He sang a duet of ‘I’ve got a feeling’ with a virtual John Lennon, played George Harrison’s ukulele, paid tribute to Jimi Hendrix with ‘Foxy Lady’ and invited Bruce Springsteen and Dave Grohl to the end of the party in an unusual trio it for posterity. There were a total of 35 songs, in 2 hours and 50 minutes of concert that spanned six decades and consecrated Paul McCartney as Glastonbury’s incombustible “grandfather” at 80 years old.
“I’m singing with John again, we’re together again,” Paul proclaimed from the mythical Pyramid of Worthy Farm, transplanted for a day to the rooftops of London in that epic concert in 1969. “I know it’s virtual, but this hadn’t been never happened and it’s something so special.
‘Macca’ alternated classics like ‘Lady Madonna’ and ‘Love me Do’ with Wings songs like ‘Band of the Run’ and recent compositions like ‘Come on to me’. Halfway through the concert, he expressed a heartfelt complaint, his voice a little cracked: “When I sing Beatles songs, all this lights up like a sky with stars. With the songs now, it seems that we are in a black hole, but it gives Same”.
Things slowed down a bit with ‘My Valentine’, dedicated to his beloved Nancy Shevell. In a video even Johnny Depp slipped in, very launched that walks with his new career as a guitarist after the famous trial. After the halfway point, we took flight with ‘Live and let die’ and that already sounded like a final apotheosis with ‘Hey Jude’.
But there were still the two big surprises of the night. Suddenly Dave Grohl appeared, for the first time since the death of Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins. “I swore an oath,” she declared to Paul. “And I could never miss being here with you on a night like this.”
And then Bruce Springsteen burst in, rejuvenated at 71 years old alongside the former ‘beatle’, attacking ‘Glory Days’ and ‘I wanna be your man’ in two voices, and wishing his host “another glorious 80 years”.
“This should have been done three years ago, but the pandemic hit,” Paul wrote. “The important thing is that we have come out ahead and that we are here, although history has dealt us another hard blow,” he said, as he waved the Ukrainian flag in protest of Putin’s invasion.
Volodimir Zelenski had addressed hours before by videoconference before the 200,000 festivalgoers, proclaiming that “Glastonbury is the largest concentration of freedom in the world!”. Greta Thunberg launched her particular climate plea and Billie Eilish opened fire on Friday, both celebrating her coming of age.
Lorde and Kendrick Lamar put the counterpoint on Sunday, but the icing was again on the account of two living legends: Diana Ross (78 years old) and Herbie Hancock (82). The two put the final fire to Glastonbury revived that will go down in history as the last and immortal concert of the Beatles. Where were you, Ringo Starr?
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