Pulp, Pyramid Stage
★★★★☆
It’s the big reveal of Glastonbury’s worst kept secret. Yes, Patchwork are the cult Britpop-ish band, Pulp. “Did you know we were gonna play?” asks a suited and booted Jarvis Cocker, full of his offbeat British charm. The completely packed out crowd whoops. “How?!” the frontman replies, miffed.
Whether it’s on their unofficial anthem of longing “Disco 2000”, with its rambunctious chorus, or equally lustful indie rock bop “Babies”, Pulp lean into the hits which go down like a cool lager on this warm evening. But it seems the crowd isn’t only here for those.
New single, “Got To Have Love” shines with the input of the gospel backing singers and its simple lyrics punched up on the screen for the punters (how many bands on a reunion sprint can say that about their fresh material?).Cocker’s charisma is palpable: he flops around the stage, in constant communication with the crowd, whether via dead-pan expressions or playful exchanges of chatter.
It’s inconceivable today but Cocker was nervous last time they played at Glastonbury, he says, adding, “But today I feel very relaxed.” The lively band are evidently buoyed by the hot reception of their critically successful UK No 1 album, More. Here Pulp prove the party doesn’t have to end, as long as common people are around to join in. Hannah Ewens
Brandi Carlile, Pyramid Stage
★★★☆☆
As the smooth riffs of evanescent ballad “Broken Horses” massage the senses of the hungover and overheated gatherers, it’s clear Brandi Carlile was a solid choice for an early main stage slot. The country star is chirpy, curious about being here, reporting that she’s always wanted to see what Glastonbury is all about, and her porch-sitting, liquor-swigging soft rock songs are totally inoffensive to the casual (and perhaps sunburned) listener.
It’s been a colourful few years for the Grammy award winning Americana songwriter. After forming the wonderful all-female supergroup of country artists, The Highwaywomen, around the turn of this decade, Carlile then partnered up with another LGBTQ star, Elton John, for their 2025 collaboration album, Who Believes In Angels?
“My wife tried to warn me, she told me this was a magical. magical place,” Carlile says, choked up. “It’s hard to fathom actually, so many peace loving people in one place.” If people know any of her songs, rousing alt-rock love song “The Story” would be it – violinists warble along gently as Carlile belts every word. What’s missing is a crowd more familiar with her rich, earnest body of work, but as she plays the greatest hits for anyone in the know, she wins over some stragglers; it’s a perfectly lovely start to Saturday. HE
Not Completely Unknown, Acoustic Stage
★★★☆☆
Back in the real world you can go and see Bob Dylan to feel the great man’s mumbling presence, but it’s only in the idealistic dreamland of Glastonbury that you might hear a recognisable and coherent performance of his songs.
Rumours that the Acoustic Stage presentation entitled Not Completely Unknown might feature Timothy Chalamet turn out to be mere distraction to lure crowds away from Kneecap – Andrew Garfield and Eddie Redmayne make an early exit when Timbo fails to show – but it does involve an array of notables telling their best Dylan stories and delivering their most heartfelt renditions from a catalogue which, historically, has often benefited from being shorn of Bob’s sandpaper vocal.
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Sid Griffin of the Long Ryders fronts rich and resonant takes on “Ballad of Easy Rider” and Dylan-penned Byrds classic “You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere”; Ralph McTell recreates Bob’s finest harmonica lilts; Paul Carrack takes “Mr Tambourine Man” back to the porch swing and Katya reimagines “One More Cup of Coffee” in haunting trip-hop fashion. Mark Beaumont
RAYE, Pyramid Stage
★★★★☆
The slot between the not-so-secret Pulp set and Neil Young is a tough one to fill, and Raye’s first half hour gives us a lot to think about. Devastating songs about sexual assault have dozens in the crowd in tears. Raye’s voice and presence are phenomenal but the music lessons and never-ending ballads of the first half of her set are a bit too Graham Norton – like a sanitised Amy Winehouse, to whom the comparisons are many and justified.
The crowd’s good will begins to wane before she thankfully pulls it back with her Jax Jones collab “You Don’t Know Me”. The track gets everyone bobbing while “the nightclub section” of the evening keeps the energy up – “Prada” and its pyro alone has thousands ready for a night out at the South East Corner. But the real crest of the wave arrives with set closer “Escapism” – the perfect combination of euphoria and catharsis. Kate Solomon
Haim, Pyramid Stage
★★★☆☆
TBA fatigue? Has Glastonbury 2025 reached Peak Secret? Whatever, with half the festival across site reliving 1995 with “Patchwork” and the Gen XCX half already camped up at the Other Stage in fear of a Lorde/Kneecap style lockout, Haim hit the Park Stage to a busy but not overwhelmed field. And get busy not overwhelming it.
“Wow, this is crazy!” Danielle Haim exclaims, surveying the crowd, but “polite” would be a better descriptor. Haim’s fundamental oddity has always been that they come on like a kick-ass rock band but are actually more of a stroke-cheek soft rock act. As much as the hi-energy sisterhood leap on three sets of drums to hammer some dynamics into “Now I’m in It” or bassist Este Haim gurns and roars through “The Wire” like she’s melting faces in a storm of flame and thunder at Download, there’s an essential Shania Twain-ness about them that will always make them a far slicker and glossier proposition than their attitude suggests.
When frontwoman Danielle jumps on the drumkit for “The Steps”, it’s not with the abandon of a fan plucked from the front row by The Killers, but with the gentle chug of a Laurel Canyon sessioneer: drive-time friendly, funk adjacent. “Relationships”, a track from their “rockier” new album I Quit, sounds far too vapid for the emotion involved, let alone the heartbreaking tales of romantic maltreatment that scroll across a digital screen behind them as it plays. Danielle sings “I’m your summer girl” on the pretty folk rocker “Summer Girl” with all the passionate commitment of someone telling us they’ll be our server for the evening.
It’s not until 2017 favourite “Want You Back” that any real crowd craziness kicks in, allowing them to end strongly, with a meaty and riff-laden “Down to be Wrong”. But over a decade in, and high-profile enough to be TBA-worthy, Haim still aren’t punchy enough to pummel the Pyramid. MB
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