Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker has revealed that he hates the term Britpop, a genre with which his band has been associated for over thirty years.
Cocker's band released More, their first new album in 24 years on Friday, June 6, and are currently on tour in the UK, which led to a writer from NME.com suggesting to the singer that, with their mid-'90s peers Oasis, Suede and Supergrass all in action this summer also, there is "a bit of a Britpop renaissance" taking place in 2025.
“I’ve always hated that word," Cocker says in response. "I would never willingly associate myself with it. It was an exciting time before they came with that definition of indie bands starting to make waves on the mainstream scene. It felt like a revolution could happen. If people are feeling like that again – that they can make their own thing and it can be taken notice of – then that would be great.
"If that kind of attitude is coming back, then I would be very excited about it, just not the ‘BP’ word – it’s a terrible word.”
With that said, Cocker admits that he'd be happy to attend an Oasis show this summer, "if I can get on the guestlist".
"The first time I saw Oasis was in San Francisco," Cocker reveals in a new interview with The Evening Standard. "We were supporting Blur, Oasis were playing at some club and we wanted to go and see them because of all the stuff that had been written about them. So we got a message to their manager and said, ‘Can we come and see you? And they said, ‘Yes, but Jarvis has to come on the tour bus and talk to us first …’ Noel came and spoke to me for about 10 minutes and then we were allowed to see them. They were amazing actually … because of what had been written about them being loud and yobbish, I thought it was going to be bad, but when I saw it I thought it was really exciting."
Cocker's own band kicked off their UK and Ireland arena tour at Glasgow's OVO Hydro on June 7.
Their remaining shows on the tour are:
Jun 10: Dublin 3Arena, Ireland
Jun 13: London The O2
Jun 14: London The O2
Jun 19: Birmingham Utilita Arena
Jun 21: Manchester Co-op Live
"The fact that people are interested in it is a good feeling," Cocker tells The Evening Standard, “because you can’t guarantee that, can you?"
