Here’s one that wasn’t bought in a record shop or online, and seemingly was only made ever made available via the merch stalls at gigs.
November 2021, I found myself, in the company of Aldo, down in Manchester for the purpose of visiting the Factory Records exhibition that was on at the city’s Science and Industry Museum. Looking around for something to do of an evening, we learn that Jarv Is..happens to be playing a gig at the city’s Albert Hall. We didn’t expect tickets to be available, but it turned out that there were, so along we popped to a venue we’d never been to before.
The venue is rather stunning, the restoration of a former Wesleyan chapel, itself a Grade II Listed Building, in the very heart of the city centre, and makes for a unique looking and atmospheric gig venue…there’s more than a few ‘wow’ factors when you look around.
The show certainly matched the surroundings. It was part of a belated tour for Beyond The Pale, an album that had been released in 2020. The 90-minute set had next to nothing from the Pulp days. There was a smattering of songs from the Jarvis Cocker solo album that came out back in 2006, but for the most part it was the newer songs. The main set ended with a blistering rendition of the song that had originally been issued back in May 2019 as a taster for the Jarv Is.. material:-
mp3: Jarv Is.. – Must I Evolve?
Where mankind’s development from the big bang to getting off one’s face at a rave in the 21st century is dissected.
The original version of the single was a low-key release, promoted in the main as a digital release, although a 12″ vinyl version did offer up a David Holmes remix on the b-side.
Two and a half years later, and Must I Evolve? was available to buy at the gigs. This time, it came in four sleeves of varying colours. I’ve long been a sucker for all things purple, so I went for that (combined with green as seen above), and forsaking the blue/orange, red/blue and the one which is pink and a sort of off-cream effort.
The b-side remix on this occasion is courtesy of Jason Buckle, an English-based producer who has been a long-time friend of Mr Cocker.
mp3: Jarv Is.. – Must I Revolve?
It’s quite a radical take on, but the constant use of the ‘Yes, Yes, Yes, Yes, Yes’ chant might get on a few nerves.
THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN 