Pulp played ‘Last Day Of The Miners’ Strike’ live for the first time at Sheffield’s Tramlines Festival, joined by Richard Hawley – watch below.
The band were at the top of the bill at the Hillsborough Park event in their hometown on Friday night (July 25) and to mark the occasion, they dug deep into their back catalogue to play a couple of songs directly inspired by the Steel City.
Early in the set they played 1992 B-side ‘Sheffield: Sex City’ for the first time since 2012, and later they gave a live debut to ‘Last Day Of The Miners’ Strike’, the track first released on their 2002 compilation album ‘Hits’.
They were joined by fellow Sheffield native Hawley – a longtime friend and former touring member of the band – for the latter, with Hawley also returning for the show-closing ‘Common People’ and ‘A Sunset’.
Watch fan-captured footage of ‘Last Day Of The Miners’ Strike’ here:
Pulp also gave a moving debut performance of ‘The Last Day of the Miners Strike’ #pulp #sheffield pic.twitter.com/mIFSnIWF5E
— Sam Burton (@samburtonjourno) July 26, 2025
Writing after the show on Instagram, Jarvis Cocker wrote: “Tramlines – you were so fine!
It was so good to play in The Sheff last night. We played “Last Day of the Miners’ Strike” for the first time ever. Why?”
He went on to explain that it was inspired by Craig Oldham’s book In Loving Memory Of Work, a book about the writer’s family’s experience of the 1980s strikes against the Thatcher government.
“It was so good to share a proper summer evening with all of you,” Cocker added. “A massive thanks to everyone else who performed throughout the day. Best line-up ever!”
See other footage from the Tramlines performance here:
Pulp played:
‘Spike Island’
‘Grown Ups’
‘Slow Jam’
‘Sorted For E’s & Wizz’
‘Disco 2000’
‘Sheffield: Sex City’
‘Tina’
‘Farmers Market’
‘This Is Hardcore’
‘Sunrise’ (with Richard Hawley)
‘Last Day Of The Miners’ Strike’ (with Richard Hawley)
‘Do You Remember The First Time?’
‘Mis-Shapes’
‘Got To Have Love’
‘Babies’
‘Common People’ (with Richard Hawley)
‘A Sunset’ (with Richard Hawley)
Last month, Pulp also played a triumphant “surprise” show on the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury 2025, filling the slot that was previously only labelled as the mysterious ‘Patchwork’.
NME was at the set, awarding it five stars and noting: “With songs for the mis-shapes, a whole lotta ‘L-O-V-E’ and even a Red Arrows fly-past for the glorious crowd-engulfing ‘Common People’, these legends capture the spirit of these hallowed grounds with a little peace, love and joyous wonky-pop hedonism. One for the books? Sure, but as Cocker puts it: “History and stuff like that doesn’t matter because it’s all about now and what we can do right now.”
Cocker also spoke to NME in June about the loss of Sheffield’s iconic Leadmill venue. “It’s a bit like when Starbucks first started and they would close down all the coffee bars to open theirs,” he said. “Leadmill was already a successful venue but now someone has bought it. They’re not turning it into flats, which is what usually happens.
“It’s a weird thing: that idea that you can invent a scene… This is the first place that Pulp played in Sheffield, it’s developed over a lot of time, and to create a place with that kind of history and atmosphere to it is not something that you can buy.”
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