London Brixton Academy 28 November 2001
Set List: Weeds / Minnie Timperley / Birds In Your Garden / Something Changed / Laughing Boy / Live Bed Show / F.E.E.L.I.N.G.C.A.L.L.E.D.L.O.V.E. / Bad Cover Version / The Trees / I Love Life / This Is Hardcore / Sunrise / Sorted / Babies / The Fear / Party Hard / Underwear
Went to see Pulp in action last night and had an amazing time. JC was looking resplendent in black skinny cords and wiggling around like a well-behaved weasel. He did have a lot to live up to (dance-wise) following the crazeeeee antics of the Fat Truckers, who dance like a six year old on Red Bull on Christmas Eve! There was lots of jumping and leaping from the excitable crowd, and at one point I nearly lost my shoe in the scrummage to smoke JC's ciggie when they came back on at the end. All got a bit much for me when 'Sunrise' was played and I thought I would never get out in one piece! All in all, loved Fat Truckers, loved Pulp, love life, loved it so much I've been on the phone all day today to try and get tickets for Friday's gig so I can take my husband (he missed last night) but no joy. Everywhere is sold out. (Mary Long)
We had a fantastic night. Pulp were brilliant, as usual. The set list was the same as Manchester as well as 'The Fear' and 'Party Hard' I just love 'Bad Cover Version'. An incredible seventeen songs in total. Jarvis was in good form. A great night. Thank you Pulp. (Carol Edbrooke.)
Went to the Brixton gig last night. Fantastic..... Jarvis is a god!! We love you Jarvis. Wish I was going again tonight & Friday. (Anita)
I saw Pulp last night at the Brixton Academy - thought I'd mention the brilliance of it - was fab I've never been let down by them live. Also was great to see a support band that was actually worth seeing - they were great - trouble is i want an album now - release one soon fat truckers - or else !! (Lisa)
I went to see Pulp last night and my sister
said that people were sending you reviews. Here's mine:
First Pulp without my sister, who has gone to New Zealand. OK but strange. I
missed her ecstatically wiggling presence. Especially as I was surrounded by
people who can stand still for 1, 2, 3 hours at a time. How do people do this? Party Hard made it for me. Minnie Timperley
was fantastic, Sunrise makes me really happy but Party Hard is the best. They
waited until a 2nd encore and I thought it wasn't coming and I couldn't stop
smiling from the very start (and its very unusual for me to recognize something
from the very start). And then to follow that with Underwear seemed kind of
right. It was good, really good and like I said Party Hard made it for me and I
really like the new album so it was good to hear it now I know it better. But
still Reading (2000), Homelands and Guildford (so weird) were more exciting not
because of anything Pulp didn't do last night but because of the buzz from the
people around us. Still, I wish I was going tonight and tomorrow. Might get some
different people. This morning I woke up feeling sad because I wondered if I'd
see Pulp again. I made the sensible decision (because of work and money) not to
see them Thursday / Friday but now I think it was a bad decision. I feel like
that was the end of my break from the real world. I have to go back to work
tomorrow, if I hadn't it would only have been hotel bills standing between me
and seeing Pulp twice more. (Cat)
I've enjoyed this tour so much, not just cos it was wonderful to see Pulp (though of course it was). I met such great Pulpy people too. And at one point, waiting outside Brixton everyone of us was from a different country (UK, Israel, France, Japan, Italy, Brazil, Thai) & we were all there for Pulp. Pretty amazing, don't you think? Some of these people I'll never see again, but I know that some of them will stay good friends. All the concerts were different experiences for me. I think Rock-City was best, then Brum & Manchester pretty together, which means Brixton was my least favourite show. It was for a few reasons. One was the huge amount of press. I've never seen so many - so at least expect to see hundreds of rave reviews from the inconvenience. They really spoiled the first 3 songs which are of course very lively, but all the action was blocked by them. So when they left we were into the quieter bit. Also the crowd was pretty mad , & being front row central, by the time we were into FEELING I was beginning to get killed. As the show continued I found it increasingly hard to breathe, never mind clap, sing, cheer & I thought my arm was broken but there was no way I was going to be pulled out - I am hardcore! Jarvis seemed a lot less chatty too. I know he was having a few problems with the ear-phone too, esp during Hardcore which was a shame. But often when he gets annoyed by things like that he performs even better. I still loved it. Pulp were still brilliant & Jarvis was fantastic. Nobody else could come within light years of them. It is always a magical experience to see them playing live & Brixton still had that. I am so glad the tour finished on a really great high. Thanks so much to Pulp for this amazing month! (Toni Sutton)
Paul Timms was one of the lucky winners of the online 'jigsaw' competition, for which one of the prizes was to meet Pulp before the first Brixton show; here's what he made of it all:
Having met the band an hour before they
appeared on stage, it was a bit difficult to get as excited as I would have been
had I not met them. I liked the entrance, the build-up to Weeds sounded almost
Floydian! (I don't think that was the intention - Floyd Ed.) The first
three songs were fairly similar to the album versions, you'd expect that because
they've not had time to develop on the live scene. It was nice to hear Something
Changed, it fitted in with the "quiet" part of the show, and then a
modified version of Laughing Boy which was a lot more enjoyable than the
original, although I'd have to hear the new version through a hi-fi to be able
to judge them properly. Jarvis had a lot of trouble with his microphone during
this song, in that it was wobbling about rather a lot! He commented afterwards
that it was like one of those toy birds you get that continuously dips its beak
into water and then springs up again. Live Bed Show rounded off the gentle
section, it didn't have the extra bit at the start of the song but it was
extended at the end - twice! Fooled most of the audience, they cheered for the
end of the song 3 times! The first extension was the one I've heard on past live
shows but Jarvis didn't sing this time, then the second extension featured a
very nice guitar solo if I remember rightly. I probably don't.
F.E.E.L.I.N.G.C.A.L.L.E.D.L.O.V.E. worked much better live than on record, the
spoken parts
of the song were much more atmospheric, and the contrast between the quiet and
noisy sections made it stand out. A certain part of it made the whole building
shake like there was an earthquake! Next were three more songs from the new
album, Bad Cover Version probably sounding the best of the three. This Is
Hardcore sounded a bit of a mess, I can imagine it's quite difficult to play
live and get the instruments playing at the right volume. I don't think I've
heard a live version that sounds as good as the album version. Sunrise was a
great way to finish that part of the show, with the two build-ups from quiet to
incredibly loud!
For the first encore they started with Sorted, which was obviously a crowd
favourite, and then topped that with a great performance of Babies which got
everyone at the front bopping away. In the second encore they played The Fear
which is my favourite from TIH, then they rocked the place with Party Hard. You
couldn't hear the lyrics, it was just an excuse to play very loudly and allow
everyone to "party hard"! To finish, they played the classic song
Underwear.
All in all a very good show, but possibly a bit of an anticlimax after the
excitement of meeting the band beforehand. Of course, given the choice, I'd
choose to meet the band beforehand every time so I can't complain! (Paul Timms)