Key occasions
Biffy Clyro reviewed
Ben Beaumont-Thomas
There will need to have been an actual Sliding Doorways second for Biffy Clyro in some unspecified time in the future. Arduous-gigging, working someplace within the earnest zone between post-hardcore, post-rock and math-rock across the millennium, they so simply might have stayed a fiercely beloved cult act enjoying 500-cap venues and placing out albums with runic lettering and perhaps some form of priestess sporting a cow cranium.
As a substitute, they determined to know the – very possible at that time shameful-feeling – pop nettle. Whoa-oh-oh choruses? Sure. Ballads that get picked up for X Issue winners? Certain. Lyrics like “I’m a mountain” and “pray for the higher days” that would simply be painted on to the form of dwelling furnishings you would possibly purchase at B&M Bargains? Actually.
However there’s one thing ragged, Celtish and intensely braw about the way in which Biffy promote all of this corny enterprise, and this Pyramid stage set is a fully triumphant reminder that they, in a method that’s usually forgotten, have a formidable biggest hits set after they want it.
After a tinny combine settles down round monitor three, there’s a lot to like right here: Tiny Indoor Fireworks’ virtually naively fairly refrain and intelligent excessive tempo licks; or how Bubbles pootles alongside a fairly odd storage rock riff then zooms right into a Harrier Soar Jet refrain. Immediate Historical past has an virtually laughably easy refrain line of “That is the sound that we make” – nicely, sure, it’s. And but they make investments it with a kind of koan-like knowledge, paired with a melody that would energy an EDM monitor. Residing Is a Downside As a result of The whole lot Dies is a present of ultra-technical, extremely drilled math rock mentalism, which immediately handbrake turns into frontman Simon Neil doing a solo cowl of the Seaside Boys’ God Solely Is aware of. After which again once more.
They’re Think about Dragons with precise creativeness, the Mumford and Sons with a fucken’ guitar as a substitute of a banjo. A lot of Horror closes the set out, and its bridge of “I nonetheless consider it’s you and me until the tip of time” appears so missing on the web page – however there’s such romance in the way in which Neil sings it.
On at Woodsies in the meanwhile is Floating Factors, delivering a set of moody minimalist techno lit by little quite a lot of stark blue spotlights. It’s a giant competition for him: he additionally has a stunning new venue, Sunflower, which Shaad D’Souza wrote about earlier.
One other standalone evaluate, this time Alexis Petridis on Lewis Capaldi’s shock Pyramid set. It sounded extra that a bit emotional:
Pinkpantheress reviewed
Shaad D’Souza
The album of the summer season is, indubitably, PinkPantheress’s Fancy That – a 20-odd-minute blitzkrieg of a mixtape that’s loud, humorous and someway manages to squeeze six separate Basement Jaxx samples into its extraordinarily temporary runtime. Fancy That Pink’s finest physique of labor up to now, and when she performs all of it for the primary time at Woodsies, they’re usually the songs that the large crowd reacts finest to. When she launches into Unlawful, the tape’s cheeky, fleet-footed opener, the gang completely screams the phrases again – a exceptional factor for a two-month-old mixtape.
This mutual love is paired with a weird however nice stage setup: Louis Theroux, mystifyingly a pal of Pink’s, has prerecorded a skit to introduce the present; Pink’s nine-piece band consists of brass gamers, backing singers, a beatboxer, and a besuited DJ who’s dancing like he’s taken a bunch of tablets. It’s all unusual, and it’s all good.
Earlier this afternoon Elle Hunt went to see Alanis Morissette take over the Pyramid stage, and her verdict has landed:
Taskmaster reviewed
Gwilym Mumford
As of late Taskmaster is a comedy juggernaut, with immersive live experiences, worldwide remakes, the lot. For comics, it’s an important rung to tread on on the ladder of fame, and it has minted quite a few rising standups. Nonetheless for all that, the essential premise has principally remained unchanged since its early faltering days on Dave: Alex Horne makes up some charmingly lo-fi video games for comedians to compete in, and Greg Davies judges their performances, usually savagely. Its shambolic nature is kind of the purpose.
All of which makes it excellent Glasto fare, and given the truth that Horne is a everlasting fixture right here, and that there’s a big steady of comedians to select from as contestants, it’s stunning {that a} dwell model has by no means been tried right here earlier than. Taskmaster’s debut is available in a crammed to the corners Cabaret tent, with loads of folks caught exterior, squinting by way of the hearth exit for a glance.
It begins with a fittingly shonky rendition of Starship’s Nothing’s Gonna Cease Us now, adopted by the briefest of Q&As. After which we’re into the sport correct. The visitors are returnees James Acaster (a genuinely global name nowadays), Kerry Godliman and Lou Sanders, joined by first-timers Richard Blackwood and, erm, Basil Brush. After a gap sport the place everybody has to carry one thing they wish to take dwelling from Glastonbury – Acaster and Blackwood get loud boos for “recollections” and “a programme” respectively, Godliman crushes it with “tie-dye knickers” – the competitors settles right into a sequence of best-of video games from earlier episodes of the present, together with all-time classics Sausage or Finger and Pop on a Onesie within the Tent. Oh and Basil Brush carried out a surprisingly nimble rendition of Purple Rain.
It’s endearingly everywhere in the map, bar one tonally jarring second: a spherical the place contestants have to search out lookalikes within the viewers, put a pillowcase over their head and convey them to be judged on their lookey-likeyness by Davies. Blackwood, not unreasonably, factors out that there’s a distinct absence of Black folks within the viewers after which picks a small white youngster for his lookalike as a substitute. Davies doesn’t actually have any selection however to offer him the total 5 factors. It’s dealt with cheerfully sufficient, however there are just a few awkward pauses the place the viewers isn’t fully certain whether or not to chortle – the kind of factor that may be slickly edited round have been this a traditional TV episode of Taskmaster. Maybe there is purpose a Glasto Taskmaster has occurred earlier than then.
Seeing as this episode gained’t ever seem in your display, and thus isn’t “canon”, we will let you know who gained: it was Sanders, who aced the Sausage and Onesie rounds. She celebrates with a handstand whereas Basil Brush sings Purple Rain once more – the kind of sentence you’d in all probability solely affiliate with Taskmaster.
This Busta set is sort of one thing. He’s wearing an outfit that’s Fubu meets Lord Bullingdon from Barry Lyndon, there are folks with dragon heads dancing round him, and he simply performed We Are the Champions for no purpose whatsover. And now he’s deftly segued into Break Ya Neck. His circulation remains to be absurdly quick.
By all accounts it’s rammed to the rafters of the Different stage, the place Busta Rhymes is delivering a usually high-syllabled efficiency. He simply did What’s It Gonna Be With Janet Jackson, projected enormously on the display behind him, and now he’s ripping by way of Woo Haa!! Acquired You All in Examine. Busta’s wobbly baritone sounds superb.
Elle Hunt has simply noticed the glitziest of A-listers: Glen Powell! He was leaving the hospitality space and instantly leapt into a non-public automobile with tinted home windows. Come on Glen, stand up to the Stone Circle with the remainder of us nice unhosed.
Bashy reviewed
Safi Bugel
The final time Bashy carried out at Glastonbury was 15 years in the past. Shortly after, he parked his profession as an acclaimed MC to concentrate on his performing, the place he discovered extra mainstream fame by way of exhibits like Prime Boy. However final yr, he marked his musical comeback together with his award-winning report Being Poor is Costly – a deeply private reckoning together with his life in northwest London. His efficiency right this moment appears like a fusion of all of his worlds: a collage-like tour by way of his personal music and that which he grew up with, interwoven with compelling storytelling about his and his household’s life.
Over hip hop and dirt instrumentals performed by a DJ, Bashy addresses the social points affecting Black British folks and immigrants to a small however locked-in Lonely Hearts crowd. He raps in regards to the plight of him and his associates – by way of systemic racism and council property upbringings – with poise: when not pacing around the stage, he delivers his bars with eyes locked down, hand wrapped around the mic.
Within the breaks between songs, he proves his power as an orator (tomorrow he’s chairing a chat underneath the title of his album, that includes economist Gary Stevenson amongst others). He shouts out the Windrush Era earlier than introducing Made in Britain, which includes a pattern of his grandma’s vocals; he pays homage to the “grafters” who “fought so we might play hip hop and dirt at Glastonbury”, and memorialises these whose lives have been lower quick, earlier than segueing into Misplaced In Goals.
However regardless of the robust speaking factors, Bashy’s efficiency can be uplifting: at one level he affectionately runs us by way of the music he grew up with (You Don’t Love by Daybreak Penn, Shy FX’s Unique Nuttah, Loopy Love by MJ Cole). “Significant music brings us collectively, generationally,” he says, earnestly. He additionally offers his dues to pirate radio, which he lower his enamel on, earlier than performing Black Boys, which he wrote when he was 21. “It’s wonderful to carry out this right here, it’s been 15 years man!”
It’s a poignant return to Worthy Farm, evidently for Bashy as a lot as to his viewers.
Gwilym Mumford
Gwilym, right here taking on for the night shift. Tons arising, together with opinions of The 1975’s Glastonbury headline set, Loyle Carner, Anohni, Self Esteem, Biffy Clyro and Busta Rhymes. Don’t contact that dial!
Ben Beaumont-Thomas
PinkPantheress is over in Woodsies, and it’s spinning me out to listen to these bedroom-production songs performed with backing singers, and on precise drums and on precise devices – even a violin! However she is so participating and the gang are negotiating the tricksy melodic runs of Ache with aplomb. Shaad’s over there and can do a full writeup afterwards.
Gracie Abrams reviewed
Jason Okundaye
There isn’t any rhetorical flourish I can actually add to this conclusion from her Different stage set: Gracie Abrams is an evidently gifted performer who’s desperately in want of higher music.
I’ll concede that I could also be alone in that conclusion and so don’t place that as authoritative. I’m certain there’s a 15-year-old fan able to ship me well-deserved on-line abuse through an nameless account. Actually the gang right here is in love with Abrams, youthful feminine viewers members particularly throw up their telephones filming themselves singing her lyrics phrase for phrase. Plus, That’s So True (the most important track of the set by a transparent mile) spent eight weeks at UK No 1. And you’ll see that all the components of the form of uncooked, emotionally susceptible feminine pop star a la Taylor Swift or Olivia Rodrigo (who’s headlining on Sunday evening) that has so captured younger girls and ladies: relatable, diary-entry lyrics, storytelling, and, in Abrams case, a bed room pop aesthetic. However at no level do you’re feeling there’s something that reaches the angsty hook-laden highs of Rodrigo’s’ Good 4 U or plain catchiness of Swift’s We Are By no means Ever Getting Again Collectively. One thing’s simply not clicking.
None of that is to say that the music is unhealthy, both, simply that there appears like a ways between her attraction and her discography. She comes on in a burgundy bandana and costume which jogs my memory of the purple priestess from Recreation of Thrones, and she or he appears nice, carrying along with her a guitar with a star-spangled strap. Her ethereal vocals are splendid, a gap efficiency of Danger is especially sturdy and putting for the road: “I do know the chance is drowning however I’m gonna take it”. Ah, the follies of affection.
There are moments the place it feels she could also be drowned out by percussive sounds and different band components however these are pared again in order that her vocals come by way of strongly – and so Blowing Smoke, 21 and I Advised You Issues are all certifiable hits with the gang.
She has an unbelievable chemistry with the viewers, too. Having been an outspoken critic of Donald Trump and becoming a member of in with anti-ICE protests in Los Angeles this month, she tells us: “The world is so wild and upsetting proper now however I believe being collectively like that is the entire level, it’s the antidote.” Certain, it’s a little bit of a Glastonbury cliche-platitude however it feels genuine. Equally she is nice on the making the gang really feel at dwelling along with her – she is repeatedly grateful, waves excitedly, tells somebody that she likes their hat, and when she introduces songs she speaks to acquainted experiences, asking if anybody has ever handled a “narcissist” earlier than sitting down on a piano to play Dying Want.
And once more – the viewers actually connects with the music. Women within the crowd are virtually screaming at Free Now, and when she drops the guitar for the extra uptempo The place Do We Go Now? the impact is enchanting.
The problem is that I’m undecided how a lot of this set I’ll actually bear in mind – I’m satisfied that Abrams’ declare as one of many greatest pop stars of 2025 is justified, however what it rides off doesn’t really feel as vital as comparable breakthroughs. Maybe a treatment for that’s on the horizon: she introduces a monitor which she is “engaged on in actual time” and whereas I don’t catch the identify, it’s an unbelievable synth-pop banger which feels extra within the route of what I’d count on from an artist of this esteem. Near You and That’s So True are virtually there, however not fairly.
Ben Beaumont-Thomas
Wunderhorse are galloping by way of their Park set, sounding rangy but tight as they kicks the doorways off their single Midas. I noticed them in Woodsies two years in the past, the place they debuted this – it’s now acquired extra depth and growl to it, plus their wraparound shades look is appealingly grunge-cyberpunk.
This stays considered one of my very favorite British rock songs this century. Like a fantastic misplaced Lou Reed quantity.
In the meantime moshpits are a-forming at Denzel Curry over at West Holts, with Curry admirably on level as he rattles by way of Twistin’ in a speedy triplet-time circulation. And Basil Brush and James Acaster have joined the Taskmaster lineup. None of those phrases are within the Bible and so forth.
Ben Beaumont-Thomas
In the meantime there’s a Taskmaster dwell expertise factor happening on the Cabaret tent. Gwilym says:
The group for Taskmaster is totally monumental, with folks squinting by way of the Cabaret tent hearth exits to get a glimpse of its hosts Alex Horne and Greg Davies. Up to now they’ve carried out Starship’s Nothing’s Gonna Cease Us Now, Davies has given Horne a piggyback, there was a track about apples, and Horne has revealed the present’s worst-ever contestant (Tim Key). Each line is greeted with Beatles-on-The-Ed-Sullivan-Present whooping. Is TV the brand new rock’n’roll? No, however it’s fairly vigorous in right here.
En Vogue reviewed
Safi Bugel
After over 30 years of touring, there’s little doubt En Vogue know what they’re doing. After a dramatic entrance one after the other, the long-lasting R&B group waste completely no time in stepping into the hits. First up is the slinky, attitude-heavy anthem You’re By no means Gonna Get It, a lot to the delight of a crowd of principally fortysomethings.
As anticipated, the four-piece don signature matching black outfits and carry out synchronised diva choreo regardless of the 24C warmth. Quickly they snap open their matching “ooh bop!” hand followers, which they clack open and shut to the beat.
For the following half an hour or so, it’s a carousel of En Vogue’s best-known tracks, punctuated with the occasional “How we doing Glastonbury?”. The songs sound as sensual and catchy as ever, regardless of any dated sentiments (Free Your Thoughts’s “be colour-blind”).
They commit the second half to enjoying “some good outdated funky diva music”: assume Cheryl Lynn’s Acquired to Be Actual, Grace Jones’s Unhealthy Women, Aretha Franklin’s Respect. A cop- out, perhaps, however one which the gang is overjoyed about; they belt together with enthusiasm. By the point they attain I’m So Excited by the Pointer Sisters, it begins to really feel a bit weary, although admittedly to not these round me.
Whereas they might sit firmly in legacy act territory, as performers En Vogue have completely nonetheless acquired it: their precision harmonies nonetheless top-notch, their dance strikes sharp. They shut with their 1990 hit Maintain On, reminder of their power as musicians in their very own proper too.
