Pulp - Bedgebury Pinetum - 16/6/02
5/5
By: Toby L
Set-List: 'The Trees', 'Sorted For E's & Wizz', 'Weeds', 'Bad Cover Version', 'The Birds In Your Garden', 'Live Bed Show', 'F.E.E.L.I.N.G.C.A.L.L.E.D.L.O.V.E', 'Help The Aged', 'This Is Hardcore', 'I Love Life', 'Sunrise', ENCORE #1, 'My Legendary Girlfriend', 'Joyriders', 'Babies', ENCORE #2, 'A Little Soul', 'Common People'.
A soothing wave of synths and feedback leaks from the speakers either side of the stage, 'Welcome to Bedgebury,' frontman of Pulp and iconic star Jarvis Cocker croaks in his wistful northern tone.
Wait a second - back up a bit... Bedgebury?
Actually, yes - Bedgebury: a location amongst a bountiful and beautiful setting of classic British woodland in the Southern region of the country. 
It's the second night of Pulp's already much-talked-about concert-tour in the extreme wildlife of nature itself, which has seen them take a couple of star-quality support-acts - the fast-rising The Coral, and ever-peculiar Clinic, for instance - and a pack-up-and-move-on circus mentality which ensures each occasion to be an ambient, if unique, alternative to viewing live music in a sweaty-dive. More than anything, too, it's an apt setting for airing tracks from their most-recent - and arguably strongest - LP, 'We Love Life', and as the Sheffield six-piece predictably plough into their set with recent-single 'The Trees' - it opening with Cocker pulling an ironic rock hand-signal - nothing could be more appropriate.
'You got your midge-repellent on,' he soon enquires to a grinning audience, soon following, 'And anybody been for a walk yet?' It's such light humour that always enables Pulp-concerts to seem more than a mere show - instead, an experience: each of your emotions plucked from your internal system and strained until they're lifeless; thus, when they move in a fluid rapidity into such numbers as the sumptuous 'Bad Cover Version' after a foot-stomping 'Weeds', and from an endearing 'Birds In Your Garden' into a haunting 'Live Bed Show' - a golden oldie from 1995 classic-album, 'Different Class' - your interest is mechanically locked from every heart-draining ballad to every anthemic chorus.
Clearly, Jarvis is a happier guy these days as well. Gone are the dark lines under eyes and the scowling pouts - instead, we get the geekier-than-ever woolly-jumpers and amusing references to his fiancι ('I dedicate that to my wife-to-be,' he smiles cheekily, post a euphoric rendition of 'FEELINGCALLEDLOVE', 'Cos she hates it.'). As such, comparing the current shows to, say, the tours in 1998, not only are you guaranteed more surprises in the set (after all, would you have expected to hear their '89 single, 'My Legendary Girlfriend', complete with Steve Mackey and Nick Bank's bold bass and drum-thumps amidst an eerie moonlight landscape?), yet also a more instant and accessible atmosphere.
Of course, they triumph particularly on the obvious ones - faithful and rich renditions of old favourites, such as 'Babies' and a chilling 'Joyriders' - though also in a similar league is the hand-clapping inducement of an uplifting 'Sunrise', namely guided along via the sweeping guitars of Richard Hawley and Mark Webber plus keyboards of Candida Doyle, and an epic 'I Love Life', both from their latest endeavours. However, in the fashion of a typical Pulp-performance, it ends on a climax - arriving in the form of their dance-orientated and electronic 'Common People' remix, which soon explodes into a sing-a-long and moving ending to a 100-minute set of mouth-dropping splendour.
Where they go from here - who knows? One fact remains slightly clear, however; in the poignant and penultimate number in which Jarv croons 'Wish I could show a little soul', nothing could be further from the truth - tonight, Pulp bared their hearts with all the passion and energy that others fail to deliver - and thousands of onlookers were captivated throughout.
Artists in this article: Pulp
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