Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker has stated that the band will only play Glastonbury 2025 “in a life or death situation”.
They are set to perform two special intimate gigs in London next month, held for both BBC 6 Music and Radio 2. Both shows are set to be recorded at the BBC Radio Theatre in London’s Broadcasting House – see how you can score free tickets here.
It comes in celebration of Jarvis Cocker and co. announcing their new album ‘More’, due June 6 via Rough Trade Records, and will see them play both new material and fan favourites.
However, so far, Glastonbury 2025 does not seem to be on their itinerary. And, in a new interview with Cocker, fans shouldn’t bet on a surprise appearance by the Britpop band.
On BBC Radio 2’s The Scott Mills Breakfast Show, where Cocker announced the May shows, Mills asked the frontman about the band’s Glastonbury 1995 performance, which stands as one of the festival’s most memorable shows in its history.
The band replaced The Stone Roses, who dropped out after guitarist John Squire shattered his collarbone.
“They were looking for someone to take over the Saturday night headliner. So, then we had to start rehearsing in the studio,” Cocker recalled. “The most expensive rehearsals ever because you pay so much money for a studio and we had to turn it into a rehearsal room.” Listen to the full show here.
Mills brought up that the weekend of Glastonbury 2025 coincides with a break on Pulp’s itinerary for the year – he asked if Cocker & co. had plans to return to the festival.
Cocker affirmed that he will be attending to perform a DJ set at the Stonebridge bar, but that the band aren’t in talks to appear at all.
“But what about if one of the headliners drop out again like they did in 1995?” Mills asked Cocker, to which he responded “I don’t think that’s going to happen.”
When pressed, Cocker stated: “If it was a life-or-death situation, but I really don’t think it’s going to happen.”
Pulp’s Glastonbury 1995 gig cemented them as a seminal band; their fifth studio album ‘Different Class’ would become a four times platinum record upon its release four months after the gig, and NME would go on to rank it their best album ever.
The band also played a surprise set on the Park Stage at the festival in 2011, thus fuelling speculation that the band will pull a similar stunt this year to promote their new album.
Last week (April 10), Cocker said in a separate interview with BBC 6 Music‘s Lauren Laverne that “Glastonbury has a very important place in our heart” but there are “no plans” to play this year.
Cocker also told Laverne that recording ‘More’ without Steve Mackey, who died in 2023, was “weird at first”, but that there were “two songs on the record which date from when Steve was around”, which made him feel part of the project.
“It was not the nicest thing,” the singer continued. “But people who you’re close to, you never forget them, and you can do things to remember them by.”