Gig review: Jarvis Cocker

Published on Sunday 30 November 2008 19:58

JARVIS COCKER PICTURE HOUSE, EDINBURGH

"I SEE what you're doing", said Jarvis Cocker near the start of this show, as a sombrero is randomly proffered from the audience. "You're thinking, 'He's slightly senile, he's been in the music business a number of years, we can fool him into thinking he's not in Scotland'." It's all just part of the banter which Cocker effects so effortlessly with his crowd, but it betrays an endearing ability to laugh at himself.

Cocker has been in the music industry a long time – apparently as long as Rough Trade, his current label and the institution for which this tour is a 30th anniversary celebration.

The 45-year-old informed us here that he formed his first band at the age of 15, because he thought he was "deep", and it's taken him this long to realise he's "profoundly shallow". He's even written a song about it, entitled I Never Said I Was Deep, which is, like the rest of the set, triumphantly self-effacing.

Leaving his Pulp output behind for now (although guitarist Steve Mackey plays in his current band), Cocker pulled material from his debut solo album, Jarvis, and his forthcoming second record, including the suggestive, Pulp-esque Girls Like It Too.

From slideshows on the history of the venue to the gently sneering tracks Caucasian Blues and Fat Children, to the mighty protest 21st-century protest song Running the World, he provided a show which was entertaining, relevant and celebratory.