Nostalgia fuels reunion tours, and Pulp are no exception. But what makes Pulp: What Do You Do for an Encore? so engaging is the mix of live material and archival footage that explores the drive to keep performing beyond financial benefit. Songs are a connective tissue to the past for the band and fans alike; the documentary and concert double as a time machine that will leave a huge smile on any Pulp fan’s face.
“This performance is an encore. An encore occurs because the audience wants more,” Jarvis Cocker’s disembodied voice tells a sold-out crowd in 2025 at the O2 in London before the red curtain opens. When Pulp reunited in 2011, it had been a decade since their last (and mostly forgettable) studio album, ‘We Love Life’. The following year, they were set to play their final show in their hometown, Sheffield, with an accompanying documentary, Pulp: A Film About Life, Death & Supermarkets, showcasing that farewell. No one is making similar statements about the band’s ‘You Deserve More’ tour or their first album in a quarter of a century, giving this story space to breathe without the air of finality hanging over the celebratory atmosphere.
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Cocker’s singular Gen X style and wit guide us through the present and past as the film draws on his natural storytelling prowess on stage and as the narrator. Cutting between the live show and a treasure trove of photographs, videos and documents underscores the tangible nature of a band that couldn’t be replicated. In contrast, Oasis and Blur had plenty of wannabe imitators during Britpop.
Favouring multimedia and collage visuals, director Garth Jennings’ impressive music video resumé (including Pulp’s ‘Help the Aged’ and Blur’s ‘Coffee & TV’) ensures this never becomes a standard trip down memory lane. With hours of material to choose from, Jennings successfully balances clips from TV appearances on Live & Kicking and TFI Friday with personal material embodying the Pulp misfit ethos. Pencil-style graphic illustrations can tip into twee territory, but are used sparingly here to great effect.
On stage, a neon-lit backdrop depicts recognisable Pulp imagery spanning the decades, alongside hypnotic, mostly galactic visuals that give an otherworldly quality. The large-scale stage production includes a string orchestra that supports the showman’s vision. Nevertheless, it is a stripped-back, intimate rendition of a fan-favourite song dedicated to bassist Steve Mackey (who died in 2023), featuring only Cocker, Candida Doyle, Nick Banks and Mark Webber, that lingers long after the end credits roll.
If there is one downside it’s knowing this is not the full concert, leaving you craving more. New songs from the 2025 album ‘More.’ feature alongside instantly recognisable hits such as ‘Disco 2000’, ‘Babies’ and, of course, ‘Common People’. When over 20,000 fans sing along as gold ticker tape rains down on the sea of hands dancing in the air after Cocker uses his whole body to conduct, new memories are made as past and present overlap. It is no mystery why they want to keep the party going.