Russell didn't attend this concert so Pulp were joined by Sarah Neufeld (Arcade Fire) who played the violin on Common People. Shortly afterwards she wrote about the experience on her blog, Awkward Pose:
I was nervous today. Earlier in the week our manager got a call from Jarvis Cocker asking if I’d play Common People with them, last song in the set at Exit Festival, where we were playing before them. Their regular guitarist/violinist couldn’t be there. So I spent a few hotel hours obsessively watching live clips of the song, mostly from the 90’s, to see what he was doing. Simple enough, but not the kind of thing you want to do half assed. Jarvis Cocker is full on. So I had the jitters. Which is unusual these days.
Arcade Fire’s been playing together so long and it’s so comfortable between us. Even when we do something new off the cuff there’s a sort of mind reading/intuition going on that makes it all flow. And of course I play with other bands, but I’ve never stepped in to something as big or iconic as a Pulp show. We met, me blushing like an awkward teen and them, cool, odd and British. I was going straight into Russell’s rig, a patch heavy on delay, chorus and, gulp, flange. Pretty awesome actually. No run through, just watched their show after ours, gripping my case. Hypnotized by Jarvis’s tweaky cat movements. His flawless banter. They’re playing really well. 8 years away from it and they come back super charged, dynamic, heavy. Their sweet crew led me to position, the only other monitor besides Jarvis’s at the front of the stage. Heart attack. In Arcade Fire you always have a buddy 3 feet away, here I had 20.
I was expecting to launch right into the song- mines the first note. But he saunters over to me and starts talking, fucking with me really. Amazing. He makes me introduce the song. Deer in the headlights. I kind of wish I could go back to that moment and be witty, introduce Common People in their classic robot voice. But whatever, I was shy and Canadian, enunciating the words and grinning like an idiot. But then we killed it. I mean, they were already killing it, I just joined in. Such a good song played with so much abandon. I tore into my new flange sound like the 80’s rock violinist I always wanted to be, and didn’t even miss the shots. Definite highlight. Thanks Pulp.
