Jarvis Cocker looks back on Pulp’s early days in new documentary

Almost half a century after their birth, Britpop darlings Pulp are stars of a documentary that delves back into the band's roots in the childhood dreams of gangly frontman Jarvis Cocker.

In "Pulp: What Do You Do For An Encore?" Cocker narrates flashbacks based on diary entries he scrawled out at school in the northern English city of Sheffield in the 1970s, mapping out his "masterplan" for Pulp's success.

"I was maybe 12 or 13 ... I couldn't play the guitar yet but I could write," Cocker told Reuters. "It was ... wish fulfilment. I suppose like manifesting."

He got his friends to rehearse at his mother's house, bribing them by "buying some lager".

The film, directed by "Son of Rambow"'s Garth Jennings, moves on to his time studying film and fine art in London — at the "St Martin's College" immortalised in their future hit "Common People".

"I graduated but ... what really I felt a pull to do was to write songs," he added. "I think that's my way of trying to make sense of the world and out of myself."

Pulp struggled to find success in the 1980s, then rose to mainstream success in the 1990s with albums such as "His 'N' Hers" and the Mercury Prize-winning "Different Class" and a string of other hits from "Do You Remember The First Time?" to "Disco 2000" to "Help the Aged".

After a 24-year-long recording hiatus, they returned in 2025 with the Mercury Prize-nominated "More". The film captures the band’s performances from their reunion shows at London’s O2 Arena.

As for the future, "I think I won't be alive ... in 24 years, or if I am, I won't be up to it," Cocker said.

"But, we did an album. It went well ... Everybody is still talking to each other, so I would really hope that we will make something else. But I don't know how long that will take."

"Pulp: What Do You Do For An Encore?" begins streaming on MUBI on September 25.

-Reporting by Shaurya Thapa; Editing by Andrew Heavens/Reuters