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Pulp announce two special intimate London gigs for BBC 6 Music and Radio 2 – here’s how to apply for free tickets
The two shows come in celebration of the recently announced album ‘More’ The post Pulp announce two special intimate London gigs for BBC 6 Music and Radio 2 – here’s how to apply for free tickets appeared first on NME.
Pulp have shared details of two special intimate gigs in London, held for both BBC 6 Music and Radio 2. Find out how to apply for free tickets below.
Both shows will be taking place next month and are set to be recorded at the BBC Radio Theatre in London’s Broadcasting House. It comes in celebration of Jarvis Cocker and co. announcing the new album ‘More’, and will see them play both new material and fan favourites.
For the intimate session for 6 Music and BBC Sounds, the band will play as part of a show called ‘6 Music Session: Pulp Live’, and it will be broadcast on Nick Grimshaw’s morning show on Thursday May 29.
Aired between 7 and 10am, the broadcast will also include an interview between the host and the iconic Britpop band.
For the latter – dubbed ‘Pulp: Radio 2 In Concert’ – the band will take to the stage at the BBC Radio Theatre on Wednesday May 7 for a select group of fans. The performance will be broadcast both on Jo Whiley’s show on Radio 2 and on BBC Sounds on Thursday May 29.
The following day (30), some exclusive tracks from the recording will be broadcast on The Scott Mills Breakfast Show at 9am. All three airings will also feature an interview with the band.
“We are really looking forward to this,” said the frontman. “From my time at 6 Music, I remember that the BBC Radio Theatre is a very intimate venue. As long as we can fit all our equipment in there it’s going to be great to play some songs for Radio 2 and 6 Music.”
For the 6 Music performance, the set will be available to watch on BBC iPlayer for 30 days – commencing from May 29 – and for the Radio 2 performance it will be broadcast on BBC Two in June and then available on BBC iPlayer.
For the Radio 2 show, tickets will be allocated by random draw, with half of the tickets going to Greater London postcodes and half accessible to the rest of the UK. Participants can apply for a maximum of one pair of tickets, and the ballot is available now up until 11.59pm on Tuesday April 22. Visit here to apply for tickets and for more information.
News of the shows came last week, when Cocker and co. announced their first new album in 24 years ‘More’ and the festival-ready single ‘Spike Island’.
The new material follows the band reuniting again in 2023 for the first Pulp shows since 2012 and signing a new record deal with Rough Trade last year.
They had also been teasing new material on the road, breaking out unreleased tracks like ‘Farmer’s Market’, ‘Spike Island’, ‘My Sex’, ‘You’ve Got To Have Love’, ‘Background Noise’ and ‘A Sunset’.
Speaking to BBC 6 Music when news of the comeback was first shared, the band said that “the record has been done for a while” and the wait between records felt like “a lifetime”.
“[Playing live] was a big influence on it – that we played and the songs came back to life,” said Cocker. “We did play one new song towards the end of the tour and no one threw stuff at us or left to go to the bar’… We chose to do it quickly. It wanted to come out.”
Pulp’s seventh and latest studio album, ‘We Love Life’, came out back in 2001 via Island Records. They then shared ‘After You’ – their first single in over a decade – through Rough Trade in 2012, as part of their first reunion.
Speaking to NME about the band’s new material last year, guitarist Mark Webber said: “We’re older so it’s a bit more mature, but that makes it sound boring! It’s somewhere between mature and frothy pop music.”
The two new shows follow the same structure as what The Cure did last year in anticipation of their latest album ‘Songs Of A Lost World’.
Like with what Jarvis Cocker has planned, Robert Smith and co. played shows at the iconic BBC Radio Theatre – one a live session for Huw Stephens on 6 Music, and another for the ‘Radio 2 In Concert’ series in front of an intimate audience.
As well as the two intimate gigs next month, Pulp also have a string of 2025 live dates planned for later this year. These include a huge homecoming gig at Tramlines 2025 in Sheffield, a headline set at Bilbao BKK in Spain, and a full 2025 UK arena tour. You can head here for tickets and more information.
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