Jarvis Cocker has said his band Pulp will only perform at this year’s Glastonbury Festival if it is a “life or death situation”.
The frontman, 61, confirmed he would be at the festival and said he may DJ there… but was reluctant to say Pulp would perform.
The Britpop band made their name with a stand-in Glastonbury headline set in 1995.
Asked about the band’s chances of appearing at the festival, Cocker told the Scott Mills Breakfast Show on BBC Radio 2: “I will be going to Glastonbury and I might DJ.
“Well, you know, I do occasionally DJ at Glastonbury in a place called Stone Bridge near the park stage. I will be happy to see what is going on there.”
Pushed on whether Pulp would perform, Cocker told Mills: “I don’t think that’s going to happen.
“If it was a life-or-death situation, but I really don’t think it’s going to happen.”
The Common People singer was then asked about Pulp’s breakthrough performance standing in for the Stone Roses at the festival in 1995.
He added: “We were in the studio recording Different Class and the phone went. I think it was Nick, the drummer, who picked it up and he said that’s stuff we can play at Glastonbury.
“So, we kind of stopped and discussed it. I think we went to a small room to discuss it and we knew we were going to do it.
“It was about three weeks that Common People had been in the charts. It was like suddenly, oh yes, we are popular now. It was like a vindication I suppose.
“John Squire (Stone Roses guitarist) had an injury. He fell off his mountain bike and fractured his collarbone.
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“So, they were looking for someone to take over the Saturday night headliner. So, then we had to start rehearsing in the studio.
“The most expensive rehearsals ever because you pay so much money for a studio and we had to turn it into a rehearsal room.”
The news comes after the Sheffield-formed band announced their first album in 24 years, named More, and released their first single in more than a decade, Spike Island, named after the Stone Roses’ well-known performance.
Formed in 1978, Pulp struggled to find success with the dark content of early albums It (1983), Freaks (1987) and Separations (1992), before finding their audience during the 1990s Britpop era with their first UK top 40 single, Do You Remember The First Time? and subsequent His ‘N’ Hers album, in 1994.
In 1995, they gained nationwide fame with the release of the single, Common People, and the critically acclaimed Different Class album, as well as their Glastonbury performance.
Pulp is currently made up of singer Cocker, keyboard player Candida Doyle, drummer Nick Banks and guitarist Mark Webber, and have achieved five UK top 10 singles and two UK number one albums.
