Jarvis Cocker has revealed that Pulp will return to play a series of live shows next year.
The Pulp frontman and solo artist confirmed the news at a talk and Q&A session held in London by The Guardian to promote his new memoir, Good Pop, Bad Pop. It follows the sharing of a cryptic 15-second video clip by Cocker on Instagram last week which displayed the words "What exactly do you want for an encore?" The line is lifted from the title track of Pulp’s 1998 album This Is Hardcore, which will mark its 25th anniversary in 2023.
With speculation mounting around a reunion as a result of the clip, Cocker was asked about it by a member of the audience at the Q&A session, and responded, as per a Twitter user who attended the event: "It was deliberately cryptic. It’s a line from This Is Hardcore. Next year, Pulp are going to play some more concerts."
There are no further details yet on when and where Pulp might play those shows, but there is a strong chance that they focus heavily on the 25th anniversary of This Is Hardcore. The shows will mark the first time the band have played live together since 2012 having initially reunited in 2010 with the Different Class lineup of Cocker, Candida Doyle, Russell Senior, Nick Banks, Steve Mackey and Mark Webber.
Among the shows that the band played during that initial run of reunion gigs were a headline appearance at Reading & Leeds, a surprise set at Glastonbury’s The Park stage, and gigs at festivals such as London’s Wireless and Barcelona’s Primavera Sound.
