Pulp and Scritti Politti have each confirmed new headline shows at London’s Southbank Centre, celebrating 50 years of Rough Trade.
The iconic record store and label is set to celebrate its Golden Jubilee this year – having opened its first store in West London in 1976. At the start of the year, they announced some huge 50th anniversary plans to mark the occasion.
These included Life Without Buildings‘ first show in nearly 25 years, taking place at KOKO on November 20, and a set from experimental icon Jim O’Rourke and Eiko Ishibashi at Union Chapel on April 13.
Now, more shows have been added to the list, including a headline set from Pulp taking place at the Royal Festival Hall on Saturday July 18. The show will see them performing their latest album ‘More’ in full, as well as breaking out hits from their back catalogue.
That same day will see Scritti Politti make a return to the stage, playing two shows in Queen Elizabeth Hall. One set will be a matinee at 3pm, and the other will be an evening performance at 8pm.
The following evening (Sunday July 19), Caroline will take to the stage at Queen Elizabeth Hall with special guests My New Band Believe, and on that same afternoon Jarvis Cocker will introduce Ken Loach’s classic 1969 film Kes in the Royal Festival Hall.
Two new events have been confirmed from Rough Trade Books too. These include an evening of one-off performances and readings with their writers, artists and collaborators on Friday July 17 in Queen Elizabeth Hall, and a new staging of Hannah Patterson’s debut novel Ungone in the Purcell Rooms on Saturday July 18.
For all events barring Pulp, the pre-sale starts on Wednesday (April 15) at 2pm BST, before tickets go on general sale at 2pm on Thursday (April 16) at 2pm.
For the Pulp gig, there will be a pre-sale from 10am on Friday (April 17), before the general on-sale at 2pm on Monday (April 20). Find tickets here.
In light of the 50th anniversary celebrations of Rough Trade, Morrissey recently shared a statement, correcting former Smiths bandmate Johnny Marr on the history of the band and Rough Trade.
He claimed that the guitarist gave an interview to The Guardian to “commemorate the 50th anniversary of Rough Trade Records” and said in that discussion that it was “Marr and Andy Rourke [who] had traveled to Rough Trade Records many icebergs ago to offer the Smiths’ first recording [‘Hand in Glove’] in consideration of a contract.”
This, Morrissey wrote, was “deliberately untrue”, and clarified that it was actually “Morrissey and Marr who made that journey to Rough Trade”. He also suggested that the misinformation was an attempt to make him look like “a footnote in the Smiths history”.
As for Pulp, NME praised their latest record in a four-star review, writing: “‘More’ is everything you’d want a Pulp album to be, made richer from some lived experience.
“Just as Blur did with ‘The Ballad Of Darren’ and Suede have managed on their immaculate run of post-reunion albums, Pulp have retained their original spirit and flair into a statement of middle age without feeling any less vital.”
Around that time, we spoke to frontman Jarvis Cocker around the release of the album, and the Sheffield star opened up to us about the loss of beloved bassist Steve Mackey in 2023.
“It was a big blow to lose him,” Cocker said. “On an obvious level, him passing away makes you consider your own mortality and what you want to do with your life. That was a bit of a spur to create things because we were still in a position where we could do that.”
The band will be embarking on a series of UK and European shows this year, with their only major UK headline concert to take place in Manchester in August. The band will also top the bill at End Of The Road 2026 and headline Mad Cool Festival in Madrid.