Kylie Minogue, Pyramid Stage
★★★★★
It was impossible to tell who was more delighted to be there: the tens of thousands of fans packed in front of Glastonbury’s Pyramid Stage or the princess of pop Kylie Minogue as she finally gave the performance she had to cancel in 2005 when she was diagnosed with cancer. “What an incredible sight,” said the 51-year-old Australian singer. “What a privilege to be here. I’ve never seen so many people in my life.”
Minogue’s Sunday afternoon “legends” slot – her first billing at Glastonbury (but for a guest appearance with Scissor Sisters in 2010) was a joyful, poignant and buoyant medley of her best-loved songs.
“I know time is of the essence,” she said halfway through, her voice breaking as she spoke about not being able to perform 14 years ago. “I was watching from Australia. I wish things could be different, but life is what it is.”
That year, Coldplay covered “Can’t Get You out my Head” in tribute to her, and this year she brought lead singer Chris Martin on the stage to sing with her – his second guest appearance of the weekend after appearing on stage with Stormzy on Friday.
Their acoustic version of the song was a slight lull – this, after all, was a crowd desperate to hear each track as they recognise it and it felt a shame not to hear her biggest hit at its fullest, but it made the poppy beats of the electric version all the better when they kicked in. Earlier she invited Nick Cave, her good friend and fellow Australian, on stage, and was better received. Wearing a long, pink sequined gown, she embraced him as they sang their steamy duet Where The Wild Roses Grow, his bottomless voice the perfect match to hers.
The afternoon slot, which has previously been filled by by the likes of Dolly Parton, Barry Gibb and Lionel Richie, was just over an hour long, but she raced through her 30-year back catalogue, dividing it into chapters with interluding videos as she changed. At moments, it veered into technicolor surrealism, a Klaus Nomi lookalike bopping behind her as she sang Je ne sais pas pourquoi, “I still love you” and a giant clock behind her ticking backwards during Step Back in Time.
Her most classic songs were the most irresistible. “I Should Be So Lucky,” and “All the Lovers” were sung back to her by tens of thousands of voices. A man next to me in the audience started crying when she sang the line “I forgive and forget” from be chorus of “Better the Devil You Know”.
“Let me see you spinning around,” she said before the final song, tears of joy in her eyes. The crowd did not just spin, but bounced and and sang, united, as rainbow confetti poured down on them. It was a brilliant end to a triumphant and radiant hour that neither she, nor the audience, wanted to end. PH
Earlier, David Attenborough made a surprise appearance on the Pyramid Stage, thanking festival-goers for foregoing the million plastic water bottles they usually get through over the five days.
His speech began with a montage of ocean scenes from the natural history series Blue Planet 2.
“Those extraordinary marvellous sounds you’ve just been listening to were the sounds of the creatures that live in the sea and the great oceans. You may have heard some of them in a series that went out two years ago called Blue Planet 2,” Sir David said
“There was one sequence in Blue Planet 2 which everyone seems to remember. It was one in which we showed what plastic has done to the creatures that live in the ocean. They have an extraordinary effect. And now, this great festival has gone plastic-free.”
