Glastonbury, June 28

"So, there I was. Standing, somewhere in a field in Somerset, my rain soaked, aching body stuck in thick mud, experiencing the first magnificent sombre bars of The Fear. After two long years, the wait was over. I had arrived at Glastonbury in high spirits. With hindsight I was hideously under-prepared: "It can't rain, not after last year!". Oh how we laughed on our return to civilization...And so, after 30 seconds of the most perfect set opener, Jarvis sprang from the wings, immaculate in a blue/grey safari suit/trench coat affair Jarvis: "There's a lot of talk that everyone here is on drugs. After 3 days of getting rained on and sitting in the mud, I'm not surprised. I'd be on 'em too". What followed was 80 minutes of pure magic. New songs I'm A Man, TV Movie, A Little Soul, Party Hard, Tomorrow Never Lies slipped in effortlessly between Do You Remember The First Time, F.E.E.L.I.N.G.C.A.L.L.E.D.L.O.V.E., Sorted..., as though they were always meant to be played together. My personal favourites, Glory Days and Sylvia, were superb. The only disappointing track was Help The Aged, which seemed to lose something in the vastness. Playing only one pre-Different Class song was disappointing; the yearning for Lipgloss or Razzmatazz was uncontrollable. Maybe that was me just being greedy. Pulp have matured their stage presence. Jarvis especially seemed fantastically relaxed with the big venue. He still makes the stage his living room. From a musical perspective, I did not notice Russell's absence, but he had certainly been aesthetically pleasing, with his constant trots up and down the monitors. They left the stage briefly after an hour but everyone knew they would return to play 'that song'. The encore segue of This Is Hardcore and Common People was unforgettable. The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end along with 50,000 Pulp People (well I'm sure some were there), basking in this special moment. "Thank you for making this a very special night for us", he said finally. No Jarvis - Thank You. I had fallen in love with this man, this band, for the fifth time. All that was left was to negotiate the mud banks, and to dream in Pulp technicolour. Live On." (sorry, but I don't know who wrote this!)