Glastonbury 2023 – latest: Elton John says thank-you to festival audience after farewell UK performance
Rocket Man bids farewell as he played what could be his final live show in the UK, with a jaw-dropping, career-spanning set of his greatest songs
Elton John performed what will go down as one of the greatest headline shows in Glastonbury history last night (Sunday 25 June), to one of the biggest crowds the festival has seen in years.
Lil Nas X was the final artist to take to the main stage before the 76-year-old at Worthy Farm, Somerset, after a joyful Yusuf/Cat Stevens entertained fans with songs including “Wild World” and “Father and Son”.
The revered folk singer-songwriter performed with his band in the coveted Legends Slot, a gig previously handed to artists including Lionel Richie, Kylie Minogue and Dolly Parton. He also gave superfan/comedian Ricky Gervais a shout-out on his birthday, before playing his song “Tea for the Tillerman”.
At 9pm, John launched his performance with some of his best-known songs, including his 1975 cover of “Pinball Wizard” and “Benny and the Jets”. From the moment he sat down at the piano, the show was a pure blast of euphoria from one of the world’s greatest living entertainers, with surprise guests including The Killers frontman Brandon Flowers, and Gabriels singer Jacob Lusk.
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Elton John review, Glastonbury 2023: The glitziest, most high-energy retirement party the world has ever seen
Lewis Capaldi review, Glastonbury 2023: An emotion-charged singalong of everyman heartache
Despite having to cut his set short, Capaldi still managed to pull off one of the most moving moments at Glastonbury this year.
Lewis Capaldi’s Glastonbury set was an emotion-charged singalong - review
Badly Drawn Boy moves fans at the Acoustic Stage
Glastonbury is very good at reminding you of artists far better than you may remember them being.
Case in point: Badly Drawn Boy, the alias of singer-songwriter Damon Gough, who packed out the Acoustic stage on Saturday afternoon with a set of melancholy classics from the peak of his commercial success, and some newer tracks.
The instantly recognisable “Silent Sigh” is dedicated to his brother, who died of cancer at the peak of Covid. “Something to Talk About” — immortalised in the Hugh Grant vehicle “About a Boy” — is a sweet highlight.
Gough is also lovely company, very dryly introducing many of his tracks with mention of the advertising campaigns they soundtracked. “This was in one for the electronics company Comet,” he says of “All Possibilities Still”.
“Edith Bowman narrated it.”
Didn’t we used to have it all?
Lizzo wows on the Pyramid Stage!
Oh Lizzo, how we love thee. She just hit the biggest note on the Pyramid Stage and is currently proving to everyone that she should have headlined this year. It’s About Damn Time.
Maggie Rogers takes it to church on the Other Stage
Maggie Rogers recorded her second album, last year’s Surrender, in Bath — a stone’s throw from Glastonbury and one of the many reasons she’s buzzing through her Other Stage set.
Rogers is a fantastic performer, shimmying around the stage and belting out tracks like she’s in church. Her sexy, anthemic “Want Want” goes down a storm, as does her closer, a bouncy rendition of single “That’s Where I Am”.
Much like her two albums so far, her set is one of two halves. Rogers is a lot more fun as a performer — and seems to be having a better time — on the uptempo alt-rock numbers that defined Surrender.
The lo-fi ballads that dominated her first album, 2019’s Heard It in a Past Life, are less arresting for a festival crowd — those vocals, in any case, are staggering.
The Manic Street Preaches recall their first ever set at Glastonbury
From my colleague Jacob, watching Welsh rock band the Manic Street Preachers play the Other Stage.
Frontman James Dean Bradfield remembers the band’s late lyricist and rhythm guitarist Richie Edwards, who disappeared the year after the Manics made their Glastonbury debut in 1994.
Bradfield says everything that could have gone wrong did go wrong during that set, and it was “f***ing amazing”.
A lot of love for Lewis Capaldi after he was forced to cut his set early due to vocal trouble
‘Stop f***ing crying'
Scottish singer-songwriter Lewis Capaldi brought his signature sense of humour to the Pyramid Stage on Saturday (24 June) at Glastonbury 2023.
The Grammy-nominated musician took to the main stage at Worthy Farm, Somerset, ahead of evening performances from US pop star Lizzo, and headliners Guns N’ Roses.
He played hits including his recent single “Forget Me”, from his No 1 album Broken by Desire to be Heavenly Sent, before which he managed to prank the audience into thinking his friend and co-writer Ed Sheeran was about to join him.
Singing 2019 single “Before You Go”, a ballad dedicated to his aunt, Capaldi found time to quip to the audience: “Stop crying. Stop f***ing crying.”
Full story:
Lewis Capaldi orders fan to ‘stop crying’ as he sings ‘Before You Go’ at Glastonbury
The Manic Street Preachers are about to play the Other Stage
Meanwhile you’ve got Lizzo coming up on the Pyramid at 7.30pm, Ezra Collective at 7pm on West Holts, and a mystery set on the Park Stage at 7.45pm.
Full set times and stage performances here:
Glastonbury 2023: Full line up and stage times
If you’re not watching Lewis Capaldi...
Go see The Pretenders, says producer/mixer extraordinaire David Wrench. Trust him, he has great taste (also me, because I’ve seen them twice this year and they were brilliant both times).
Raise your hand if you’ve felt personally victimised by Lewis Capaldi
I fell for that prank before too, so don’t worry if you broke your neck to see if Ed Sheeran was coming out onto the stage. Oh, Lewis. As ever, his stage shows are half music, half comedy, as I said in my review of his Cardiff gig earlier this year.
