Tonight’s (October 14) event was none other than Pulp in all their irreverent glory, from a concert recorded in 2012. Teenage Cancer Trust have shared a small snippet of it: ‘This Is Hardcore’, ‘Common People’, ‘Babies’ and ‘Disco 2000’. This unseen fragment of Pulp at the Royal Albert Hall is fun and energetic and a truly great reminder of what live music is like at its best – we should all be grateful for the memory!

TONIGHT! @pulp2011 are next up in our Unseen ‘mini-gig’ series, created from archive footage of #TeenageCancerGigs at the @RoyalAlbertHall.
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Watch at 8pm on our Unseen YouTube channel: https://t.co/gRsazEtdHr pic.twitter.com/l3edaKCpA4

— Teenage Cancer Trust (@TeenageCancer) October 14, 2020

It’s worth watching solely for the moment when Jarvis drops to the ground and throws his legs up in the air like he’s going to do a shoulder stand. Richard Hawley is also there, on a flashy red electric guitar. As usual, Pulp’s energy is completely infectious and by half way through “com-mon peo-ple” you’ll hardly be sitting still. (Maybe I should confess that it’s my biggest regret that I’ve never seen Pulp live).

This footage feels like a real product of its time. In part, this is due to seeing the crowd socialise in close proximity and not in giant plastic bubbles, like The Flaming Lips tested out last night in Oklahoma. Also, Jarvis tells the audience affectionately that they can’t stay out too late because he has to go off and do his radio show the next day, taking us all back to Sunday afternoons of Jarvis’ carefully curated BBC 6 Music slot.

And, of course, all of this has always been for a great cause. Teenage Cancer Trust are celebrating their twentieth year of supporting young people through such a harrowing and lonely occurrence, and their numerous testimonies prove just how important this work really is. The slogan for TCT Unseen is simply “TEENAGE CANCER HASN’T STOPPED. SO WE CAN’T STOP.”

The rest of their Unseen line-up contains just as many fan favourites – you can see the entire list below. They’ve already put out sets from Muse, Paul McCartney and Stereophonics, and they’re building up to a full-length feature of The Cure’s 2014 performance to be streamed on Saturday 31^st October.  After each livestream, the shows remain on Youtube with all of the donation information, so you can watch later on and still have the opportunity to make a difference.

Teenage Cancer Trust are the only UK charity that commit to supporting all of the needs of their young people. They fund specialist cancer units, youth support coordinators and even events and networks for people with experience of cancer to come together in safe and supportive spaces. Like so many charities and industries, a great part of their fundraising and their community has been seriously affected by the pandemic. By reaching into their archives for material like this, they have gone some way to recapturing the magic of Teenage Cancer Trust for their fans, the way that music always has the power to.

 Teenage Cancer Trust ‘Unseen’ Line-up:

08/10/20 – Ed Sheeran
09/10 – Muse
10/10 – Rudimental
11/10 – Paul McCartney
12/10 – Paul Weller
13/10 – Stereophonics
14/10 – Pulp
15/10 – Noel Gallagher
16/10 – Them Crooked Vultures
17/10 – The Who
18/10 – The Cure
31/10 – The Cure – full live stream