Pulp – Apollo, Hammersmith

I don’t like much about e-tickets, but I like the fact that this e-ticket actually looks like a ticket

This was something I was looking forward to ever since getting the tickets, which admittedly wasn’t that long ago. My first headline Pulp gig since December 1995. And it’s at a small venue! The comeback gig was at the awful Finsbury Park, but I was away and couldn’t get tickets for that. And we had seats! And we’re in the second row of the balcony! And the people in front of us aren’t seven feet tall!

We’d driven over to Northfields, about 4 stops west of Hammersmith along the Piccadilly line, and booked a hotel as we had a very early start at Heathrow the next day (picking up our kids sadly, not going on holiday). As a result we missed the support, Lisa O’Neill, as we were stuffing our faces with beer and pizza, something I seem to do less and less as I get older.

What can I say about Pulp? Jarvis Cocker (age 59 3/4) runs around the stage like he’s half his age, and he has such amazing stage presence you can’t take your eyes off him at any time. The stage was set out almost like those old Morecambe and Wise/Des O’Connor TV specials, with different performers on different levels, and a staircase in the middle. The sound was good, the lighting great, the setlist almost perfect.

Let’s hope this isn’t a final curtain call – they’re too good live to make this a last hurrah.