Jarvis Cocker on Pulp documentary and 2025 comeback tour

Pulp, whose 90s anthems include Common People and Sorted for E's & Wizz, are the subject of a new documentary about their history and their 2025 comeback tour. The film mixes never before seen archive with live performances and is narrated by frontman Jarvis Cocker. It is directed by longtime collaborator Garth Jennings.

The documentary traces Cocker's teenage plan, written in the back of an exercise book when he was 15, to make Pulp successful. It begins with clothes. It describes a rise that took more than a decade and several lineups before the band broke through in the 90s Britpop era. The film describes Pulp as a 15-year overnight success, with Cocker saying big dreams were the main requirement for members. In the film, he describes the band as scaling Mount Pop.

In an interview to promote the documentary, Cocker was asked why he wanted to be a superstar rather than do a nine to five job. He said the Beatles were number one when he was born, though he was not aware of it, and that Pulp being normal people from a normal town encouraged others to think they could do it too. He joked that when the Beatles split, he saw a gap in the market.

Asked about Pulp being called Britpop misfits, Cocker said he did not use the B word. He said his idea of pop music was a public forum that inspired people and anyone could join. He disliked the Britpop label because it suggested waving a union jack, which he said was never a good idea.

He also reflected on fame. He said that as a child, before he was diagnosed as short-sighted, television was the only thing he could see clearly and felt more real than the real world. He thought fame would let him live inside the television. When Pulp became famous, he expected life to require no effort, with people bringing him things while he sat on a well upholstered settee. That did not happen.

The interview covered politics and music. Cocker said musicians did not have a responsibility to speak out on issues such as Israel and Palestine, but that music is about being free and saying what you think. He said Pulp has played a song whose first word he cannot say, which includes the line that certain people are still running the world, and that they have never been told not to play it. He also welcomed the opening of Number 10 North, saying it showed someone from Manchester had not simply taken the top job and left.

Cocker said he was happy that a new generation of Pulp fans was listening to songs that are around 30 years old and still getting something from them. He said he could never have predicted that, and that pop had not lost its fizz.