Pulp have kicked off their US tour by debuting a new song called ‘Spike Island’. Find footage of the moment below.
The iconic Sheffield band launched their US tour on Sunday night (September 8) with a show at the Aragon Ballroom in Chicago. It followed on from their extensive run of performances across Europe this summer, and marked their first North American tour in 12 years.
While the vast majority of the set in Chicago mirrored that of their European shows, Jarvis Cocker and co. did have a surprise planned for the crowd – breaking out a currently-unreleased new song called ‘Spike Island’.
“No pressure. What can I tell you about it? What shall I say about it?” the frontman questioned as he prepared to play the track. “You’ll just have to make up your own mind about it. It’s called ‘Spike Island’ and it sounds very much like this….”
From there, the band launched into a swirling, midtempo groove, as Cocker delivered a powerful vocal performance. “Dead in my tracks/ I was heading for disaster, then I turned back,” he sang in the first verse. “The universe shrugged, shrugged and moved on”.
From there, the song launched into an epic, Bowie-inspired chorus, which saw the frontman jump on top of the speakers at the front of the stage and sing “This time I’ll get it right”. Check out the song below.
It seems that the track may be a nod to the historic Spike Island gig that fellow Britpop icons, The Stone Roses, played in Cheshire in May 1990. The show saw The Stone Roses perform to 28,000 fans at the site of a disused chemical plant, and became recognised as one of their most memorable concerts.
It was set to be professionally filmed (as per BBC), but was never officially recorded due to a last-minute dispute over fees. Earlier this year, the outlet reported that a full-length recording of the gig had come to light for the first time.
Pulp have made reference to the Spike Island show in the past – namely in their song ‘Sorted For E’s & Wizz’, which was shared as part of their 1995 album ‘Different Class’.
The title for the song was inspired after Cocker met a girl and they began discussing her time seeing The Stone Roses at the Spike Island show. Recalling the name, Cocker said: “‘Sorted For E’s And Wizz’ is a phrase a girl that I met in Sheffield once told me… and she went to see The Stone Roses at Spike Island and I said, ‘What do you remember about it?’. And she said, ‘Well there were all these blokes walking around saying, ‘Is everybody sorted for E’s and wizz?’’ And that’s all she remembered about it and I thought it was a good phrase.”
Elsewhere at their Chicago gig over the weekend, Pulp broke out fan favourites like ‘Disco 2000’, ‘Babies’, ‘Common People’ and more. They also continued to dedicate their rendition of ‘Something Changed’ to Steve Mackey and Steve Albini – something they had been doing throughout the European dates.
Intrigue about new material from Pulp has been swirling in recent months. For instance, the frontman was recently spotted in Walthamstow by a fan, and reportedly told them that the band were heading “back in the studio”.
That took place just days after Pulp performed at Flow Festival 2024 and used their set to debut a new song titled ‘A Sunset’, which was co-written by Richard Hawley.
Before then, the vocalist spoke to NME and suggested the song could be officially released at some point, as well as confirmed Pulp’s touring plans for 2025.
Hopes for new material stem back into 2023 as well, when the members debuted a track called ‘Background Noise’ at a show in Mexico last November. It came after they performed an unreleased track titled ‘Hymn Of The North’ in Sheffield.
Speaking to NME last October, however, Pulp drummer Nick Banks put a dampener on hopes of new material, downplaying the rumours by saying that their reunion gigs were “more about getting the party back”.
Pulp’s last full-length release was 2001’s ‘We Love Life‘. In a three-star review of the LP, NME described the record as “a grandiose, symphonic affair buoyed by succinct orchestration and white-light choral interludes”. It added: “At times, the music really sparkles as it soars above Cocker’s bleakly-intoned spoken-word meditations.”
The band then released a one-off track back in 2013 titled ‘After You’. The single was originally demoed during the early recording sessions of ‘We Love Life’ and was left unfinished until 2012 when the band returned to it and finished it during their comeback tour.
Their ongoing run of ‘This Is What We Do For An Encore’ tour dates will continue throughout this month, and the stint includes shows in San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York and more. Following the initial announcement, the band went on to announce further dates due to high demand. Visit here for any remaining tickets.
In other Pulp news, the band recently shared details of their first show for 2025, taking place at a huge new festival in Japan.