We hate to admit it, but the last chance to dance at Glastonbury ’23 is getting unignorable. One of these opportunities to seize, then, is Weyes Blood up at the Park. “This is a party,” Natalie Mering tells us, “the kind where you cry.” We have to disagree: her cosmic Carpenters soundworld, a floating white robe and some typically strangeifying visuals by Adam Curtis for God Turn Me Into A Flower make this an early peak of the day, one actually enhanced by the appearance of clouds on an otherwise brutally sunny weekend.
Compared to the latter artist’s knowing reserve, Toyah Wilcox’s clearly an extrovert trouper who relishes being onstage. At the Acoustic stage, she and other half Robert Fripp revisit songs by artists they’ve interacted with over the decades, and it’s a gas to see a seated, formally dressed Fripp playing Echo Beach by Martha and The Muffins and Blondie’s Heart Of Glass, as well as Kashmir by Led Zep.
Is the cosmos playing punk synchronicities MOJO wonders? This weekend also featured shows by Blondie and Generation Sex, and walking through the Acoustic field, we run into ex-Stranglers vocalist Paul Roberts, who can be found crooning swinging oldies in the outdoors. He promptly inveigles us into a singalong of Cab Calloway’s smash from 1931, Minnie The Moocher. Hi-de-hi-de-hidey-ho!
And now the sands of time are running out in earnest. The final headliner for the Other Stage, Queens Of The Stone Age, play it typically tight and powerful, up for the challenge of a legend playing his last show (allegedly) on the stage next door. Suitably for the last blowout, Josh Homme’s exhortations to get fucked up and destroy go down well with the moshing diehards who forwent Elton John, and there’s a touching dedication of In The Fade to fallen comrade Mark Lanegan, who originally sang the song back in 2000. But where was serial guest Dave Grohl tonight? Talk about bone idle.
A final date with Detroit techno’s men of mystery Underground Resistance serves us with pounding yet nuanced electronic funk at the freaky IICON stage (it’s a giant brutalist head with a screen in it) in all-night beat-zone Block9. Nearby, Gaz Mayall’s Rocket Lounge is a select late-night joint for those who like their vintage sounds jumping, and here Finnish speed freaks Us play rocking blues primalism faster than humanly possible. Can they reach the speed where they actually cause time to go backwards, enabling us to enjoy Glastonbury 2023 all over again? It’d definitely be worth it.
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. Elton John is here.
And catch up with our expedition to the wilder corners of Glastonbury on Thursday here.