Pulp Stages a Comeback With Its First Red Rocks Show and New Album

When Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker hears that the backstage area of Red Rocks Amphitheatre is like a cave in the side of a mountain, he gets even more excited for his band's upcoming show there. The singer, known for his slinky stage moves and pop music, has a bit of an obsession with caves. He recorded parts of an album in one with his side project, JARV IS; he also did a show there. He even wrote a published essay about the connection between music and caves.

Cocker says he had an emotional experience after seeing carvings on the walls of Creswell Crags in the north of England, and how it was a means for communication. "It was like seeing the roots of human creativity, which is something that still mystifies me about songwriting," he reflects. "You take events from your life, make them into lyrics and set that to music. And someone else hears it and gains insight into your experience and gets exactly what you're saying. That's like a form of magic."

Sheffield, England’s Pulp has been bringing the magic to music since the late 1970s, but broke into the charts in the mid-1990s with the hit "Common People," riding the wave of Britpop that included Oasis and Blur. The band's art-rock, dance-pop sounds, combined with Cocker's wry lyrics, and the band's secondhand '60s and '70s fashion set it apart from the pack.

Pulp released a total of seven studio albums, which include two number-one albums in the UK: Different Class (1995) and This Is Hardcore (1998), before the members ran out of steam in 2002 and went on hiatus.

The members went on to pursue individual projects until they decided to reform and release their first album in 24 years this summer, appropriately titled More, which went straight to number one in the UK. The band made a surprise appearance at the Glastonbury Festival, marking its official return before kicking off a UK and US tour, which includes its first-ever stop at Red Rocks Amphitheatre on Monday, September 22.
Cocker says he took a different approach to songwriting this time to spare the band the lengthy one to two years it typically takes to write an album. "I tried to be modern. I wrote the words in advance as notes on my phone and put them in folders that were linked," he explains. "Then I put them on my iPad and ran them through a teleprompter app. When we were rehearsing, I pressed 'play' on the teleprompter and just sang whatever was on the screen."

The result is Cocker's signature pop styling mixed with spoken-word storytelling, which he says comes from the fact that a song must be personal for it to work. "You're opening yourself up and saying, 'This is what I think. This is how I see the world.' When people listen to a song, they hear the music and then the voice comes in and they're either convinced or they have to turn it off because the lyrics are unlistenable," he says. "My job in the band is to try to make words that don't make people cringe. I want it to feel like I'm having a conversation with the person who is listening."

In the passage of time, the band has matured, even in its style. Cocker now dresses in suits from a French tailor over secondhand clothes, and he also has a perspective that can only come with the wisdom of age. Cocker says he wrote the music for the song "Grown Ups" 28 years ago, but it wasn't until recently that the lyrics came to him.

"I actually had to grow up to be able to write the words," he admits.

The song describes a dream about seeing a new planet and people enjoying it, so they build a rocket and go there. Then they want to go back, because Earth looks better. But they can't because they ran out of fuel.

"It's an analogy for when you're younger, you look at adult life and can't wait to do all those things. Then, when you're an adult, you wish you could go back to being a kid and start over," he dissects. "It's difficult to appreciate where you are in life. But that's the key. Being alive is to enjoy now, because that's all you've got." Pulp's history is covered in Cocker's 2022 book, Good Pop, Bad Pop, in which he documents belongings that were tucked away in a loft for decades, including a school notebook from his teens outlining the masterplan for a band called Pulp and detailing the type of music it would create, what the members would wear and how they would take over the world.

Also found was a ticket to the John Peel Roadshow, a BBC broadcast featuring band performances. "I gave John Peel our first demo tape and he offered us a session on his radio program," Cocker remembers. "Without that happening, I wouldn't be where I am now because that gave me the encouragement to say to my mother, 'I'm not going to university. I'm going to be in a band, and I'm going to become famous.'"

Just like the writings on the cave walls, Cocker communicated his vision. And Pulp fulfilled it.

Pulp, Monday, September 22, Red Rocks Amphitheatre, 18300 West Alameda Parkway, Morrison. Tickets are $37.50- $209.14.