Indie icons, Pulp have announced their first new album in 24 years, titled More, along with the release of a brand-new single, Spike Island.
Speaking to BBC 6 Music, frontman Jarvis Cocker explained that the overwhelmingly positive response to the band’s 2023 reunion tour encouraged them to get back into the studio.
“We did play one new song towards the end of the tour, and nobody threw things at us, or left to go to the bar.
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“So we just thought we’d carry on and see what we could conjure up,” he said.
Formed in Sheffield in 1978, Pulp became one of the most distinctive voices of the 1990s Britpop era with hits like Babies, Disco 2000, and Common People—although their sound never quite fit the nostalgic mold of the movement.
Despite a slow rise to fame, they eventually sold over 10 million records. Their last album, We Love Life, was released in 2001 before the band took a lengthy break.
They returned for festival appearances in 2011, including a surprise set at Glastonbury, and reunited again in 2023.
Their new single, Spike Island, takes its name from the infamous 1990 Stone Roses concert in Widnes. The event is remembered both as a cultural milestone and a logistical letdown.
Pulp guitarist Mark Webber shared his own impressions with BBC 6 Music’s Lauren Laverne. “A slight anticlimax, to be honest,” he said. “I think everyone felt that way. There was a lot of anticipation but it didn’t sound very good, it was very windy and the vibe wasn’t there.”
Cocker, who didn’t attend the show himself, said the lyrics for the song were based on stories he heard from people who were there, including musician Jason Buckle from All Seeing I, who co-wrote the track.
“All he could remember was a DJ who between every song said, ‘Spike Island come alive, Spike Island come alive’. That phrase stuck with me. I’ve got a very short attention span I think,” Cocker said.
He described Spike Island as a sister song to their 1995 single Sorted for E’s and Whizz, which was also inspired by fan experiences at the same Stone Roses gig.
Cocker said, “The inspiration for that track was a girl that I was speaking to at The Leadmill in Sheffield one night.
“She said all that she could remember were people going round saying, ‘Is everyone sorted for E’s and whizz?’. So that phrase stuck in my mind.”
The new album More is scheduled for release on 6 June and is dedicated to Pulp’s longtime bassist Steve Mackey, who died in 2023 at the age of 56.
Recording without him was “weird at first,” Cocker said, but the album still features “two songs on the record which date from when Steve was around,” helping to keep his presence in the music.
“It was not the nicest thing, but people who you’re close to, you never forget them, and you can do things to remember them by,” he added,
(BBC)
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