Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker and director Garth Jennings have collaborated on a new concert documentary titled What Do You Do for an Encore?, which combines live performance footage with documentary elements chronicling the band’s history. The film documents a concert held at London’s O2 Arena in the summer of 2025, a significant occasion as the band learned that evening that their album More had reached the top of the British charts.
Cocker and Jennings first worked together in the late 1990s when Jennings directed music videos for Pulp singles. The two men reconnected when Cocker teased news of the band’s reunion on social media in 2022, prompting Jennings to express enthusiasm and offer creative support. As the live show developed into a larger production, the collaborators decided to expand it into a film format. Both cited Abba Voyage, the theatrical experience blending live performance with holographic elements, as creative inspiration for blending concert footage with narrative context about the band’s history.
Pulp originally formed in Sheffield in 1978 before disbanding in 2002. The group reunited for a tour cycle between 2011 and 2013, which Cocker initially considered a permanent farewell. When promoters later approached about additional performances, Cocker expressed initial hesitation about potentially overshadowing that earlier goodbye. However, the promoter’s accounts of audiences enthusiastically singing along to Pulp songs convinced him to proceed with another reunion.
The film captures audience reactions that include fans who were not born when the band initially disbanded, demonstrating the enduring appeal of their catalog across generations. Cocker and Jennings’ collaboration resulted in a production that presents both the band’s greatest hits and the contextual story of their decades-long existence in popular music.
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