A RAINBOW arched its bridge of many colours across the evening sky, nature's magical wave of the wand just before Pulp went down to the woods on Saturday.

"That cost a lot, you know, to set up ... I hope you appreciate it," said Jarvis Cocker, adopting an American accent, as he pretended to command nature like some latter-day Oberon from A Midsummer Night's Dream on this near-midsummer's night. "I've got a direct line," he said later.

Rather than "somewhere in a field in Hampshire" - to quote their second song in this outdoor pursuit, sorted for Es and Wizz - Pulp were in a field somewhere deep and heavily signposted in Dalby Forest, on a nature trail through British woodland in tandem with the Forestry Commission.

Rainbow but no rain, Pulp were blessed by the elements, even if their 9.10pm start meant the giant screen backdrop of arthouse images struggled against the light until night began to draw its curtains.

Gradually, trees lit up and Jarvis stood out more and more in his sunrise-yellow T-shirt with its buffalo motif, as he took every opportunity in his ever-humorous, rambling monologues between songs to talk of fresh air, trees and the need for thermals.

As with last autumn's Barbican Centre show, Different Class and We Love Life selections dominated, augmented by the best of the dark, bitter This Is Hardcore and a surprise or two.

People's anthem Common People, absent at York, was rightfully restored for a gloriously communal finale. Treemendous.

Updated: 11:39 Monday, June 24, 2002