Across forty-seven years and multiple endings, the Sheffield band Pulp has resisted the finality it kept announcing for itself. Frontman Jarvis Cocker and director Garth Jennings have now made What Do You Do for an Encore?, a hybrid concert-documentary drawn from Pulp's 2025 O2 Arena reunion and the full, unlikely arc of the band's life — a film that arrived, almost accidentally, on the same night their first album in twenty-four years reached number one. It is a record not only of music but of what it means to return to something you thought was finished, and to find it still growing.
Jarvis Cocker on Pulp's unlikely return: 'Fame is not a magic wand'
Fame is not a magic wand that makes everything work
Mark
So Jarvis decided to reunite the band again after he'd already said goodbye. What changed his mind?
Mimi
A promoter convinced him people still cared. Jarvis was worried nobody would show up, but the promoter had seen crowds singing along to Pulp songs at other shows. That tipped the balance.
Luke
But we should note—Jarvis was hesitant enough that he needed real reassurance. He wasn't itching to do this. The promoter's word is what moved him, not some internal drive.
Mark
And the film itself—how did that come about?
Mimi
Garth Jennings, who directed some of their videos back in the '90s, reached out when he heard about the reunion. He'd been inspired by Abba Voyage, that hologram concert experience. He thought they could make something similar but rooted in Pulp's actual history.
Luke
Important detail: Jennings has been living in Paris for thirteen years working on animation. He wasn't embedded in Pulp's world. He came to this as a fan and a friend, not as someone who'd been following the band closely.
Mark
The film includes some difficult material—Cocker talks about going through a dark time around 1998.
Mimi
Yes. He describes it as a kind of disillusionment with fame. He'd believed from childhood that success would solve everything, and when it didn't, he struggled. The film doesn't hide that.
Luke
But here's what we don't know: Jennings says he didn't notice Cocker struggling at the time, even though he was directing videos for the band. So we're getting Cocker's retrospective account of his own mental state, not contemporary documentation of what was actually happening then.
Mark
There's a tribute to Steve Mackey, the bassist who died in 2023.
Mimi
They made sure his family saw it before the film was finalized. It was important to get it right—to honor him properly.
Luke
That's a good editorial choice, but we should be clear: we don't know what Mackey's family said about it or whether they had input beyond approval. We know they were shown it and were apparently satisfied.
Mark
Does Cocker think there will be more music from Pulp?
Mimi
He's open to it but not committed. He uses this metaphor about a tree—if the conditions are right, maybe they'll make another record. But he's clear there's never been a master plan.
Luke
That's a very noncommittal answer, which is fair enough. But it means we genuinely don't know if this is another temporary reunion or something more durable. The band is meeting in October to celebrate, but that's not the same as saying new music is coming.
Il Polso
- After a reunion tour he believed was a proper farewell, Cocker had to be persuaded that audiences still cared enough to justify risking the happy ending he had carefully arranged.
- The film had to hold together joy and grief simultaneously — capturing a triumphant chart-topping night at the O2 while also honoring bassist Steve Mackey, who died in 2023 and never got to share the stage again.
- Archivist Tess McNally-Watson conducted what Jennings calls a Raiders of the Lost Ark-style hunt through attics, bedrooms, and cassette collections to reconstruct a band history that had never been neatly preserved.
- Young audiences who were not yet born when Pulp disbanded are now filling arenas, a phenomenon Cocker finds both astonishing and genuinely inexplicable.
- Rather than declaring another ending, Cocker leaves the door open with a botanical metaphor — the next record, he suggests, will come only if the intellectual weather is right.
Across forty-seven years and multiple endings, the Sheffield band Pulp has resisted the finality it kept announcing for itself. Frontman Jarvis Cocker and director Garth Jennings have now made What Do You Do for an Encore?, a hybrid concert-documentary drawn from Pulp's 2025 O2 Arena reunion and the full, unlikely arc of the band's life — a film that arrived, almost accidentally, on the same night their first album in twenty-four years reached number one. It is a record not only of music but of what it means to return to something you thought was finished, and to find it still growing.
Jarvis Cocker and director Garth Jennings have been friends for nearly thirty years, since Jennings made music videos for Pulp in the late 1990s. Their new collaboration, What Do You Do for an Encore?, is a hybrid concert-documentary built around Pulp's 2025 reunion show at London's O2 Arena, woven through with animation, archival footage, and the full forty-seven-year story of a Sheffield band that has now outlasted several of its own farewells.
Cocker had believed the 2011–2013 reunion tour — which even brought back estranged violinist Russell Senior — was a definitive goodbye. When a promoter came calling again, he hesitated, wary of spoiling what felt like a clean ending. He eventually agreed, and the gamble paid off: the live show was filmed on the very night Pulp discovered their new album More had debuted at number one, their first chart-topper in twenty-four years. Cocker waved the trophy from the stage in front of an audience that included many fans too young to remember the band's original run.
The film draws partly on inspiration from Abba Voyage, which both men admired for its sheer joy. Jennings shaped the documentary to move between concert spectacle and the band's deeper history, using materials unearthed from people's attics and cassette collections. The harder chapters are not avoided — Cocker speaks candidly about the dark period around This Is Hardcore, and about the youthful delusion that fame would solve everything. Tender family interviews, filmed before his mother and grandmother died, add an unexpected intimacy.
The film also carries the weight of loss. Bassist Steve Mackey, who had been with Pulp since 1989, died in 2023 at fifty-six. He never rejoined the tour, though he had wished the band well. Cocker and Jennings showed the tribute sequence to Mackey's family before the film was finished, wanting to be certain it honored him in the right way.
As for what comes next, Cocker is characteristically unhurried. He compares the band to a tree — it does not decide to grow, it simply grows when conditions allow. If the intellectual weather is right, another record might emerge. The band plans to mark the tour's end in October by going to see Abba Voyage together, a fitting coda for a group that has never quite followed a plan.
Jarvis Cocker and Garth Jennings sit down to talk about a film that neither of them quite expected to make. The two men have known each other for nearly thirty years—they first met in the late 1990s when Jennings directed music videos for Pulp's singles Help the Aged and A Little Soul. Now, almost three decades later, they are collaborating again on What Do You Do for an Encore?, a hybrid concert-documentary that captures both the spectacle of Pulp's 2025 reunion show at London's O2 Arena and the full arc of the Sheffield band's improbable forty-seven-year history. The film opens with a story that sets the tone for their friendship: years ago, when Jennings first moved to Paris, Cocker showed up at his apartment on bonfire night with fireworks as a welcoming gift. The apartment happened to be near the École Militaire, and the two nearly got arrested. "The best welcome to Paris," Cocker remembers, laughing.
Pulp formed in 1978 and split in 2002. Cocker had orchestrated a reunion tour between 2011 and 2013, which he believed would be a proper farewell—a chance to end things on good terms after what he describes as a messy original breakup. He invited back Russell Senior, the violinist and guitarist who had quit in 1997. The tour felt conclusive. When a promoter approached him years later about playing again, Cocker hesitated. "The worst thing to do would have been to spoil the happy ending," he says. But the promoter convinced him that people still cared. Cocker decided to take the risk.
The decision to make a film came partly from inspiration. Both Cocker and Jennings had seen Abba Voyage, the theatrical experience that blends live performance with holographic recreations of Abba in their prime. "That was something that was very inspiring. Just the sheer joy of it," Jennings says. He has seen it three times. As Abba Voyage tells the story of Abba alongside their hits, What Do You Do for an Encore? weaves Pulp's narrative through the concert footage. The film uses animation, old television clips, grainy VHS recordings, documents, and objects from Cocker's 2023 memoir Good Pop Bad Pop. Jennings credits archivist Tess McNally-Watson with extraordinary work tracking down materials scattered across people's bedrooms, attics, and cassette collections. "It's a lot of Raiders of the Lost Ark-style gathering," Jennings says.
The live show was filmed on the night Pulp learned that More, their eighth studio album and first in twenty-four years, had reached number one on the British charts. Cocker can be seen waving the trophy on stage. The audience included many young people who were not even born when Pulp originally disbanded. "That's something amazing, really. And something I can't explain—why young people have latched on to it," Cocker says, still somewhat bewildered by the phenomenon.
The film does not shy away from the harder chapters of Pulp's story. Around the release of This Is Hardcore in 1998, Cocker describes "going down a dark tunnel." He reflects on a childhood decision to form a band at age seven, and the false belief that fame would be transformative. "Like 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's not the case," he says. "You still have to make an effort in your life." Over time, he stepped back from the intensity of celebrity and learned to appreciate ordinary life. That hesitation partly explains why it took him so long to agree to reunite the band again. "I was thinking: 'Well, what's the motivation? What will you get from it?'" The film includes a touching interview with Cocker's mother and grandmother, who joke about his fame. "That's a bit embarrassing for me," Cocker admits, noting that his grandmother has been dead for some time and his mother died only three or four years ago.
The film also honors Steve Mackey, Pulp's bassist since 1989, who died in 2023 at age fifty-six. Mackey was not part of this tour, though he had wished the band well. Cocker and Jennings made sure to show the tribute to Mackey's family before finalizing the film. "Just to make sure that they were happy with it," Cocker says. "But I think you did a very good job there, Garth. It's a hard thing to express in the right way."
When asked whether there might be another album, Cocker offers a philosophical answer. "You know, it's like a tree," he says. "A tree doesn't decide it's going to grow. If the weather's right, it'll grow a branch. And if the intellectual weather is right in the next couple of years, maybe we'll sprout another record." The band plans to gather in October to celebrate the tour's end—and to see Abba Voyage together. There has never been a master plan for Pulp, Cocker insists. That, he says, is the great thing about groups: you work with other people, everyone adds something, and what emerges is something no single person could have predicted.
Citazioni salienti
The worst thing to do would have been to spoil the happy ending— Jarvis Cocker, on his initial hesitation about reuniting Pulp
If the intellectual weather is right in the next couple of years, maybe we'll sprout another record— Jarvis Cocker, on the possibility of future Pulp music
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