Yusef Islam / Cat Stevens, Pyramid Stage
★★★★☆
In recent years the Legend Slot has tended towards the camp mid-afternoon party starter – Barry Gibb, Jeff Lynne’s ELO, Diana Ross – and pop, soul and country one-namers: Kylie, Dolly, Lionel. Essentially, anything that the stage-front security can do a synchronised routine in aid of consigning to history the phrase “guilty pleasure”.
This year, however, recalls the roots of the slot, when Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson and Brian Wilson would take a Sunday lunch pedestal as Yusef Islam – the artist previously known as Cat Stevens – emerges with a gently supportive band and an acoustic guitar set to “glistening arpeggios”.
“What a journey” he says of his path from the Sixties folk clubs of Soho to the Pyramid stage, before taking a skipping trip back along it. For a dedicated peacenik – his suggestion to end all war, he tells us, is to “lock all the leaders up in London Zoo” – it’s a pretty punk statement to throw “Moonshadow” away early, but he has plenty more folk gold in the vault.
An early medley takes in “The First Cut is the Deepest”; “Tea For The Tillerman”, the stirring gospel theme from Extras, floats sweetly out of the cultural subconscious; “(Remember the Days of the) Old Schoolyard”, a synthesised diversion into truly classic pop. By the time “Wild World” and “Father and Son” – accompanied by footage of a young Cat – drift by and “Morning Has Broken” arrives like all of your assemblies come at once, it’s apparent that Yusef is so embedded within pop culture, he comes across as a folk Nile Rodgers. As lovely as a “Here Comes the Sun” tribute to George Harrison is, he’s quite enough sunshine on his own. Mark Beaumont
The Chicks, Pyramid Stage
★★★★☆
The Chicks frontwoman Natalie Maines— (Anthony Harvey/Shutterstock)
”Who’s ready for a hootenanny?” asks Natalie Maines, frontwoman of The Chicks during their Sunday afternoon set on the Pyramid Stage. The Texas three-piece (Maines is joined by sisters Martie Maguire and Emily Strayer) remain one of country’s most purely anarchic acts, celebrating the historic sounds of bluegrass and pop but also always pushing forward, tangling with politics, feminism and race (the Confederate connotations of their previous name, The Dixie Chicks, led to their decision to change it in 2020).
They’re born rebels, with the historic controversies to prove it (they were famously blacklisted by US radio for criticising President George W Bush and his invasion of Iraq, and absolutely refused to apologise despite taking a massive commercial hit).
Their set is a brilliant encapsulation of their appeal, with a mix of Nineties classics such as the uplifting “Wide Open Spaces” and modern hits like the glitchy, atmospheric “March March”. A cover of Beyoncé’s “Daddy Lessons” massively pops off, as does a cover of Miley Cyrus and Dolly Parton’s “Rainbowland” to acknowledge Pride Month. For sheer potency, though, look no further than Maines belting out the group’s 1999 pop crossover anthem “Ready to Run” at the front of the stage with a silver-frosted mohawk. Adam White
