UK - Video director James Kerr has been charged with evoking a specific aesthetic for Pulp’s current tour, embedded as it is within show designer Douglas Green’s tasteful presentation.
“I had been working for the Arctic Monkeys,” Kerr states. “A show that derived its style from ‘70s TV music shows like The Old Grey Whistle Test. Jarvis attended a show in Paris and obviously liked what he saw.” Kerr became available in the summer of 2024, just in time to cut his teeth on a handful of outdoor shows with Pulp. “I jumped at the chance, who wouldn’t?”
A year later the band have presented a refreshed production for UK arena audiences in support of the new album, More, and now go on to play festivals around Europe before heading to the US.
“This time around we are really taking advantage of the full production package,” continued Kerr. “My system all comes from Video Design; myself and their engineer, Fiachra O’Kelly have added to the look I used last summer - sometimes simple things like spending time each day to get the right colour balance in each venue. Doug Green uses a lot of dark elements which really suit our purpose; he’s very sensitive to what we are doing. We can up the gain, crush those blacks and immediately you have source material that is of the era.
“Elsewhere we use a star filter as they used frequently on those old TV shows. Or 4:1 for a light fixture in-frame to get that bounce off. There is a nice scene in the show where we have a sun dial, Jarvis in silhouette against it and the application of the star filter ties it all together.”
“I have to say the camera ops have been amazing on this run. Soft focus rolls in front of the LED screen; maybe a half doubler or using the rocker on the lens to produce a double-edged framing effect. We do lots of tricks without resorting to media server effects. It's great fun but it's not easy. It's a lot of work for me and a lot of work for the camera ops but the music and performance is so inspiring. That's very refreshing.”
One key element from previous tours was Cocker’s use of a rudimentary lipstick camera as a personal hand-held during Common People. “It's something Jarvis first used in 2012. The song really carries the message ‘we are all in this together’ and he wanted to communicate that visually. What we have today is a more modern solution: a Marshall pistol camera that we can apply Notch Block effects, and we have adapted the camera using a drumstick so it becomes a simple handheld for Jarvis, almost a selfie stick.
“I must confess when we did the first show I was thinking, ‘Oh, we didn’t rehearse this enough’ but in fact, Jarvis was instantly in control. He certainly has the instinct for how to use a camera.”
Sitting comfortably within the band’s idiom, Cocker’s camera work, typically reverse shots of the band set against the crowd beyond, provides that desired sense of unity between band and audience. “That said, I still have my heart in my mouth every night, but by the end of the song I’m reminding myself how nice it is to have an extra cameraman on the crew.”
Elsewhere, Video Design have addressed Cocker’s desire to avoid having camera operators on stage yet still retain the necessary close-up moments that bring intimacy to the show.
“Put together especially for us and based on four Panasonic AW-UE150 cameras, this solution provides scope for the now nine band members on stage. In simple terms we have four robot heads with full pan, tilt & focus which, mounted on tripods that can track up/down stage, gives me an infinitely versatile system for coverage without any intrusion.
“The track system and cameras are neatly concealed into the stage wings. Just like having hand-helds, we can get in and take those nice dirty shots, like an unexpected triangle cue from the drummer, that simply conveys the calming moment it is supposed to evoke. And the truth is, we can get those shots faster and more easily this way. It took just five days in rehearsal to program the presets for expected cues and rehearse the joy-stick tracking so we can snap straight into a tight shot. That has worked brilliantly, I’m really pleased.
“These were my first arena shows with Pulp since I started working for them and they were fantastic. The atmosphere makes me think that they could be selling out gigs for the next few years as they have just done. The new music is as strong as ever.”