Paul McCartney becomes oldest solo star to headline Glastonbury – and projects Johnny Depp on screen

Sir Paul McCartney made history as the oldest ever solo star to headline Glastonbury Festival on Saturday, gracing the coveted Pyramid Stage in Worthy Farm.

The music legend, who last week celebrated his 80th birthday, took to the stage for a crowd of thousands with a medley of his biggest hits, his first performance at the festival since 2004.

The singer-songwriter was able to duet with his late bandmate John Lennon on The Beatles’ 1970 single I’ve Got A Feeling thanks to hi-tech wizardry from movie director Peter Jackson.

Following the heartwarming segment, which heard John’s vocals isolated from the rest of the band, he admitted: ‘That is so special for me. I know it’s virtual. There I am singing with John again, we’re back together.’

Sir Paul welcomed Dave Grohl in performing a string of chart-toppers together – including Band On The Run – before introducing another special guest, Bruce Springsteen, to the Pyramid Stage. 

He also showed his allegiance to his pal Johnny Depp while performing his 2012 track, My Valentine, as he projected a clip of the actor from the song’s music video onto the screen behind him.  

He recently used the footage in his recent US Get Back tour, while the Pirates Of The Caribbean star was in the midst of his defamation trial against ex-wife Amber Heard, which he later won.

Also featuring Natalie Portman, the black-and-white video saw the Hollywood star playing guitar and translating the track into sign language.

Paul did not address Depp’s $100million court case against Amber directly during the concert but as soon as the images of the actor appeared on stage, the crowd cheered.

After belting out a string of hits with Dave, he said: ‘Love you Dave thank you man we all love ya. Ladies and gentlemen one more time – Dave Grohl. He said you know he’ll come over and I didn’t believe him but I should have, he showed up.

‘We have another surprise for you from the east coast of America, New Jersey, it’s Mr Bruce Springsteen.’

Taking to the stage, Bruce said: ‘Happy birthday Paul, here’s to 80 more years.’ The pair proceed to play Glory Days on the Pyramid Stage.

It marks Dave’s first performance since his Foo Fighters bandmate Taylor Hawkins tragically died in March, in his Colombia hotel room.

No cause of death was announced but a toxicology report showed traces of 10 different substances in his body – including opioids, marijuana and anti-depressants. 

The Foo Fighters have also announced two tribute concerts honoring the late drummer.

The rock band will play at London’s Wembley Stadium on September 3 and the Kia Forum in Los Angeles on September 27 to honour their ‘beloved bandmate’, who tragically passed away at the age of 50.

The tribute concerts have been organised by Taylor’s family together with his bandmates Dave, Nate Mendel, Chris Shiflett, Pat Smear and Rami Jaffee.

The Love Me Do hitmaker also got the crowd to cheer for his home city of Liverpool, as well as his late bandmate John, to whom he also dedicated Here Today to.

Sir Paul also revealed he had been playing George Harrison’s ukulele during the gig, which he concluded by waving a Ukraine flag before magnificent fireworks filled the sky.

The show proves a poignant moment in Paul’s lengthy career, as it also came 55 years to the day since The Beatles reached the largest audience in their history, when they performed on the world’s first global TV broadcast.

Paul’s show wasn’t without drama, as it was reported he briefly halted his show to check on a member of the audience, who appeared to be in distress. 

A source told The Mirror: ‘He was in the middle of his tribute to Jimmy Hendrix when he stopped to check on someone in the crowd.’

A concerned Paul said: ‘What’s going on there? Something happening in the middle, woohoo. Okay, we’re sorting it. It’s all good, here we go, go on mate.’

He then joked: ‘It wasn’t that solo I played? Alright.’

Greeting the crowd at the start of the show, Paul said: ‘Oh man, it’s so good to be here. We were supposed to be doing this three years ago!’ alluding to his prior booking at the festival, before it was cancelled due to the Covid pandemic.

The performer donned a smart navy blue Nehru jacket for the opening moments of his headline set, but later removed it, telling the crowd it would be his ‘only wardrobe change of the night.’ 

Along with his show coming 55 years since a historic worldwide performance by The Beatles, Paul also hearkened back to the group’s heyday by performing with his original guitar from his famous stint with the band.

During the show Paul also paid tribute to fellow rock legend Jimi Hendrix with a performance of Wings’ Let Me Roll It, and reflected on the time he spent with the musician when he visited London.

He said: ‘He was a lovely man. One of the greatest tributes he ever paid us was we released Sgt Pepper as a tribute to him and he opened his show with it, he played it really well as a solo… he was really working it, giving it a lot of welly.’ 

With Paul having celebrated his 80th birthday last Saturday, his crowd of adoring fans sang Happy Birthday to him, before he broke into song with his 1995 hit, I Feel Like I’m Letting Go.

While fans at Glastonbury were no doubt eagerly anticipating Pauls’ headline set, many viewers at home were also eager to watch it on BBC.

However, while Paul’s show began at 9:30pm, BBC delayed broadcasting the show until 10:30pm, with many viewers sharing their anger on social media.

One wrote: ‘Jealous of everyone watching Paul McCartney live tonight,’ while another added: ‘Hold on, we have to wait another hour for Macca? I mean, he’s already playing beyond HIS AND MY bedtime, but ok, BBC, ok…’

Paul’s much-anticipated gig came exactly 55 years after the Beatles reached their biggest-ever audience on the world’s first global TV broadcast. 

The Beatles performed All You Need is Love to around 400 million people across 24 countries on June 25 1967 – live from the famed Abbey Road Studios.

There was also a star-studded audience in the studio – including Mick Jagger and Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton, The Who drummer Keith Moon and singer Marianne Faithful among others.

John, Paul, George and Ringo were at the peak of their powers during the performance, having just released Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band a few weeks earlier – still considered one of the greatest albums of all time.

Sitting on high chairs and surrounded by a vibrant display of balloons, flowers and placards, The Beatles performed the song live for the first time, along with a thirteen-piece orchestra and a few pre-recorded backing tracks.

Craig Brown, author of Beatles biography One Two Three Four, describes watching the performance as ‘like finding the Summer of Love in a grain of sand.’

The group was Britain’s entry in the Our World TV show – the first worldwide satellite broadcast, which included live performances from around the globe.

The band left it late to decide which song they were going to perform for the worldwide show, with John Lennon saying ‘Oh God, is it that close? I suppose we better write something.’

Although Paul suggested his newly-written song Hello, Goodbye, the band decided John’s All You Need Is Love was the message they wanted to send to a global audience. 

Drummer Ringo Starr said in the Beatles Anthology documentary in 1994: ‘We were big enough to command an audience of that size, and it was for love.

‘It was for love and bloody peace. It was a fabulous time. I even get excited now when I realise that’s what it was for – peace and love, people putting flowers in guns.’

The Beatles performed All You Need Is Love to their biggest ever audience and remixed the recording the next day before releasing it as a single in July 1967 – it was a number one hit all over the world during the famed summer of love.

Fans at Glastonbury will be hoping to see Sir Paul perform All You Need Is Love 55 years after the broadcast as part of his hit-filled setlist of Beatles and solo songs.

Paul McCartney already took to the stage in a surprise pre-Glasto gig in Frome, Somerset on Friday night (June 24) to an audience of 800 at the Cheese and Grain venue.

 

 

Warming up the stage for Paul was Noel Gallagher took to the stage with his band High Flying Birds, having lauded Glastonbury as ‘the only festival of the arts in the world’.

Speaking ahead of performing at the festival for the fifth time, the former Oasis star revealed he enjoys the event because it doesn’t have a ‘corporate tie-in’ having performed at an array of festivals during his career.

Noel’s performance comes as fans at the festival counted down the hours until Paul McCartney’s headline show, with the 80-year-old Beatle set to become the oldest star in history to grace the iconic Pyramid Stage.

Noel chatted to Dermot O’Leary on his BBC Radio 2 show ahead of taking to the Glastonbury stage for the fourth time, with the singer asked why he keeps coming back to the annual event.

He said: ‘It is the only festival in the world, in the truest sense of the word, I’ve done them all, they’re all big gigs in fields, sponsored by tech companies. This is the only one where it’s a festival of the arts. 

‘You can watch a film, see a comedian, you can go to a knitting circle. I’m telling you, I’ve done them all and some of them have their own merits, but this is the one that stands out in the entire world. It’s an amazing thing and it’s one of the great things about this country.’

‘I come here more often than I play here, I’ve played here five times but I come every year, it affects your experience when you come to hang out because you’re not being handed flyers being trying to sold insurance.

‘You bump into the locals here, you know, you bump into the locals here, a fella with a sailor’s hat on and a woman carrying a picture of a pet that died 30 years ago saying, ‘Ooh this is my little ruffy boy, he died this time last year,’ and you’re like, ”Ok, do you know where the John Peel tent is?”.’

Noel also revealed that this is the first time his daughter Anais would be attending the festival, and he advised her to see ‘one thing in the day and one thing in the night, and just wander around.’

While this is Noel’s fourth show at Glastonbury, it will mark the first time he takes to the stage with his band Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds. 

He first took to the stage at the festival alongside brother Liam, 49, with Oasis back in 1994, before headlining the following year, and later returning in 2004.

Elsewhere during the festival, Olivia Rodrigo brought special guest Lily Allen on stage during her Glastonbury performance on Saturday to sing Lily’s 2009 hit F**k You in response to the US Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v Wade.

American singer Olivia, 19, took to The Other Stage at Worthy Farm where she said she was ‘devastated and terrified’ by the ruling which ended the constitutional right to abortion in the US, meaning individual states could decide whether abortion can be made illegal.

She said: ‘I’m devastated and terrified [by the ruling] and so many women and girls are going to die because of this and I wanted to dedicate this next song to the five members of the Supreme Court who showed us at the end of the day they truly don’t give a s*** about freedom.’

After her words prompted huge applause from the audience, Olivia went on to address the Supreme Court justices individually, saying: ‘This song goes out to the justices Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, Amy Coney Barrett, and Brett Kavanaugh.’

Fellow pop star Lily, 37, was seen giving the middle finger as she stood on stage, before saying: ‘We hate you guys!’ as the pair launched into the expletive-filled song. 

The Supreme Court ended constitutional protections for abortion that have been in place for nearly 50 years by deciding to overturn the landmark 1973 Roe v Wade ruling and hand back power to individual states to decide whether or not to permit the procedure.  

The justices held that the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that allowed abortions performed before a fetus would be viable outside the womb – between 24 and 28 weeks of pregnancy – was wrongly decided because the U.S. Constitution makes no specific mention of abortion rights.

The ruling means that individual states now have the power to decide on whether to ban abortion. The Guttmacher Institute, a pro-choice research group, has said that 26 states are ‘certain or likely’ to ban abortion now.

The decision means that women with unwanted pregnancies in large swathes of America will now face the choice of traveling to another state where the procedure remains legal and available, buying abortion pills online or having a potentially dangerous illegal abortion.

In an address at the White House, President Joe Biden said it was ‘a sad day for the court and the country’ and called the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade – and making terminations illegal for millions of American women – ‘wrong, extreme and out of touch’.

Accusing the court of ‘expressly taking away a constitution right that is so fundamental to so many Americans’, Biden vowed the fight over abortion rights ‘is not over’ and said his administration will do everything in its power to combat efforts to restrict women from travelling to other states to obtain abortions.

It comes after Billie Eilish admitted it was a ‘dark day for women’ following the US Supreme Court’s decision as she headlined the Pyramid Stage on Friday night.

Billie cursed the ‘old’ Supreme Court justices ‘who try to tell us what to do with our bodies’ after admitting she’d had a real [expletive] day upon learning of the ruling’.

Olivia wore a purple, black and gold mini skirt and a lavender and white bra top which left her midriff on show during her gig on Saturday.

Driver’s License hitmaker Olivia whipped the crowd into a frenzy as she leapt around the stage, wearing a pair of black fishnet stockings and some chunky-souled leather boots to go with her outfit. 

Also performing at the festival was fellow singer Celeste, 28, who wore a chic white dress with matching gloves and a plunging bardot neckline.