PULP

PULP (Tivoli, Dublin)

IF IT was biologically possible for Ian Curtis and Brett Anderson to produce a love child, chances are they’d look and sound exactly like Jarvis Cocker. The man, not to put too fine a point on it, is a star and if anyone had failed to register this before coming to the Tivoli, they certainly walked home afterwards realising they’d just been in the presence of greatness.

As he tells us at regular intervals, Jarvis is obsessed with sex. Not the boy-meets-girl-and-bonks-happily-ever-after variety but the clumsy, fumbled sort that we’ve all probably indulged in but rarely admit to.

The band deliver their first sucker punch in the ultra sleazy form of ‘Razzmatazz’ and later go for the knockout with ‘Babies’ – an everyday tale of voyeurism and making love to a girl who looks like your sister. Inbetween, we’re treated to the edited highlights of Pulp’s indie career and their new single, ‘Lipgloss’, which marks the step up to majordom and what will hopefully be a torrid affair with the charts.

Cocker revels in the applause as the small but enthusiastic crowd begs for a third encore, apologises that they’ve run out of time amd promises they’ll be back soon. Roughly 250 of us are already counting the seconds.

• Stuart Clark