Pulp
The Pyramid Stage, Saturday June 27, 2025
As many fans had guessed, the mystery band Patchwork booked in to appear at this year’s Glastonbury were in fact none other than Britpop icons Pulp, returning to the Pyramid Stage 30 years after their career-transforming set subbing for The Stone Roses after guitarist John Squire broke his collar bone.
In a weekend filled with rumours about who might be filling the various ‘TBA’ slots on the bill – Lorde – yes, Lewis Capaldi – yes, Haim – probably, Robbie Williams – who knows? Pulp continually denied they would be performing at this year’s festival, with keyboardist Candida Doyle telling BBC 6Music that the Glastonbury organisers “weren’t interested” in booking the band.
But even before frontman Jarvis Cocker was spotted on site and performed a DJ set at the Greenpeace stage on Friday, most fans had come to the conclusion that Cocker and co. would be making an appearance of some sort.
Come quarter six past on Saturday a line of people in ponchos fill the front of The Pyramid Stage stage before the familiar flutter of Doyle’s keyboard intro to Sorted For E’s & Whizz (natch) signals what everyone here had already worked out.
“Did you guess it was us?”asks Cocker after Disco 2000. “How did you know?”
He goes on to explain that both songs were first played during that headline slot “30 years and four days ago…”, linking nicely into Spike Island, named after the outdoor gathering in Widnes, Cheshire in 1990 put on by the the band who inadvertently put Pulp up here in 1995 “with ten days notice “
It’s sometimes hard to hear Cocker’s anecdotes about the songs over a low level din of chatter, particularly during a stripped-down Something Changed, backed by a sweet montage of the band in various stages of youth, including late bassist Steve Mackey, but MOJO just about makes out one about Cocker’s first Glastonbury, nearly cuing up 1994’s Do You You Remember The First Time?
As MOJO’s review of the first night of the band’s tour in Glasgow earlier this month reported, Pulp’s recent two-part shows drew heavily from new album More. Truncated for the purposes of an early evening festival slot, this is closer to the greatest hits set of their show at Finsbury Park in 2023 (a review of which you can also read HERE). Yet as the clock ticks down Misshapes pinballs swiftly into the classic Pulp moves of latest single Got To Have Love, Pulp’s pre-Different Class rosetta stone Babies and - of course - Common People, you can’t hear the 30 year join at all.
With memory-stoking sets by Supergrass, Shed Seven and Alanis Morissette yesterday, memories of 1995 featured prominently at this year’s Glastonbury. Judging by the enormous crowd who took a punt on coming to see Patchwork, three decades later Pulp have once again found themselves accidental Glastonbury headliners. Plus, if you ever needed confirmation of Pulp’s national treasure status, even the Red Arrows did a fly over at the end.
Pulp At Glastonbury 2025 Setlist:
Sorted For E’s & Whizz
Disco 200
Spike Island
O.U (Gone, Gone)
Acrylic Afternoons
Something Changed
Do You Remember The First Time?
Mis-shapes
Got To Have Love
Babies
Common People
Follow all of MOJO’s Glastonbury 2025’s coverage HERE!
Photo: Pulp at Co-op Live Arena in Manchester, June 21, 2025 (Credit: Andy Von Pip/SOPA Images/LightRocket/Getty Images)