From the moment Elton John announced he would be playing Glastonbury Festival for the first (and last) time, closing out the 2023 festival with a Sunday Night Pyramid Stage headline set back in December 2022, everything about this year’s edition of the 50+ year-running music and contemporary performing arts festival had been building up to that moment. The moment Sir Elton stepped out onto the Pyramid stage and played his first note, and the two magical hours that followed.
Elton John @ Glastonbury Festival 2023
As the months ticked down, the legend announced that the set would also be his last UK show, his “Farewell Yellow Brick Road” farewell tour continuing in the weeks after in Europe. But this would be it for his home country. And as revellers arrived on site at Worthy Farm, regardless of the monster acts that would play before (and elsewhere during) John’s set, this was the moment most were looking forward to. And as the day finally arrived, sparkling outfits and L.A. Dodgers outfits were donned and those keenest to secure the best view waited in the Pyramid field (one super fan, since 4am!). Sophie Ellis-Bextor, The Chicks, Yusuf / Cat Stevens, Blondie and Lil Nas X all played the stage, but the field was packed out with an estimated 120,000 festival goers (out of around 220,000 in total) just before 9pm, as the sun went down and “standing room only” was announced over the PA.
Elton John @ Glastonbury Festival 2023
Appearing on stage in a flamboyant, shiny gold suit and signature sunglasses to the loudest roar from the crowd of the whole weekend, John settled behind his Yamaha grand piano and kicked off with his rendition of The Who’s 1969 classing Pinball Wizard, fireworks being set off on either side of the Pyramid stage as his six-strong band of musicians filled out the sound.
Honestly, it wouldn’t have mattered what he played tonight, as long as his biggest hits were present. The mood was simply joyful, from the very front on the barrier in front of the stage to beyond the back of the field where revellers hung around to catch a glimpse of the magic, and even from those VIPs lucky enough to hang out overlooking the stage (including the likes of F1 driver Lewis Hamilton and Beatles legend Paul McCartney). Two hours of pure joy followed.
Now 76 and largely limited to a seated position behind his piano, nothing is taken away from the enchantment he casts across those here in person, or the millions watching via the live television broadcast. He’s a legend, a national treasure and the composer of some of the finest contemporary music created over the past 50+ years. Bennie And The Jets, Daniel, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, I Guess That’s Why They Call It The Blues … the classics keep flowing, one after another, after another. Delivered with vigour and a showmanship that is second to none.
Rather than simply bringing on big-name celebrity musical guests for this special event, John chooses instead to champion newer artists, giving them the biggest audiences of their lives. First up is Gabriels’ frontman Jacob Lusk, who joins John for a rendition of Thom Bell Sessions EP cut Are You Ready For Love, while 20-year-old Nashville-based Stephen Sanchez appears for an outing of his own tune Until I Found You. “I couldn’t believe that someone of 19 or 20 years of age could write and sing a song like this, it was a nod to the past but it sounded so beautiful and fresh” John introduced.
Elton John @ Glastonbury Festival 2023
More hits by way of Your Song and tear-inducing Candle In The Wind (played by John solo) follow before the star introduces the biggest guest star of his show tonight, Las Vegas rockers The Killers’ frontman Brandon Flowers (donning a smart double-breasted red suit), for a rendition of hit single Tiny Dancer. His last special guest appears next – Japanese-British rising star Rina Sawayama – for an outing of 1976 hit single Don’t Go Breaking My Heart, Sawayama filling in perfectly for the original’s Kiki Dee.
Elton John @ Glastonbury Festival 2023
Crocodile Rock ups the tempo, Saturday Night’s Alright For Fighting has the crowd chanting along (and covered in yellow ticker tape fired by cannons in front of the stage) while I’m Still Standing continues John’s barrage of hits from his incredible career upon this Glastonbury crowd. 2021 dance tune Cold Heart (reminiscent of missing hit single Sacrifice) is the one miss tonight, the ominous lack of collaborator Dua Lipa’s presence leaving John to perform the tune to a backing track of her parts, “I’m going to ask you to sing her part and sing it loudly” John requests – the Anglo-Albanian singer later stating that she was busy hosting a dinner party on the night of Elton John’s Glastonbury headline set.
Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me is dedicated to George Michael’s memory on what would have been his 60th birthday, the song given a second lease of life following Michael releasing a live version in 1991, itself featuring a guest appearance from Elton John. But it is John’s biggest, and most famous hit Rocket Man that closes out the fast-paced two-hour set of incredible music, fireworks firing beautifully above Worthy Farm (and flares igniting from within the crowd) as the 1972 hit single rings out.
The night was a lesson in just how to close out an incredible career in graceful style. It was also fabulous use of such an incredible platform to champion so many rising stars, giving them each the type of exposure simply not achievable by any other means, such a graceful gesture by a British musical legend. A Glastonbury Festival Pyramid Stage headline set that will surely go down in history as one of the greatest.
Words and photos by Kalpesh Patel at Glastonbury Festival 2023.
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