Latest news with #StoneRoses
Sydney Morning Herald
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Sydney Morning Herald
Britpop legends Pulp have dropped their first album in 25 years. I have some thoughts
A new Pulp album after 24 years wasn't Jarvis Cocker's idea. 'There's been a groundswell of feeling … a desire for us to play again,' he told me three years ago when plugging his memoir, Good Pop, Bad Pop. 'You know, if people clap for long enough it's a bit churlish if you don't go and give them another bit of music.' Hence, More. Not a lunge for relevance from a legacy act but a thoughtful response to friends in need. The distinction is everything because this long after the pilled-up promise of Disco 2000 we don't need a new high. We need something more real, for less certain times. Pulp were always the smarter, more ironic, less cavalier band of the Britpop pack. Common People was a '90s anthem. True stories of sex and shame, class resentment and crushed romanticism bopped to kitchen-sink disco and velvet melodrama. Even in the literal throes of ecstasy, Cocker was the guy who wasn't quite buying in. 'Is this the way they say the future's meant to feel?/Or just 20,000 people standing in a field?' he wondered in Sorted for E's and Wizz. True to those dry-eyed instincts, More is no grab for lost youth or even nostalgia. It's an embrace of where we've landed, a mirror held to ageing, love and the weight of shared memory. Spike Island lurches in like a boozy contiki bus, a flashback to a mythic Stone Roses show in 1990: a generational touchstone for Brits for which there's no real Australian equivalent, unless you count Nirvana (we were all American back then) at the first Big Day Out. Cocker conjures a vision of near-transcendence coexisting with an immediate comedown, the cosmos moving on in the midst of his tiny epiphany. 'I exist to do this,' he wails, hips a-wiggle, 'shouting and pointing.' A rock star's battle cry in past tense: sad, but strangely noble, too.
The Age
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Age
Britpop legends Pulp have dropped their first album in 25 years. I have some thoughts
A new Pulp album after 24 years wasn't Jarvis Cocker's idea. 'There's been a groundswell of feeling … a desire for us to play again,' he told me three years ago when plugging his memoir, Good Pop, Bad Pop. 'You know, if people clap for long enough it's a bit churlish if you don't go and give them another bit of music.' Hence, More. Not a lunge for relevance from a legacy act but a thoughtful response to friends in need. The distinction is everything because this long after the pilled-up promise of Disco 2000 we don't need a new high. We need something more real, for less certain times. Pulp were always the smarter, more ironic, less cavalier band of the Britpop pack. Common People was a '90s anthem. True stories of sex and shame, class resentment and crushed romanticism bopped to kitchen-sink disco and velvet melodrama. Even in the literal throes of ecstasy, Cocker was the guy who wasn't quite buying in. 'Is this the way they say the future's meant to feel?/Or just 20,000 people standing in a field?' he wondered in Sorted for E's and Wizz. True to those dry-eyed instincts, More is no grab for lost youth or even nostalgia. It's an embrace of where we've landed, a mirror held to ageing, love and the weight of shared memory. Spike Island lurches in like a boozy contiki bus, a flashback to a mythic Stone Roses show in 1990: a generational touchstone for Brits for which there's no real Australian equivalent, unless you count Nirvana (we were all American back then) at the first Big Day Out. Cocker conjures a vision of near-transcendence coexisting with an immediate comedown, the cosmos moving on in the midst of his tiny epiphany. 'I exist to do this,' he wails, hips a-wiggle, 'shouting and pointing.' A rock star's battle cry in past tense: sad, but strangely noble, too.
Scotsman
02-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Scotsman
Rival 'Oasis' gig to be held metres from where Liam and Noel Gallagher will take to stage in Edinburgh
Sign up to our Arts and Culture newsletter, get the latest news and reviews from our specialist arts writers Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... It is one of the most sought-after concerts to come to Scotland this year, with tickets being snapped up within hours of them going on sale in September. Now, a rival gig to this summer's iconic Oasis tour is to be held in Edinburgh metres away from where Noel and Liam Gallagher will be taking to the stage at the same time in Murrayfield Stadium. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Murrayfield Ice Arena, which is located next door to the stadium where the Oasis concert will take place, is to hold an Oasis tribute band gig in its bar on 8, 9 and 12 August: the same days the brothers play their set in Scotland. Definitely Oasis is to play at the rink's bar, at a cost of £10 a ticket for adults and £5 for children - a far cry from the hundreds of pounds a ticket being charged on second hand ticket sale sites for the real Oasis concert. While the Oasis tour sold out shortly after it went on sale in September, some tickets are available on resale. The highest price tickets were due to be sold for when they were first released were £270 each for a VIP package. Pitched as an alternative for people who have 'missed out' on tickets for the main concert, the ice rink, which has been turned into a roller rink for the summer, urged people to 'beat the crowds and potentially the weather', by attending its gig, which also includes performances by a Stone Roses tribute band and a DJ. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Murrayfield Ice Arena Photo: Lisa Ferguson The rink said: 'Murrayfield Ice Arena presents the Murrayfield Music Fan Zone on Friday 8th/9th and 12th August from 2pm. Top class tribute bands, Definitely Oasis and the Complete Stone Roses along with DJ Fools Gold will keep you entertained before the main event in the Murrayfield Stadium. 'Feel part of the event' 'Even if you have missed out on tickets for the main concert, join us for Live music, DJs, bars and food and feel part of the event. Beat the crowds and potentially the weather at the Music Zone at Murrayfield Ice Arena.' According to the tribute band's website, it has toured extensively across the UK, Europe, the Middle East, and Australia, filling 'iconic' venues to capacity, including Glasgow's O2 Academy and Barrowland Ballroom, Edinburgh's Liquid Rooms and London's O2 Academy Islington. Liam and Noel Gallagher of Oasis | Simon Emmett/Fear PR/PA Wire They have also paid tribute to Oasis's roots by performing at historic venues where the band played in their early years, including The Joiners in Southampton, Tivoli in Buckley, La Belle Angele in Edinburgh, and King Tut's Wah Wah Hut in Glasgow - where Oasis is said to have been first discovered. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad
The Guardian
05-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Kula Shaker on making Govinda: ‘Crowds would sing the lyrics as, 'Go cash your gyro gyro''
It's not our song; it's as old as the hills. The first time I heard it was in a Krishna temple as a kid. George Harrison was the first person I know of who recorded it – it's the last track on 1971's The Radha Krsna Temple album. We were all living together as a band in Swiss Cottage, London, and that record got played all the time. So I had it absorbed. The first time we played our version was at Glastonbury festival in 1993. We'd smuggled ourselves in, in the back of somebody's van, then blagged our way on to the stage in the Hare Krishna free food tent, which seemed appropriate. The arrangement with the droning chords and the chant in the middle pretty much happened on the spot. We continued to play it every night at every show for two years until we got a proper record deal. It's one of those songs that continues to evolve and surprise you however many times you play it. It's not just a song. It's a doorway into thousands of years of tradition, woven with philosophy, ontology and history encapsulating the promise of spiritual adventure. We're still discovering things now, because of the song's origins. You have to have a mood of service towards it because it belongs to the world. It's one of those songs where the band are getting as much benefit as the audience. As for the lyrics: Sanskrit is often called 'the language of the gods'. Why on earth would you not want to try that in a pop song? Govinda is one of the 'intimate' names of God, which translates as 'reservoir of pleasure'. On the whole, any of the names with the prefix 'Go' (meaning 'cow'), like Gopal or Govinda, glorifies Sri Krishna's youthful time as the divine cowherd, who protects the cows, plays his magic flutes in enchanted forests and steals the hearts of heavenly milk-maidens. It always got a reaction live. There was never a beige response. One of the turning points was when we were touring our debut album, K, to a sold-out show in Blackburn in front of 2,500 people in various states of intoxication with their arms in the air, singing this ancient spiritual folk song. I thought to myself: 'God, we're not in control of this, are we? This has got a life of its own.' It was the perfect, miraculous convergence of sublime and ridiculousness, and that's what pop music should be. We were playing around the north London Camden scene but also going out to the West Country and playing to a very different, often very hippy crowd. Our drummer is from near Glastonbury, so if we could play Glastonbury Assembly Rooms alongside some psychedelic sitar player, we'd jump at the opportunity. We'd always loved the hippy music of the 60s and 70s, and had been equally fascinated by Indian classical music and eastern mysticism. A friend introduced us to the Bengali musicians who ended up playing on Govinda, who were a Hindu family from east London. We worked with John Leckie, who had produced the first Stone Roses album and before that, this brilliant psychedelic record by the Dukes of the Stratosphear. The verse is repetitive but we'd been listening to the George Harrison version for months, so it was quite easy to get down. There's lots of the tambura – the four-string sitar from Indian classical and folk music that gives the droning sound – and the tabla (the hand drums) all over the record. We had to remember that we were still these whitey westerners, laying down our groove. It was great to get a song that's entirely in Sanskrit on Radio 1, although I think most people saw it as one of those gimmicky songs. I remember people at early gigs shouting the lyrics as: 'Go cash your gyro gyro.' Some old songs you get tired of playing live, but Govinda always feels fresh, so we always finish live sets with it. It has a power that's beyond us; we're just the vessels. All we have to do is play and let the universe do the rest of the work. Kula Shaker are performing at Chalfest, Stroud, 18-19 July, and Lakefest, Eastnor Castle, 6-10 August
The Independent
15-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Independent
Jarvis Cocker says Pulp will only play Glastonbury in ‘life or death situation'
Jarvis Cocker has said his band Pulp will only perform at this year's Glastonbury Festival if it is a 'life or death situation'. The frontman, 61, confirmed he would be at the festival and said he may DJ there... but was reluctant to say Pulp would perform. The Britpop band made their name with a stand-in Glastonbury headline set in 1995. Asked about the band's chances of appearing at the festival, Cocker told the Scott Mills Breakfast Show on BBC Radio 2: 'I will be going to Glastonbury and I might DJ. 'Well, you know, I do occasionally DJ at Glastonbury in a place called Stone Bridge near the park stage. I will be happy to see what is going on there.' Pushed on whether Pulp would perform, Cocker told Mills: 'I don't think that's going to happen. 'If it was a life-or-death situation, but I really don't think it's going to happen.' The Common People singer was then asked about Pulp's breakthrough performance standing in for the Stone Roses at the festival in 1995. He added: 'We were in the studio recording Different Class and the phone went. I think it was Nick, the drummer, who picked it up and he said that's stuff we can play at Glastonbury. 'So, we kind of stopped and discussed it. I think we went to a small room to discuss it and we knew we were going to do it. 'It was about three weeks that Common People had been in the charts. It was like suddenly, oh yes, we are popular now. It was like a vindication I suppose. 'John Squire (Stone Roses guitarist) had an injury. He fell off his mountain bike and fractured his collarbone. 'So, they were looking for someone to take over the Saturday night headliner. So, then we had to start rehearsing in the studio. 'The most expensive rehearsals ever because you pay so much money for a studio and we had to turn it into a rehearsal room.' The news comes after the Sheffield-formed band announced their first album in 24 years, named More, and released their first single in more than a decade, Spike Island, named after the Stone Roses' well-known performance. Formed in 1978, Pulp struggled to find success with the dark content of early albums It (1983), Freaks (1987) and Separations (1992), before finding their audience during the 1990s Britpop era with their first UK top 40 single, Do You Remember The First Time? and subsequent His 'N' Hers album, in 1994. In 1995, they gained nationwide fame with the release of the single, Common People, and the critically acclaimed Different Class album, as well as their Glastonbury performance. Pulp is currently made up of singer Cocker, keyboard player Candida Doyle, drummer Nick Banks and guitarist Mark Webber, and have achieved five UK top 10 singles and two UK number one albums.
