Pulp: 21st November 2001 - Barbican Centre, York (live)

Welcome to the Jarvis stand up side show, as much an essential feature of Pulp live as his elegantly scuffed songs from the streets and now the back garden. Over the course of 100 minutes he talked "rubbish" (his word) about Mike Yarwood, Keith Harris, Shaw Taylor and the smoking and alcohol ban in the Barbican, making a joke about the alcohol free lager of the same name. He is that rarity in British rock, a true front man, showman, and entertainer, still the pipe cleaner slim spindly dancer, still wearing the cast offs from second hand shops and still working his band to the max. Significantly, too, Pulp seem keep progressing. They left out Disco 2000, Help The Aged, Do You Remember The First Time, and, unbelievably, their anthem Common People and yet, trust me, it was still a magnificent show, constructed around the cornerstones of 1995's Different Class and this autumn's grandiose We Love Life...