Glastonbury 2023 Friday night review including Lana Del Rey, Guns N’ Roses, Lewis Capaldi

Guns N’ Roses bring out Dave Grohl for their Glastonbury headlining set

Guns N’ Roses brought out Dave Grohl during their first ever Glastonbury festival headlining set – but arguably the best reaction was saved for the British Sign Language interpreters covering it for the BBC.

The US rock icons topped the bill on the main Pyramid Stage on Saturday night (June 24). Appearing on time at 9.30pm prompt, they kicked off with Appetite For Destruction track It’s So Easy, before dipping into all six of their studio albums plus post-reunion singles Absurd and Hard Skool for their 24-song, two hour-plus set.

Glastonbury fans ‘gutted’ as Sir Paul McCartney fails to join Guns N’ Rose.

Axl Rose told crowds they were ‘helping a certain individual celebrate’ as they launched into Live And Let Die. ‘We’re helping a certain individual celebrate the 50th anniversary of this song,’ he said.

The song was written by Sir Paul McCartney and released by Wings in 1973 as part of the soundtrack for the James Bond film of the same name. Sir Paul has been pictured multiple times at the festival, watching performances including Foo Fighters, with his wife and daughter, Stella and Mary McCartney.

Addressing the crowd before playing the title track from 2008’s Chinese Democracy, Axl Rose said, “How you doing? We’d like to thank you for inviting us. Thank you!”

During Civil War, the band flashed a Ukrainian flag on the screen behind them to cheers from the audience. Axl also wore a T-shirt emblazoned with the blue and yellow flag.

The band played their cover of Wings’ Live And Let Die, though they weren’t joined by Paul McCartney despite speculation that the ex-Beatle and former Wings leader would appear onstage after being spotted on the site earlier in the day.

However, the band were joined by Dave Grohl on guitar for closing song Paradise City. “You can never have too many fucking guitars,” announced Axl as the Foo Fighters frontman walked out.

Reaction to the set was mixed, with many people criticising Axl’s vocals. “Slash is incredible. The band is brilliant. But…… this Guns N’Roses set would be so much better with Rick Astley on vocals,” tweeted @AndrewJazzie, referencing the UK pop star who had played two different sets earlier in the day.

Other people jumped to the singer’s defence. “Hats off to Axl rose here, not only is he doing lead vocals he’s also doing a fucking bleep test on the stage at 61years old,” said @joshknightson.

However, some people were more impressed by the British Sign Language interpreters who covered the set on the BBC’s iPlayer streaming service.

People watching #GunsNRoses on iPlayer are missing out if they don’t choose the British sign language option,” @mildhorror, tweeting a clip of a BSL interpreter rocking out on air guitar and air drums during instrumental sections.

The previous day at Glastonbury saw the Foo Fighters play a not-so-secret set under the name The Churn Ups. Dave Grohl dedicated the final song, Everlong, to late drummer Taylor Hawkins. The frontman also made an appearance during The Pretenders’ set on the Park stage earlier on Saturday, along with Johnny Marr.

Arctic Monkeys headlined the Pyramid Stage on Friday while Elton John will close the festival on Sunday night with his last-ever UK show.

Lana Del Rey’s Glastonbury set came to the most dramatic end you can imagine.

Lana Del Rey kept fans waiting for a whole half an hour before finally taking to The Other Stage at Glastonbury on Saturday night.

The US star, 37, was 30 minutes late to The Other Stage on Saturday night, leaving fans wondering what on Earth was going on. When she eventually made it out, she more than made up for her tardiness – but it wasn’t long until things got nasty.

Technical blunders ensued, with Lana being spoken to in her ear but seemingly ignoring demands to wrap things up. She apologised for being late midway through, blaming her hair. ‘I was so f***ing late and I am about to rush this set,’ she told the crowd.

‘If they cut power, they cut power, I’m super f***ing sorry. My hair takes so long to do. ‘Let’s keep on running the set as it’s supposed to go.’ Except, the set didn’t run as it was supposed to go, as her microphone was cut. This left Lana bewildered and looking very angry.

But, she refused to be ordered off stage and ended up singing a cappella with the thousands-strong crowd. Her backing singers and dancers joined her as she sat on stage singing Video Games without music. It was a sight to behold, as the audience belted out her famous tune. She didn’t stop there, either, as Lana told the crowd she was making her way down to see them.

Screaming revellers couldn’t believe their luck as the emotional star posed for selfies and gave out hugs. Lana made her way along the barrier before accepting that it was, in fact, time to go. We can only imagine the conversations had backstage afterwards!

The internet was left conflicted by the whole debacle, with one person tweeting: ‘I’m her biggest fan but you’re wrong here. It’s the other way round. This festival is bigger than Lana Del Rey and she just should have been on time. They legally can’t let her sing after 12’.

Another wrote: ‘I’m in shock @glastonbury that you had the audacity to cut her off like that, It’s genuinely disgusting. Most headliners get a 45 minute encore despite ‘noise pollution’ rules but apparently it doesn’t apply to her…’

‘If I was Lana Del Rey I would never play Glastonbury again for cutting off her mic’, one added.

Lizzo covers Coldplay’s ‘Yellow’ during Glastonbury set

Lizzo has covered Coldplay‘s hit song ‘Yellow’ during her headlining set at this year’s Glastonbury Festival.

The singer began her set with ‘Cause I Love You’ followed by ‘Juice and ‘2 Be Loved (Am I Ready)’. Toward the middle of her set, she broke out into a cover of Coldplay’s 2000s hit ‘Yellow’. She introduced the track as one of her “one of her favourite songs.”

This is not the first time the pop icon has covered the hit. She has been performing renditions of it throughout her tour this year. She then brought out her flute aka “Sasha Flute” to play an impressive solo before diving into her song ‘Truth Hurts’.

‘Yellow’ was not the only cover she performed for the Glastonbury crowd. She also led the festival goers into a rendition of Chaka Khan’s ‘I’m Every Woman’.

The pop singer also took the time soak in the huge crowd that showed up to see her and thanked them for being there. “I’m just so overwhelmed,” Lizzo said, recalling how she played an empty tent a few years back at Glastonbury.

Elsewhere at Glastonbury, Oscar-winning actor Tilda Swinton joined Max Richter on stage – but a man attempted to interrupt their set with a naked protest.

The Park stage saw another movie star collaboration (June 23), with Cate Blanchett appearing with Sparks during their early evening set.

Yesterday was closed with a stellar headline set from Arctic Monkeys, as well as a surprise set from Foo Fighters appearing under the moniker The Churnups.

Glastonbury continueds last night with performances from Guns N’ Roses, Lana Del Rey, Måneskin, The Pretenders (with a number of special guests) and more.

Chrissy Hynde’s ‘ageless’ appearance distracts Glastonbury fan

The Pretenders performed at this year’s Glastonbury leaving fans in shock at just how amazing Chrissy Hynde looks for her age.

The four-piece rock group was originally formed in 1978 and consisted of Chrissie Hynde and bassist Pete Farndon.

Although the band has experienced some changes in the line-up, the original member Chrissy is still performing today at the age of 71.

Taking to the Park stage the band went through their back catalogue of hits. Chrissy however, was the star of the show as she looked effortlessly rock chic with a band tee-shirt, denim jeans, and over-the-knee black boots.

Before introducing the music legend to the stage, Chrissy said: “Glastonbury has so many memories but my favourite is seeing my guitar heroes.” She named the band’s guitarist James Walbourne as one of them before mentioning Marr as the other.

They then performed two of their classic hits, Don’t Get Me Wrong and Back On The Chain Gang. As if the crowd thought the surprises were done, they then brought on Foo Fighters’ and Glasto regular Dave Grohl to end their performance.

Lewis Capaldi plans to take a mental health break

Lewis Capaldi plans to take a mental health break after performing at Glastonbury.

The 26-year-old pop star has revealed that he may not perform for the rest of the year, after appearing at the world-famous festival on Saturday (24.06.23), which marked his first show in almost a month.

The singer – who revealed in 2022 that he’d been diagnosed with Tourette’s syndrome – said towards the end of his set: “We’re gonna play two more songs if that’s okay, even if I can’t sing properly.

“I’m really sorry, before I go any further. You’ve all come out and I’m really apologising. My voice is packing in.”

Lewis performed some of his best-known hits during his set, including ‘Before You Go’ and ‘Wish You The Best’, and the chart-topping star admitted that he was desperate to appear at Glastonbury.

He said: “I recently took three weeks off. It was a break for my mental health. I wanted to come back and do Glasto ’cause it’s so incredible, so I just wanna thank you for watching us. I was s*** scared but you’ve really made me feel at ease.”

Despite this, Lewis explained that he’s now planning to take another mental health break.

The singer also apologised for his lacklustre performance at Glastonbury.

He shared: “I’m really sorry. I hope the Eavises will have me back on, even though it’s been a bit of a s*** show.

“I feel like I’ll be taking another wee break for the next few weeks, you might not see me for the rest of the year. But when I do come back and I do see you, I hope you’re up for watching.”

Elton John to say goodbye with final UK gig at Glastonbury Festival

fter months of touring, this is it – the final chance to see music legend Sir Elton John performing live in the UK.

The Rocketman is hanging up his hat (but hopefully not the big glasses) with his Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour. After some gigs were rescheduled during the pandemic, this now ends in Sweden in July – but the star’s final show on home turf takes place at Glastonbury Festival tonight.

Sir Elton is one of the biggest-selling artists in the world – a performer with 32 studio albums under his belt, 10 number ones, and more than 300m in record sales – but surprisingly has never played at the world-famous festival before. His headline set closing the Pyramid stage will be his first and last chance to experience that 100,000-strong crowd, which so many performers who have experienced it before him describe as like no other.

In interviews, Sir Elton has said performing at Glastonbury “couldn’t be a more perfect ending”.

It’s hard to imagine how the star who has entertained the world for more than 50 years will walk away from performing completely – but what a stage to bow out on.

“There’s always been a kind of ‘will he, won’t he’, but he seems pretty set that this is going to be the last UK show,” he told Sky News. “I think the way that he’s gone about it and prepared for the show and talked about all of the new bands he wants to celebrate in his career, you know, this long tour that he’s been on, it feels like it could be it, it really does.”

However, Sir Elton’s husband David Furnish told Sky News ahead of the festival that this won’t be the end of his music altogether.

“I don’t think he’ll be sitting on the sofa with a remote control,” Furnish said. “He’s going to go back into the studio in October and start his next album. Which will be great. He’s not done a studio album in a long time.”

Fellow Glastonbury first-timer Rick Astley – who drew a huge early crowd to the Pyramid stage on Saturday morning – believes few artists have had Sir Elton’s impact.

“With Elton, you’re naming one of the people who literally put one of the foundation blocks of music,” he said. “There’s a few people, men and women, who’ve laid down the rule book, the story book – everything – for the rest of us, and he’s one of them. There’s just no one comparable to him.”

One fan who is looking forward to tonight’s show is Alex McGuire, 47, who lives near to the festival site in Taunton.

Now on his 16th time at the event, for the past five occasions he has been making hats to celebrate his favourite acts.

For Glastonbury 2023, he says the decision was easy.

“It’s Elton’s final tour and final chance to see him quite possibly. It’s absolutely amazing for the Eavises to get him,” he told Sky News.

Alex has recreated Sir Elton on the Pyramid stage, complete with a grand piano and rainbow rockets – and it even lights up.

“It’s going to be a legendary moment,” he said. “Like Paul McCartney last year – it’s the ultimate for Glastonbury.”

In the run-up to the festival, Sir Elton has been teasing his performance – even sharing a picture of some spangly custom-made wellies on Instagram.

“It’s just come at the right time,” he said in one interview. “I’m a great believer in serendipity and fate – this is the most wonderful way to sign off in England.”

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