Within hours, Elton John’s Sunday headline set on the Pyramid Stage will be confirmed, with 7.3 million viewers, as the most watched performance ever in the history of the BBC’s broadcast coverage of the festival, but it’s already clear that something special is happening. Sunday afternoon is often the point when tents start to dwindle, but there’s no evidence of that this year.
With 210,000 the official number of attendees, it always felt that a unifying moment could create an unprecedented surge in one area of the site, and the Pyramid arena is fuller than most festival veterans remember seeing a full hour before the show is due to start. Elton’s pre-publicity, focusing on the likelihood that this is his last ever live show in the UK, has focused minds and girded loins. With respect to the day’s other headliners – including Queens Of The Stone Age, Phoenix and Rickie Lee Jones – why would you come to Glastonbury in 2023 and not go and see Elton John?
Especially when he’s on form like this, which, if not literally death-defying, is certainly retirement-confounding, with opener Pinball Wizard setting a standard for piano-bashing intensity and emotional resonance. If like your writer/heretic you’ve ever dared reflect that Elton’s voice may be the least of his strengths, you might agree that there’s something in the lived-in grit and soulful growl of the 76-year-old’s singing that the R&B-obsessed mid-twentysomething wannabe never quite had. Something in abundance on this set’s early highlights Are You Ready For Love and Sad Songs (Say So Much). The former is essayed with the help of Gabriels singer Jacob Lusk. Both are reinforced by the massed lungs of the London Community Gospel Choir. Both are crushing.
This crowd doesn’t need telling any of the words, or a lecture on the strengths of Elton John and Bernie Taupin’s best songs – some of which, constrained on record by the production tics of their time, come into their own in an arena like this. Snobs might regard Too Low For Zero’s comeback hits, I’m Still Standing and I Guess That’s Why They Call It The Blues, as post-canonical, but 40 years later they’re undeniable cultural artefacts, passed down through generations, something for families to share. That’s certainly brought home in a setting like this, a Glasto headline spot, where emotional transparency is highly prized. US Top 5 hit Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me is a meticulously composed journey of a song, but tonight – dedicated to Elton’s old friend George Michael – it’s all heart. The crowd’s feedback roars back in waves and you can see that the singer feels it too.
Caveats? If the live bug bites Elton once more, maybe he could shake up his band. Stalwarts including percussionist Ray Cooper are great musicians, and a proven support system, but they’re prone to their leader’s tendency to gild the lily, and not every song needs a flourish of tambourine. Tonight, as it often does, Bennie And The Jets’ hypnotically stark piano riff begs the question: if Elton had gone down the less-is-more route more often, could he have been as ‘cool’ as has been, undoubtedly, big?
Yet Elton’s loyalty to collaborators is one of his most appealing attributes. As is the puppyish Fanboy who loves to rave about new music and support new artists. It’s part of what’s kept him in the game so long, but… the guest spots: to apply a very Glastonbury metric, were they really worth the environmental impact of their flights? Do we need Stephen Sanchez or a cover of his song, Until I Found You? Would we not rather have heard Burn Down The Mission? Or Levon?
"They put cocaine in my food. I'd no idea.." Elton John on the trip to LA that made him a star.
At a slightly higher celebrity pay grade, The Killers’ Brandon Flowers brings little to Tiny Dancer unless it’s an opportunity for Elton to catch his breath. Hats off, however, to Rina Sawayama, who nails the Kiki Dee part of Don’t Go Breaking My Heart on a weekend where she also called out her former label boss, the 1975’s Matt Healy, for appearing on a Podcast containing racist frat talk. There’s no spotlight for Britney Spears (a fanciful backstage rumour) or Dua Lipa (a less fanciful one) or Paul McCartney, who’s been hanging out all weekend but has somehow resisted any invitations to perform. The last thing we need, however, is more guests.
Rocket Man (I Think It’s Going To Be A Long, Long Time) is the inevitable clincher, an opportunity to stretch out (maybe a little too far out, but…), for guitarist Davey Johnstone to make space sounds on his double-neck, and for Glasto to launch the inevitable fireworks to oohs and aahs. It’s what’s expected, but it’s unnecessary: what Elton John has already proved is that he doesn’t need the gimmicks. He never did.
Picture: Leon Neal
Our Friday Glastonbury 2023 reviews: the Arctic Monkeys is here. Foo Fighters is here. And our review of Friday at Glastonbury: Sparks, The Hives, Alabaster DePlume and Mozart Estate is here.
Our Saturday Glastonbury 2023 reviews: Lana Del Rey is here. The Pretenders is here. Generation Sex is here. Guns N’Roses is here
Our Sunday Glastonbury 2023 reviews: Blondie is here. Queens Of The Stone Age, Weyes Blood and more is here.
And catch up with our expedition to the wilder corners of Glastonbury on Thursday here.