Glastonbury 2025 Day 2 review: Neil Young, Pulp and Charli xcx
Saturday showed no let up for Glasto-goers from the scorching late-June heat, or from the momentum of performances during the festival's second day. We kicked things off with a bright and early midday set: a proper throwback seeing Kaiser Chiefs on the Pyramid Stage. It was a riot. Meanwhile JADE took the roof off at Woodsies, and later on, the weekend's most controversial booking Kneecap almost actually incited a riot, before swiftly taking it back (we're sure their lawyers were in their ears during that one). As for the headliners, all the Gen Z fans headed to Charli xcx and Doechii, while old rockers flocked to Neil Young.
Across Glasto 2025, Time Out has writers on the ground. India Lawrence and Liv Kelly round up all the best performances below, but you can have a read of all our other stuff (including headliner previews and guides to this year's full schedule, secret sets and how to watch online) in our Glastonbury hub.
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Neil Young and The Chrome Hearts on the Pyramid Stage: no-fuss headline set from a living songwriting legend
Neil Young's journey to his headline slot at the Pyramid Stage has been somewhat rocky. Before the announcement of his performance Young made the claim that the festival was now under too much 'corporate control', and that was more recently followed by confusion about whether his set would be available to watch on TV (as of Saturday afternoon, it is). But as soon as Young and his band The Chrome Hearts took to the Pyramid Stage, all the chaotic events from the run-up to his show were forgotten.
The Canadian-American has a whopping 40 studio albums to his name, and hit after hit was rattled through with a skill that can be attributed to his sprawling, 60-year career: 'Sugar Mountain' and 'Cinnamon Girl' cropped up early, and 'Harvest Moon' was lovingly strummed out, lulling the crowd into a dreamy singalong. His wrists were wrapped with pink support bandages, but he still played extended, complex guitar riffs and the harmonica magnificently, and his voice sounded just the same as always. While Young kept his cap low over his eyes for most of the set, he broke into the occasional grin and asked the 'folks' in the modestly-sized crowd how they were doing regularly. It was a fuss-free set with the energy depending almost entirely on whether Young was peacefully playing an acoustic, or frenziedly strumming on an electric, giving any superfans a comprehensive run-through of his massive catalogue. Liv
Charli xcx: 365 partygirl doesn't need special guests for a killer headline show
'Does this mean that Brat is over?' read the text across the screen at the end of Charli xcx's Other stage headline show. 'Probably… NOT.' She teased. 'Brat summer is forever.' And the crowd breathed a sigh of relief. Thank goodness for that.
An absolutely mammoth horde, dressed in hotpants, sunglasses and bright green shirts congregated at the Other Stage this evening, filling the newly expanded field all the way to the back. After a brief montage, Charli xcx stormed onto the stage in a flurry of strobe lights. She partied through '365 featuring shygirl' and '360' before the Brat sign, now distressed and covered in black marks, went up in flames. For the next hour and a half she ricocheted between bolshy, preposterous confidence, strutting up and down, whipping her hair, swearing into the camera during 'Von Dutch'; to melancholy, vulnerable and contemplative, like when she was on all fours and writhing during sad banger 'party for u'. She delved into the back catalogue for the OG fans, playing 'Vroom Vroom', 'Unlock it (Lock It)' and 'Track 10'. Some of the crowd was aghast at her brash stage presence. Every now and again the mask came down: 'I'm known to have a heart of a stone, this is very f**king emotional right now,' she said, breathless after an energetic 'Speed Drive'. 'You're f**king cool as f**k... But not as cool as me, b*tch.' And Gracie Abrams did the 'Apple' dance.
The set ended somewhat abruptly with 'I Love It', which got everyone on the floor jumping. The punters were waiting for a surprise guest, but none came. Were fans disappointed not to see Lorde, Billie Eilish or Addison Rae? Definitely. But for me, it didn't matter. It was also classic Charli – pure ego, and throwing out the rule book of the typical Glasto headline set that requires glitzy guests and special extras. No, there were no outfit changes, no surprise performers, no gimmicks. It was pure Charli, at her very best. India
Kneecap on West Holts: mosh pits and a call to 'f**k Keir Starmer'
'The BBC editor is going to have some job [cropping those],' Mo Chara (real name Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh) joked, referring to the hundreds of Palestine flags filling the skies at the West Holts stage this afternoon. Because despite calls from celebrities like Sharon Osborne, music industry professionals and Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer for Kneecap to be removed from the lineup, and an upcoming court case for terror charges for co-lead Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh, the Irish rap group showed no signs of backing down this afternoon as they performed to a shoulder-to-shoulder crowd that saw the area shut down an hour before they came on stage.
As expected, Kneecap's performances flitted between political calls to action (they led chants of 'F**k Keir Starmer' and 'Free Palestine') and raucous rap, backed by brash, bass heavy production. As for the music, frontmen Mo Chara and Moglai Bap had excellent flow, and truly hyped the onlookers, commanding the rapt crowd to open up mosh pits when they wanted, and listen to their political rhetoric at other times. Being at this performance felt like a genuinely exciting, radical moment for the festival, and was a real palate cleanser after Matty Healy's anti-politics talk on Friday night. India
Pulp on the Pyramid Stage: are you ready for Pulp summer?
A parade of people in black and white rain ponchos traipsed onto the stage, forming a wall to shield the enigmatic 'Patchwork' as they walked out. Really, the thousands of unshowered people gathered at Glasto's main stage already knew it was going to be Pulp (with many a band t-shirt spotted throughout the day). And when Jarvis Cocker emerged, dressed in a brown suit, with '70s-sque square glasses to match, they were not disappointed. He launched into 'Sorted for Es and Whizz' and then straight into 'Disco 2000', which was superb as ever. Then we were treated to the recently released song 'Spike Island', which was euphoric and emotional. There was a lot of talking during the set, with Cocker stopping to have a little chat with the audience in between almost every song: eventually he was told to hurry up, but it was pretty endearing. Swaggering around the stage, Cocker was like the eccentric uncle you never had but always wanted. Despite his many asides – which fed us tidbits about Glastos gone by, and their songwriting process (including a shout out to Charli xcx) – Cocker was leading a masterclass in crowd engagement: during 'O.U. (Gone, Gone)' he was conducting a 50,000-strong choir; before the finale he asked how they should spend their final 10 minutes – playing 'Common People', obviously. India
Haim on the Park Stage: Trio surprises Glasto-goers with cheerful, slightly clumsy set
Confirmation that rock band Haim would be performing this Saturday secret set came a couple of hours prior, when they posted an image of the Park Stage on their Instagram. After the three sisters, who hail from California, filed onto stage aggressively rallying and hyping the crowd, they dove straight into 'The Wire', a hit from their first album Days Are Gone, and youngest of the trio Alana nostalgically told the punters that The Park was where they performed during that era of their career. But three albums (and a 2022 performance on the Pyramid Stage) later – the newest release being 'I Quit', which came out on June 20 – they're obviously thrilled to be back on the hillside. Haim took the crowd through new single 'Relationships' with the scandalous backstories of said relationship scrolling across the top of the screen in bold red letters in a gossip-y way, as well as top tracks 'The Steps' and 'Now I'm In It', flexing their proficiency as instrumentalists and performers. There is no denying that Haim are masters of crowd engagement: Danniele got a huge cheer when she asked 'is it okay if I step on the drumset for a little bit?', and Alana bolstered a raucous singalong, stating she was 'addicted to [the audience's] beautiful voices'. Their set was far from smooth – what seemed like minor tech issues and a handful of awkward pauses reminded lookers-on that this was far from a well-trodden tour show, but the cobbled-togetherness was overshadowed by Haim's excitement to be back at Glasto. Liv
JADE on Woodsies: Former girl-bander solidifies path as pop's next It Girl
Donning a Brat green Choose Love hoodie, Ncuti Gatwa, whose voice features on 'Midnight Cowboy', sashayed onto stage in front of a crowd of almost exclusively girls, gays and theys to announce 'the performance is about to begin'. What followed was a set that acted as JADE's coronation into pop royalty. She's obviously a confident and self-assured performer, having spent a decade in one of the world's most successful girl groups, but the metallic-heavy set design, choreography, slick transitions, command of the crowd and catalogue of seriously good pop music proved she was right in backing herself as a solo artist – all while remaining endearingly humble. Despite no debut album, JADE easily filled her slot, straight into singles like 'It Girl' and 'FUFN' from her EP Plastic Box, before a crowd-pleasing medley of Little Mix hits. She sweetly acknowledged 'the girls' (her former bandmates) before confessing that she's keen to move away from the 'old [her]', and that none would be making an appearance – instead, she brought out Confidence Man. One cover of Madonna's 'Frozen', a soulful, saxophone-backed take on 'Fantasy' and a teary rendition of 'Angel Of My Dreams' later, JADE's set left the crowd riding a high. Liv
Kaiser Chiefs on the Pyramid Stage: a silly throwback with plenty of indie bangers
The Kaiser Chiefs don't care if they are 'past it'. The show, which gathered a pretty massive crowd of middle-aged folk and millennials, where many a shit shirt abounded, was prefaced with the theme to Jurassic Park, followed by 'Walk the Dinosaur'. Ricky Wilson emerged in tight jeans and a green pinstripe blazer that was sort of giving Beetlejuice, before roaring into 'Every Day I Love You Less and Less'. Martin seemed like he was having a great time as he leapt and ran about the stage. At one moment he rasped, 'Put your hands in the air if you've heard of the Kaiser Chiefs,' like a children's party entertainer. Not all of these indie landfill tunes are great hits: the high pitched 'na na nas' of the very cleverly named 'Na Na Na Na Naa' were grating as hell, and I wanted it to be over. Still, for 12pm on Saturday this throwback set was enough to get the tired crowd reared up for another day on the farm. For the grand finale, flare smoke filled the field from front to back during 'I Predict a Riot'. India
Good Neighbours on The Other Stage: indie-duo newcomers eased us into Glastonbury day two
Snagging a Saturday lunchtime slot on Worthy Farm's second-largest stage is pretty nifty work from this British indie-rock duo who only officially formed in 2024, but as frontman Oli Fox notes, the pair have been 'grinding for over a decade'. Good Neighbours gained a decent following when their debut single 'Home' won them a number 26 place on the UK charts last year, and an anthemic rendition of it helped them close up this set. But it's by no means their best song — in fact, the 45-minute performance, where the small crowd of loyal fans steadily and substantially grew by the finale, enabled them to do their much lesser-known tracks justice. 'Starry Eyed' was a cheesy but super catchy, slower-paced love song which Fox described as the 'boring one,' but that the crowd loved, and 'Ripple' saw the duo and their band freeze like statues for just enough beats to confuse viewers, before launching back into the song with proper welly. Is this stuff original? Well, the relatively pedestrian lyrics and Dalston-y uniform of trendy sunnies, bleached hair and pearl necklaces said otherwise (shocker: they are in fact based in East London), but Good Neighbours were a fun, easy watch, and they deserve a load of credit for warming everyone up for Glasto's second day. Liv
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BBC News
6 hours ago
- BBC News
School 'bangers' performed back where they began
You may remember belting out assembly songs like He's Got the Whole World In His Hands while sitting crossed-legged on the hall floor of your primary they are being sung at festivals like Camp Bestival by the Dorset-born music teacher James P 34-year-old's Primary School Assembly Bangers set was so popular at Glastonbury this year organisers had to shut the Partridge said going to school in Dorset and performing at Poole Lighthouse was what inspired him to start the sing-alongs. "I started singing with the Bournemouth Symphony Youth Chorus and then with the Bournemouth Symphony Chorus for a long time at the Poole Lighthouse as well," he said."That was a very special place to experience live music and kind of set me on a path of being a professional musician."He attended Stanley Green First School, Oakdale Middle and Poole year he went back to his primary school for its 70th anniversary."I actually judged the school talent show and it was the first time I had been in that assembly hall since I left in the mid 90s," he added. He started his school bangers set while teaching online during Covid lockdown and posted a video for his pupils to sing along to."I put up a video which was my top 10 primary school bangers as a joke for my friends and family and it really kicked off," he lockdown lifted, he held his first sing-along event which he said "snowballed organically and now I am back in Dorset where it all started". You can follow BBC Dorset on Facebook, X, or Instagram.
The Guardian
7 hours ago
- The Guardian
‘I have different weathers in my brain': how Celeste rekindled her love of music after heartbreak and loss
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She was born Celeste Waite in California to a mother from Dagenham, east London, and a Jamaican father. Her mother had found her way to Hollywood as a makeup artist and Celeste was born 'quite quickly' after her parents met there. They separated when Celeste turned one and she and her mother moved to England to live in Celeste's grandparents' home. 'It was almost like my mother was my sister, because we were both being looked after by my nan and grandad.' These are happy memories, but she has 'these different weathers in my brain … I've always had this little tinge of melancholy.' Maybe, she says, it stems in part from a lack of rootedness: 'You move from America to England and you don't really remember it, but you know that there's people that you've known there and built connections with. And then you don't have that.' She wondered if she would end up with a mental health diagnosis, 'something more clinical later on down the line. But I didn't feel I really needed that.' 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In the mid-2010s, she started uploading music to YouTube and SoundCloud and got a manager. She was picked up as a guest vocalist for producers such as Avicii, while Lily Allen's label released her debut single. 'I worked double shifts in a pub on weekends to afford to go to the studio,' she says. 'It took my energy away and I wasn't able to sing as well any more.' But she carried on doggedly, got signed to the major label Polydor, bagged the 2020 John Lewis Christmas ad soundtrack and beguiled listeners on songs such as Strange, in which her vocal tone expresses every contradictory emotion in a breakup – resignation, hurt, bafflement, poignancy, even a kind of helpless amusement at how awful it all is – in just four minutes. She is clear that she has received plenty of support and encouragement within Polydor: 'The people that signed me came into music with the intention to make meaningful, poignant, credible music.' 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She wanted 'a cinematic feel' and referenced Bernard Herrmann – a composer for films by Hitchcock, Welles and Scorsese – in the studio as she worked with the conductor Robert Ames and the London Contemporary Orchestra. 'Herrmann was a real innovator and it's reflected in people like Busta Rhymes sampling him [on Gimme Some More] all those years later. So we wanted to make sure that if we went into that territory of a cinematic string orchestra, it didn't feel like an impression of the 1950s – it sounded like something new.' With this ambitious scope and Celeste shuttling between sessions in Los Angeles and London, it took a lot longer than expected to complete Woman of Faces. It was originally due to be finished by the end of 2022 and released a year later. 'I didn't expect it to take so long,' she says. 'And if I'm really honest with you, at the end of 2021, into 2022, I experienced some heartache and I fell into such a depression about it all.' A relationship had ended. 'When you lose the person from your life that you really love, there's a grief that comes over you,' she says. The album's first single, On With the Show, was written at her lowest point. 'I didn't really want to go to the studio; I didn't really feel like I actually wanted to live at that point. I didn't find meaning and purpose in the music.' She just had the song title, which she shared with her collaborator Matt Maltese. 'I didn't even have to explain to him what it would be about, because he just knew. We spoke about the song and what it needed to be.' She had also recently seen Marius Petipa's 1898 classical ballet Raymonda. 'It's about a woman in the Crimean war and she has two lovers: one is in Russia and one is in Crimea,' she says. 'I could relate, because she was torn between these two entities: at that point, my dedication to music and my dedication to a person. And one was taking the energy from the other. So On With the Show was about me having to find the courage to let go of something, to meet back in with the path of my life as a singer.' Worse, she says, 'social media had come in to erode my relationship'. As a public figure on social media, 'people can view your relationship and have so much awareness of the fact that you're even in one. There's this really strange, invisible, intangible impression that interactions in that space can leave upon your living reality. I was upset at how much that had come to affect my personal, real life.' On Could Be Machine, a curveball industrial pop song inspired by Lady Gaga, Celeste explores the idea that 'the more time we spend with this technology, the more we become it'. 'My phone had become this antagonist in my life, via communication that I didn't want to receive and the fact it could just be in your hand. It was quite alien, in a way. I hadn't grown up with a phone stuck to my hand and it was something that I had to become more and more 'one' with in my music career.' She says that, during the relationship, love had reverted her to a kind of 'child-like state … a really pure version of yourself, before the world has seeped in and shaped you'. Losing the person who brought her into that state meant that she had to 'learn how to steer and guide' herself to rediscover it. She is leaning on other musicians to help her understand these difficult years. She cites Nina Simone's song Stars, a ballad about the cruelty and melancholy of being a professional musician. 'It says so much about the tragedy of where her life is at that moment in time, but then there's so much triumph in the fact she even gets to express herself in that way.' Another inspiration for Woman of Faces was the 1951 musical romantic comedy An American in Paris and one of its stars, Oscar Levant, who spent time in mental health institutions. 'I was really moved by what he seemed to carry in his being. And, I suppose, I relate a lot to artists who carry this pain, but their work eases it.' Whereas Celeste was previously in thrall to American blues and R&B ('the older sense of what R&B was in the 1940s'), down to the way she might 'time things and phrase things and even pronounce things', she has 'learned what my true voice is and who I really am as a person. I still have some of that phrasing and pronunciation there, but I exist a lot more as myself, therefore I sing a lot more as myself.' Buoyed up by her and others' art, does she feel happy? 'Yes!' She grins and throws her hands in the air. 'The main thing is finding happiness within the relationships I maintain around me and making sure those are kept really positive and nourishing.' She is glad to be in her 30s: 'Age becomes kind of taboo for a woman in the music industry – but then you hear people like Solange speak about women really coming into their true sense of who they are within their work. There's been a shift.' And if the happiness in her career ever dissipates, she has decided she will simply move on. 'I don't really see the need to live in a feeling of oppression, when I know there's so much freedom outside this world. And anyway, I'm sure I would find my way back to it again. But on my own terms.' Woman of Faces is released on 14 November on Polydor In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@ or jo@ In the US, you can call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on 988, chat on or text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis counselor. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at
Daily Mail
7 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Rita Ora flaunts her washboard abs in a nude bikini before slipping into a busty neon green gym set as she shares a glimpse into her fun-filled summer
Rita Ora ensured all eyes were on her as she shared a fun-filled summer photo dump on Instagram on Thursday. The singer, 34, first sent temperatures soaring as she showed off her rock-hard abs in a nude bikini. Posing for the mirror selfie with a jelly face mask, Rita accessorised her toned figure with an array of gold jewellery that complemented her glowing tan. In another snap, the star put on a busty display in a neon green sports bra and shorts as she enjoyed a hike. The singer added a bright red Ralph Lauren baseball cap and shielded her eyes with a pair of sunglasses. This was followed by another selfie in the gym while donning a skimpy black gym set. The singer, 34, put on a busty display in a neon green sports bra and shorts as she enjoyed a hike Rita's photo dump also included glam shots, a snap with Glen Powell at Glastonbury, some delicious food, and time with friends. She captioned the carousel: 'Summer and tings.' The sexy snaps come just weeks after Rita admitted that she felt 'ugly' in her late twenties because she 'wasn't as thin as other people'. The singer appeared on Fearne Cotton's Happy Place podcast in partnership with Dove's Self Esteem Project for a candid body confidence chat. Rita opened up about how her relationship with her body has changed in recent years, as she revealed she used to feel like her body wasn't 'hot'. 'I think for me the idea of looking a certain way in my late 20s, that's when it started to hit me because my stamina was low, I wasn't looking after my body, I was getting sick a lot and I didn't feel like my body was hot,' Rita said. 'And I didn't accept the idea of okay well I'm not as thin as these other people - and so I'm ugly. And that's really sad to think back on because I know I wasn't. 'It's like what you do when you're attacking your younger self like in therapy, and it's like that girl was still really beautiful.' Sharing the clip on Instagram, Rita wrote: 'I sat down with @Dove and @HappyPlaceOfficial to share why I believe body confidence starts with self care focusing on what your body needs - not what it looks like. 'Proud to partner with the Dove Self Esteem Project on #Why2k - together we're rewriting the rules and helping women build body confidence.' Rita recently revealed how Beyoncé has always been her 'protector' as she discussed being hit by speculation that she was 'Becky with the good hair'. Beyoncé's smash hit 2016 album Lemonade featured poignant lyrics about cheating and she sang about the mysterious woman in her track Sorry. Fans widely speculated it referred to alleged infidelity by Beyoncé's husband Jay-Z with a woman called 'Becky', and theories began circulating online about her identity. Rita found herself at the centre of the rumours as she was wrongly accused of having an affair with Jay-Z, with the singer forced to hit back and deny the claims. Now, Rita - who was represented by Jay-Z's Roc Nation label at the time - revealed she was so upset by the claims because Beyoncé has always been her 'protector'. Speaking on Davina McCall's Begin Again podcast, Rita explained: 'Behind closed doors, [Beyoncé] is literally my fairy godmother, she was my protector - that's what's insane because there was nothing but love.'
