Pulp make low-key comeback

Making his comeback: Jarvis Cocker

Pop group Pulp played their first British show in over a year when they performed at a secret concert in London.

The Sheffield-based band played five new songs to an audience of 500 at the fan club show at The Garage in Highbury, north London.

The new songs show the group, fronted by Jarvis Cocker, taking a more upbeat direction after their last album, the melancholic This Is Hardcore.

They included energetic potential singles such as Weeds, Sunrise and Minnie, with its chorus line of "the world wants to sleep with you tonight". The two other new songs were I Live My Life and Birds In Your Garden.

The band also played hits like Help The Aged, Party Hard, and a slower, more electronic version of Common People.

A Pulp spokesman said the band were aiming to strike a balance between This Is Hardcore and the more poppy album which brought them to mainstream success in the mid-1990s, Different Class.

"The new material is more rocky, but less heavy - melodic, with lots of guitars," he said.

No release dates have yet been set for any new single or album.

"Jarvis would like to release some material this year, but it's more likely you'll see an album next year," the spokesman added.

The band will play more live dates in the next week, performing at the Corn Exchange in Edinburgh on Thursday, the Reading Festival on Saturday and the Leeds Festival on Sunday.