Jarvis Cocker Finds Fresh Spark in the Shadows of Spike Island
It’s not every day that a band like Pulp — masters of introspective wit and Britpop bravado — return after 24 years with new material. But here we are, and the timing feels right. Their upcoming album More , due out in June, already has fans buzzing, thanks to a nostalgic and unexpected twist. The first single? It’s called Spike Island . And it’s not just a name-drop. It’s a full-circle moment rooted in one of the most mythologized gigs in British music history: The Stone Roses at Spike Island, 1990.
Now, Jarvis Cocker wasn’t even at that gig. That’s the irony — and the charm. But he absorbed its impact through stories, fragments, and cultural echoes. He recently revealed that the lyrics for Spike Island were pieced together from conversations with people who were there, like Jason Buckle from All Seeing I, who co-wrote the song. One memory stuck out: a DJ yelling, "Spike Island come alive!" between every track. That odd repetition became the heartbeat of the song — a loop in Cocker’s mind that morphed into music.
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It’s a theme he’s revisited before. Sorted for E’s and Wizz , the band’s 1995 classic, was also inspired by second-hand tales from that infamous day in Widnes. A girl at Sheffield's Leadmill nightclub once told Cocker that all she could remember from Spike Island was the endless murmur of “Is everyone sorted for E’s and wizz?” That peculiar phrase became a hook. And now, decades later, the same moment has birthed a companion piece.
What's beautiful about Spike Island isn’t just the nostalgia — it's the layered storytelling. Cocker and the band aren’t rewriting the past. They’re refracting it through lived experience, myth, and memory. And it’s even more poignant with the album being partly a tribute to former bassist Steve Mackey, who passed away in 2023. Two tracks include his contributions — a quiet but powerful nod to someone who helped shape the band’s unique voice.
The song and the album are deeply human — created entirely without the help of AI, as Cocker cheekily clarified, though ironically the video for Spike Island was made using AI animation. The result? Something oddly poetic and unsettling, reflecting how far we've come from the baggy clothes and wind-blown sounds of 1990’s Madchester scene.
Pulp's return is not a revival — it’s a reinvention with roots. Spike Island is less about recreating a moment and more about echoing its influence across time. It reminds us that even if you weren’t there , some events are big enough to shape your art, your perspective, your music — just through their legend alone.
And Jarvis? He’s still got it.
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