Britpop lives again as Pulp reform for the common people

Pulp. Photo / Supplied

In a move likely to be greeted with the dusting off of drainpipe trousers nationwide, Pulp have announced they are the latest Britpop band to reform.

The group that brought the Nineties the acerbic class commentary of Common People, along with a famous Michael Jackson hand-flapping episode, is set to headline the Wireless Festival in London's Hyde Park next July.

Pulp split in 2002 and the reunion follows Blur's hugely lauded appearance at Glastonbury in 2009; the Damon Albarn-fronted outfit also had two sell-out homecoming gigs in Hyde Park.

Pulp's London show, along with an appearance at Barcelona's Primavera Sound Festival in May, will feature all of the group's original members: Jarvis Cocker, Nick Banks, Candida Doyle, Steve Mackey, Russell Senior and Mark Webber.

They have not been seen on stage together since 1996.

"I was a big fan of Pulp because they were the outsiders of Britpop," said Wireless promoter Steve Homer.

"There was always this clash between the art school boys Blur and the tough northerners Oasis, and Pulp were art school but from the north. They broke down those north-south divide barriers. You don't often get such intelligent, out-there artists. Jarvis was a spokesman for a generation."

The band, fronted by Cocker's eccentric, effete performing style, took some time to gain mainstream appeal. Their first album, It, was released in 1983 as a limited edition vinyl print. Freaks followed four years later and was also commercially unsuccessful.

Separations, released in 1992, featured experimental acid house tracks and it wasn't until two years later that His `n' Hers achieved break-out success; the following year's Different Class made them poster boys, and girl, for a generation of pop lovers.

"I thought there were really three great Britpop bands - Oasis, Blur and Pulp. I think Pulp are one of the most incredible bands of the era," said Creation Records founder Alan McGee, who signed Oasis in the early Nineties.

-THE INDEPENDENT