Glastonbury’s mystery band Patchwork were Pulp, after all

Mark SavageMusic Correspondent, at GlastonburyGetty Pictures”Hello, my title is Jarvis,” stated Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker, greeting the crowdGlastonbury’s worst-kept secret is out. The thriller band billed as Patchwork had been, in actual fact, Pulp. Nonetheless, no-one was ready to consider it till it occurred.”If Robbie Williams comes out? No, I am leaving,” stated a lady subsequent to me within the viewers, because the stage full of random folks – widespread folks – wearing plastic raincoats.Then Jarvis Cocker strode onto the Pyramid Stage, receiving a hero’s welcome as he launched into Sorted for E’s & Wizz, from Pulp’s career-making 1995 album Completely different Class. “Sorry to the individuals who had been anticipating Patchwork,” he drawled after the tune ended. “Do you know it was us?”The gang responded “sure”, with what I can solely describe as a collective eye-roll.”However how?” Cocker deadpanned.Within the run-up to the pageant, the Sheffield band had tried in useless to maintain their id secret.Cocker stated they’d solely attend if it was a “life or dying state of affairs”, whereas keyboard participant Candida Doyle instructed BBC 6 Music that organisers “weren’t ” in reserving them.In fact, it was all an elaborate double bluff. This yr marks the thirtieth anniversary of the band’s historic 1995 headline set on the Pyramid Stage – they usually’re at present having fun with a renaissance, with a brand new album known as Extra! topping the charts. With Glastonbury taking a fallow yr in 2026, it was now or by no means.EPAThe star threw a paper cup stuffed with tea baggage into the viewers, for causes recognized solely to himselfTheir set featured a number of new songs, together with the celebratory Spike Island and a gospel-flavoured Obtained To Have Love. However everybody was actually ready for the large hits: Infants, Misfits and Widespread Folks.As the group bounced, Cocker flapped throughout the stage like a washing line in a stiff breeze, his arms flailing and pointing at random.And through Acrylic Afternoons – a hymn to the mundane realities of suburban intercourse – he walked alongside the entrance of the stage, tossing tea baggage to followers. His idiosyncrasy stays intact. Zoe Ball takes a photograph of Pulp, as they play Glastonbury’s Pyramid StageAmong the followers singing alongside (and taking movies) within the viewers had been Glastonbury organiser Emily Eavis, Sunday evening headliner Olivia Rodrigo, and former Radio 2 DJ Zoe Ball, who stated she was experiencing “whole euphoric recall”.”Listening to all these songs once more, with my outdated mates, leaping up and down… I really like being right here with all these individuals who love them as properly,” she stated.”It was an actual excessive.”A poem from Robbie WilliamsPulp’s set at Glastonbury 1995 has gone down as one of the vital beloved headline performances of all time.Pulp’s 1995 headline slot has gone down in historical past as certainly one of Glastonbury’s most memorable and triumphant units – nevertheless it was really a last-minute reserving, after Stone Roses guitarist John Squire broke his collar bone.Cocker later revealed “it was probably the most nervous I’ve ever been in my life”.”However then Robbie from Take That got here and wished us luck,” he instructed Vox journal.”Robbie learn us a few of his poetry. I used to be doubtful at first, as a result of generally poetry may be embarrassing, nevertheless it was actually good.”The efficiency got here simply a few weeks after the discharge of what would develop into their signature tune, Widespread Folks. With the anthem lodged at quantity two within the charts, the band held it to the very finish of their set for max influence.As he launched the observe, Cocker gave a heartfelt speech in regards to the band’s slow-burn profession.”In order for you one thing to occur sufficient, then it really will occur – and I consider that,” he stated.”In reality, that is why we’re stood on this stage at the moment after 15 years, as a result of we wished it to occur, are you aware what I imply?”So if a lanky git like me can do it, you are able to do it too.”And with that, they launched right into a celebratory, communal, 7-minute singalong that confirmed Pulp’s standing because the poet laureates of Britpop.”That was the occasion that made the success a concrete truth,” Cocker later instructed Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs.EPAThe band drew one of many greatest crowds of the pageant so farThe band went on to promote greater than 10 million data earlier than taking a decade-long hiatus in 2001.They toured once more sporadically after that, however solely dedicated to creating a brand new document final yr after receiving “a proposal we weren’t certain we might refuse”.On stage at Glastonbury, Cocker defined how they’d gathered in a “front room within the north of England” to decide.”We had one poor high quality acoustic guitar, and out of tune piano and an African drum, and we tried to play this tune and on the finish of it we one way or the other determined to tour.”That tune was One thing Modified, probably the band’s most romantic second, which they performed on those self same devices, gathered in a circle on the centre of the Pyramid Stage.Like the remainder of the set, it was a sentimental gesture, steeped in nostalgia.They completed, naturally, with Widespread Folks – enhanced by a Pink Arrows flypast on the tune’s climax. The timing of the stunt lastly defined why the singer had spent nearly all of the set checking his watch.As he left the stage, Cocker thanked the viewers and promised, “I will see you at Arcadia later, alright?” It is a date.