Lorde, Woodies Stage
★★★★
After two days of giddy but slightly directionless build-up, Glastonbury 2025 jump-starts Friday’s musical festivities with a surprise set from Lorde. New Zealand’s ethereal alt-pop hitmaker strides onto the Woodsies stage on the day her fourth album, Virgin, is released, and proceeds to play the whole record, front to back. (I suppose you might call it extra-Virgin.)
“This may be a one of one,” she says. Alternating between smouldering cool and feral, arm-flailing catharsis, Lorde exudes an absolute confidence in her own stage presence. Tracks that seem dispensable on record take on fresh power on stage, while the standouts – such as “What Was That”, the album’s chart-topping lead single – are explosive. The end of the set sees two concessions to the familiar (“Ribs” and “Green Light”) and the crowd duly erupts. If Virgin is the work of someone still navigating their place in the world – a characteristically personal dive into everything from heartbreak to the elastic complexity of gender – then musically, at least, Lorde seems to have everything figured out.
Lola Young, Woodsies
★★★
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From the pop pixies bulging the edges of the Woodsies tent at 3.30pm you might think we’re in for a belated Lorde encore. But these are the disciples of London’s Brit School alumnus and TikTok shatterer Lola Young, who certainly aspires to follow our Ella into the upper echelons of high drama alt-pop.
Beyond a backbone of bombastic soul, her approach is scattergun. Opener “Good Books” arrives in a storm of disembodied gospel chorales, giving way to “Wish You Were Dead”, a toxic relationship made the stuff of samba-laced drivetime rock. There follows a box-ticking parade of by-numbers clubland R&B (“One Thing”), sizzling ambient synthpop (“Don’t Hate Me”), retro soul (“Walk on By”), X Factor balladry (“You Noticed”) and undistinguished slo-soul singalongs (the chart-topping “Messy”).
Declarations such as “I take my job very seriously” are telling: this is big pop music that clocks in for an honest if character-free shift. The only time Young threatens to crack the mould is on hypersexualised skater rocker “Not Like That Anymore”, when she acts out the line “I’m f***ing myself” using a blow up doll plastered with her own face. Otherwise, not so much a royal just yet as a promising courtier. Mark Beaumont
En Vogue, West Holts
★★★★
One of the most successful girl groups of all time take to the West Holts stage – but it’s a far cry from last year’s Sugababes crush in the same field. Today, as En Vogue strut onto the stage, the atmosphere is relaxed and bijou in the early evening sun.
Opening with the 1992 banger “My Lovin’ (You’re Never Gonna Get It)”, the four current members twirl on stage in glimmering black outfits and get everyone dancing from note one. It’s a suburban gen x disco energy (compliment) and the grins are infectious. With harmonies on point, shimmies that have been perfected over decades and “oooh boy” fans snapped open and closed to unbelievably sassy effect, even the lesser-known songs are so shot through with nostalgia that they feel as big as the hits. Attention spans wane a little between recognisable choruses but just as you think of checking your phone, they pull you back in with another song you’d forgotten that you love.
A sultry cover of Silk Sonic’s “Leave The Door Open” gets the younger watchers on board and following it with “Whatta Man” inspires more mighty middle-aged men to slutdrop than I think anyone bargained for. A very long – perhaps a little too long –medley of covers including “Yesterday”, “Respect” and “Ring My Bell” is a showcase for the En Vogue vocal range (huge) and carries us through to the big finish. A feel-good hour of pristine vocals and undeniably good vibes. Kate Solomon
