topped by time he took off his jumper of course! Needless to say we were eating out of his hands… It was also nice to see Candida and Mark smile at us, and at each other on occasions. The gig started with Weeds and most of the new songs from We Love Life were played during the evening which was a fantastic test to acquired knowledge of lyrics (I passed!). We all wanted to raise our arms and cheer all the time but we were so packed close together by then that it was difficult to move or breathe at all! Thank god the stewards started distributing water amongst us, as many would have passed out due to the extreme heat and exhaustion! At the end of Sunrise, we all started jumping up and down and a few individuals seized the opportunity to force their way to the front, crushing the rest of us in the process. The end of the gig was a fight for survival in the pit but I was determined to stand my ground and not back off despite being pushed and pulled, so I gave as good as I got… The end of the gig was awesome with a great rendition of Common People and by that time even breathing was not an option! By the time the gig had ended, I had lost my husband, my bag, my fags and I really could not care less. The feeling of elation was as great as a strange sense of having got rid of much pent up aggression!  It was great, I could have died a thousand times but it was all worth it. (Berry Bonner-Le-Fur)

HELLO!!!!!! Wow am I chuffed! I won tickets off radio one to see Pulp last night at Brum Academy, and I went and it was SO GOOD! I can't believe the concert was so cool!  Just thought I'd say wow, and pass on the message to the band...they were fantastic!!! (Charlotte Lewis)

Click here for NOW review

Since none of my friends are interested in Pulp, i had to let someone know how amazing last Wednesday's gig was. Shallow though it may be, i had mixed
feelings about attending having bought the new album, which turned out to be 100% better live. This is the first time I've seen pulp (the last two times
I've lost my glasses during the support acts). Anyhow the point is that Pulp were great, though it all seemed too much for Mark who had to sit down, and i could have really done with that can of stella. Hope to see everyone back in Sheffield and then Manchester. PULP ROCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Vik Cuthbert)

This is just a quick note to say thanks to Pulp for a great night on October 31st @ The Birmingham Academy. Pulp received a bit of a bad press from the local Evening Mail - "PULP LEAVE THE BEST WORK TO THE LAST", claiming that Jarvis was expecting alot from the audience to listen to nearly all new material all night. Well, I would just like to say that I had a thoroughly enjoyable night ... unfortunately the crowd were extremely boring and spent most of the night discussing why the bar had closed early!!!!!! Please, if they didn't want to listen then why come??????? Therefore I would like to commend them for putting up with them, I had a hard enough time being in the crowd with these type of people...so I don't know how Jarvis felt!!!!...........by the way....I caught one of the drumsticks.....it sits in pride of place in my room!!!!! (Claire)

Click here for more photos