What happened last time Neil Young played Glastonbury?
As ever, this year’s Glastonbury Festival offers another voluminous programme of music and wider arts that truly delivers a little something for everybody.
While the plethora of mainstream pop acts and underground DJs will keep both the Big Weekend and Resident Advisor crowds happy, it’s always nice to have at least one massive legend name to look forward to on the Pyramid Stage. Michael and Emily Eavis have done well in previous festivals, nabbing everybody from The Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney, and Stevie Wonder in recent memory.
For 2025, Neil Young and the Chrome Hearts will be gracing the Pyramid Stage at 10pm Saturday evening, mere weeks after the release of his 48th studio album, Talkin’ to the Trees. Young’s vitality and creative spark are never without doubt, having doggedly pursued his artistic intuitions with an unerring focus ever since his days in Buffalo Springfield.
Yet, with this noble chase of musical ‘truth’ can come a belligerent set list, a stubborn commitment to his stylistic direction that at times can see the ‘Godfather of Grunge‘ sticking to material that honours his artful impulses while alienating half the crowd.
Basically, will Young play the hits? Well, looking at his recent repertoire, any Glastonbury goer worried he’ll play Talkin’ to the Trees in its entirety can rest assured the sets have been pleasingly balanced with classic numbers and recent cuts. The last time Young found himself at Somerset’s Worthy Farm was back in 2009, headlining the Friday Night with Bruce Springsteen and Blur the following nights. In full, flannel-shirted Crazy Horse mode, Young took to the stage and delivered a gripping set that stands as one of the festival’s key headliner moments.
He started strong, opening with the 1979 ripper ‘Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black)’ to herald his arrival. Having dropped Fork in the Road two months earlier, its themes of ecological concern and financial corruption informed the narked energy that radiated from the band and their turbulent frontman. While only playing ‘Get Behind the Wheel’ from the album, Young seemed to channel its riled spirit and anchor the song selections, even the gentler numbers like ‘Heart of Gold’ and ‘The Needle and the Damage Done’ crackle with a fraught frisson.
Sporting a provocative grin, Young concluded his set with 1989’s ‘Rockin’ in the Free World’. Pushing the anthemic stomper to new levels of raucous blitz, the elongated number was returned again and again, the chorus echoing amid a sea of grunged-out rock attack. The encore was a delightful surprise, a rendition of The Beatles’ ‘A Day in the Life‘ but swapping the original’s celestial psychedelic stir with shredding intensity so violent Young breaks all his strings and ends the song’s crescendo with an engulfing wall of feedback noise.
Anyone hoping McCartney would make a cameo appearance for his memorable bridge would be disappointed, and aghast that such a dream collab ended up materialising the following night at his Hyde Park headliner.
Young pulled off a set for the Glastonbury ages with aplomb, and while a degree of confounding expectations always hover over his work and shows, you can bet that this year’s slot will deliver no less of that complex, arresting, defiant magic.
