{"id":612501,"date":"2026-09-11T05:36:15","date_gmt":"2026-09-11T05:36:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/612501\/"},"modified":"2026-09-11T05:36:15","modified_gmt":"2026-09-11T05:36:15","slug":"people-think-fame-is-a-magic-wand-jarvis-cocker-on-old-songs-young-fans-and-his-grannys-verdict-on-pulp-movies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/612501\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018People think fame is a magic wand\u2019: Jarvis Cocker on old songs, young fans and his granny\u2019s verdict on Pulp | Movies"},"content":{"rendered":"

When the director Garth Jennings first moved to Paris, Jarvis Cocker<\/a>, who was living there, dropped in on his old friend. \u201cAnd I nearly got you arrested,\u201d the Pulp frontman recalls. It was bonfire night, and Cocker had taken some welcoming fireworks over to Jennings\u2019 place. \u201cIt turned out Garth\u2019s apartment was quite near to the \u2013 not an army base, but what\u2019s it called?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe \u00c9cole Militaire,\u201d says Jennings.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo obviously they didn\u2019t like explosives,\u201d says Cocker. \u201cWe got told off for that. The best welcome to Paris.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was lovely,\u201d adds Jennings, fondly. \u201cI remember it very well.\u201d<\/p>\n

The men had first met in the late 1990s, when Jennings directed two gorgeous music videos for Pulp, for the singles Help the Aged<\/a> and A Little Soul<\/a>. Now, almost 30 years later, they are working together again, on Pulp: What Do You Do for an Encore? This joyful, funny, celebratory film is a hybrid beast: part concert movie and part documentary on the long history of the band. The live show was filmed at London\u2019s O2 Arena in the summer of 2025, on the night that Pulp were told that More, their eighth studio album<\/a> and first album in 24 years, had gone to No 1 in the British album charts. You can see Cocker waving around the trophy on stage.<\/p>\n

Jennings, director of Son of Rambow<\/a> and The Hitchhiker\u2019s Guide to the Galaxy<\/a>, has lived in Paris for the past 13 years, where the animation for Sing, his wildly successful kids\u2019 musical film franchise, is made. He is working on a short Christmas special, and the third and final film in the series. \u201cIt\u2019s a slow process,\u201d he says, from the studio, \u201cbut we\u2019re getting there.\u201d Cocker moved back to London a few years ago, and today he is at home, getting ready to headline the End of the Road festival<\/a>. It will be Pulp\u2019s last show for a while.<\/p>\n

You can blame Instagram and Abba Voyage for the existence of What Do You Do for an Encore? Pulp, formed by Cocker in Sheffield in 1978, split up in 2002. They got back together for a reunion tour between 2011 and 2013, the final date of which was captured for another idiosyncratic documentary, Florian Habicht\u2019s Pulp: A Film About Life, Death & Supermarkets<\/a>. Cocker had considered those shows to be a fitting \u2013 and final \u2013 farewell.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen Pulp<\/a> got together that time, I had this idea that things had ended in a not-nice way, and I wanted it to have a happy ending,\u201d Cocker says. \u201cI thought the way to do that would be to play concerts, and we invited Russell Senior back\u201d \u2013 the violinist and guitarist had quit in 1997 \u2013 \u201cand I just thought it would be like: we\u2019re all friends, everything\u2019s good, and then we\u2019d all retire,\u201d says Cocker. \u201cAnd to be honest, that tour did seem to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018I don\u2019t go to shows any more. I\u2019m an old bloke\u2019 … Jarvis Cocker. Photograph: Tom Jackson<\/p>\n

So when a promoter got in touch years later, to ask if Pulp would be interested in playing again, Cocker had to think about it. \u201cBecause the worst thing to do would have been to spoil the happy ending.\u201d How did he decide to say yes? \u201cI confessed my fear that people wouldn\u2019t come, or that people weren\u2019t that bothered, and why would they be?\u201d The promoter assured him that people would most definitely be bothered. \u201cHe told me about a few times when he\u2019d been to shows and a Pulp song had come on before a band went on, and everybody sang along. You know, I don\u2019t go to shows any more. I\u2019m an old bloke.\u201d (Cocker is about to turn 63.) \u201cI just said: \u2018All right, I hope you\u2019re right, let\u2019s do it.\u2019 But I wanted to make sure that it would be a good thing for us to do as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cocker teased the news of a second Pulp reunion on Instagram in 2022. Jennings messaged him to tell him how excited he was, and to offer his help. It is obvious, when chatting to Jennings, that as well as being Cocker\u2019s friend, he is a huge Pulp fan. As they started to work on the creative direction of the live show together, Jennings remembers, \u201cI\u2019d be in some other room working on a graphics thing, and then I\u2019d suddenly hear you lot playing, and I\u2019d have to just drop it and come outside. Especially a song like Razzmatazz, which was my first Pulp song. I found you through that. You started playing that at one point, and it was just the best thing ever. I had this wonderful little secret window into this world.\u201d<\/p>\n

When it became obvious that the live show was going to be a spectacle, they started to wonder about turning it into a film. \u201cSome of my favourite films are concert films, and they don\u2019t need to be anything more. But this felt like an opportunity to go a bit further,\u201d says Jennings.<\/p>\n

Celebratory … Pulp: What Do You Do for an Encore?<\/p>\n

Which is where Abba Voyage<\/a> comes in. Both Jennings and Cocker had seen \u2013 and loved \u2013 the theatrical experience, which blends live music with giant holograms of Abba in their prime. \u201cThat was something that was very inspiring. Just the sheer joy of it,\u201d says Jennings, who has seen it three times. As well as performing the hits, Abba Voyage tells the story of Abba, just as What Do You Do for an Encore? tells the story of Pulp, giving each song context.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was so glad when Garth got in touch, because it felt as if he could help make it something that people hadn\u2019t seen before,\u201d Cocker says. \u201cI am very familiar with Pulp\u2019s backstory because I\u2019ve lived through it. But I\u2019m always flabbergasted at how long the band has gone on.\u201d It is clear from the footage of the crowd, showing people losing their minds and singing every word, that some of the audience were not even born when Pulp split up for the first time. \u201cThat\u2019s something amazing, really. And something I can\u2019t explain \u2013 why young people have latched on to it.\u201d They played in Manchester recently. \u201cA lot of young people,\u201d Cocker laughs. \u201cBut I\u2019m happy about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018It felt as if he could make it something that people hadn\u2019t seen before\u2019 … Garth Jennings. Photograph: Ezra Petronio<\/p>\n

The film uses animation, old TV clips and grainy VHS footage, as well as documents and objects that fans may recognise from Cocker\u2019s 2023 book Good Pop Bad Pop<\/a>. It was a \u201chuge job\u201d to pull it together, says Jennings, who credits the archivist Tess McNally-Watson with some serious hard work. \u201cBecause it\u2019s not all in one place. It\u2019s in people\u2019s bedrooms and attics, and someone\u2019s friend\u2019s brother\u2019s still got a cassette, so it\u2019s a lot of Raiders of the Lost Ark-style gathering and then transferring.\u201d At one point, there is a funny, fond interview with Cocker\u2019s mother and grandmother, who crack jokes about his newfound fame. \u201cThat\u2019s a bit embarrassing for me,\u201d says Cocker. \u201cMy grandma\u2019s been dead ages, and my mum died only three or four years ago, so it was quite a thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

During the live show, Pulp pay a moving tribute to Steve Mackey, who joined the band as bassist in 1989, and who died in 2023<\/a> aged 56. Mackey was not going to play on this tour, though he had wished his old bandmates luck. It was important that he was included in the film, and Cocker says that they were able to show it to Mackey\u2019s family before it was signed off. \u201cJust to make sure that they were happy with it. But I think you did a very good job there, Garth. It\u2019s a hard thing to express in the right way.\u201d<\/p>\n

What Do You Do for an Encore? does not shy away from the more complicated times in Pulp\u2019s story. Around the release of their then-divisive album This Is Hardcore in 1998, Cocker describes \u201cgoing down a dark tunnel\u201d. Jennings was making videos for the band back then. Had he noticed that things seemed off?<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t notice Jarvis going down a dark tunnel, and maybe you were, Jarvis, and I apologise if I wasn\u2019t there to help you,\u201d he says, sincerely. \u201cBut no, because the actual act of making these things was always lovely. I never noticed you being tricky, or anything.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018I\u2019d decided to be in a band when I was seven\u2019 \u2026 Pulp: What Do You Do for an Encore? Photograph: Courtesy of Mubi<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was probably because I\u2019d decided to be in a band when I was seven,\u201d Cocker reflects. \u201cLike a lot of people, you think that if you achieve fame, that will be the magic wand that makes everything in your life work, and obviously that\u2019s not the case. You still have to make an effort in your life. You can\u2019t just lie in a bed and say: \u2018Right, OK, that\u2019s it, job done.\u2019 But I didn\u2019t realise that, so that\u2019s why I had issues with it.\u201d Over time, he says, \u201cI went back into real life and appreciated it. That was probably another reason why it took me a while to decide to do Pulp again. I was thinking: \u2018Well, what\u2019s the motivation? What will you get from it?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

In the film, Cocker describes Pulp as \u201cscaling Mount Pop\u201d, but it sounds as if he didn\u2019t much like what he found at the summit. \u201cIt\u2019s like seeing videos of your wedding. Your wedding is a magical thing, but then somebody shows you a video, and you think: \u2018Oh God, what\u2019s that?\u2019\u201d He prefers fantasy to reality, he says, \u201cbut sometimes you have to look at reality. And that\u2019s what happened.\u201d Fame, he says, \u201cis an exciting thing, but you just have to keep your wits about you, and make sure you\u2019re doing things for the right reason, and try not to get too up your own arse.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018It\u2019s a lot of Raiders of the Lost Ark-style gathering\u2019 \u2026 Cocker in his younger years. <\/p>\n

When he was still at school, in one of his exercise books, Cocker wrote out a \u201cPulp master plan\u201d. It makes an appearance in the film. But really, he says, they\u2019ve never had one. \u201cI\u2019m glad things that things didn\u2019t go according to a plan. That\u2019s the great thing about groups. You know that you have to work with other people, and everybody adds something to it, and then you get something that you can\u2019t really say exactly where it came from.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pulp\u2019s End of the Road set last week marked the end of a tour that started in 2023, though the band are planning to meet up again in October, to celebrate it all. They\u2019re going to see Abba Voyage together. Will there be another encore? \u201cYou know, it\u2019s like a tree,\u201d says Cocker, philosophically. \u201cA tree doesn\u2019t decide it\u2019s going to grow. If the weather\u2019s right, it\u2019ll grow a branch. And if the intellectual weather is right in the next couple of years, maybe we\u2019ll sprout another record.\u201d He said it himself: there has never been a master plan.<\/p>\n

Pulp: What Do You Do for an Encore? is on Mubi from 25 September, with special one night only preview screenings at UK and Irish cinemas on 18 September and in US cinemas on 24 September<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When the director Garth Jennings first moved to Paris, Jarvis Cocker, who was living there, dropped in on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":612502,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[146,85,46],"class_list":["post-612501","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-il","tag-israel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612501","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=612501"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612501\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/612502"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=612501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=612501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=612501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}