Pulp announce first American tour in over ten years
Gigs are dedicated to memory of late bassist Steve Mackey
Pulp will play their first North American shows in over a decade as they announce a tour of the US and Canada for this fall.
The Sheffield band last performed on the continent in 2012, their final show coming at the Coachella Festival that year and are excited to make their return with dates in Chicago, Toronto, San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York this September.
“So, the encore continues,” explains frontman Jarvis Cocker of the dates, which follow on from Pulp’s 2023 This Is What We Do For An Encore UK tour, one of the live highlights of last summer. “The songs came back to life and they want to be heard. They need to be heard. Come out and have some fun with us. You deserve it. Yes. You do.”
Tickets for the shows will go on sale this week.
The tour dates are:
Sunday, September 8 Chicago Byline Bank Aragon Ballroom
Tuesday, September 10 Toronto HISTORY
Friday, September 13 Brooklyn, NY Kings Theatre
Monday, September 16 San Francisco Bill Graham Civic Auditorium
Wednesday, September 18 Los Angeles Hollywood Palladium
Support across the tour comes from duo Escape-ism, who were handpicked by the band and are described by Jarvis Cocker as “the Found-Sound-Dream-Drama featuring Ian Svenonius & Sandi Denton.”
Pulp’s return to Canada and the US follows the announcement of a series of European shows by the band who were formed by Jarvis during an Economics lesson at school in Sheffield in 1978.
Pulp are currently set to headline a number of festivals this summer including, Primavera Sound in Spain and Portugal, Athens’ Kallithéa, Oya in Norway, Way Out West in Sweden and Helsinki’s Flow Festival. They are also playing a one-off show at Amsterdam’s AFAS Live concert hall on 24 May.
The band’s “classic” line-up of Nick Banks, Jarvis Cocker, Candida Doyle, Steve Mackey, Russell Senior came together in 1988 when Jarvis moved to London to study film-making at St Martin’s School of Art, with Mark Webber, who had been worked as tour manager, joining during the recording of 1995 album Different Class.
Pulp released their last record (to date), the Scott Walker-produced, We Love Life, in 2001 before pausing their activities a year later. They toured again 2011 and 2012 and released the James Murphy-produced single After You in 2013, before taking to the stage again last year of a nine-year break.
Pulp’s bass player, Steve Mackey, passed away on the 2 March 2023 and the This Is What We Do For An Encore tour has become dedicated to his memory.