Glastonbury said goodbye to Elton John and played rock for adults

Judging by the broadcast picture, everything seems to have gone very smoothly. Crowds of people, stars can not be counted, there is a desire to make the party as environmentally friendly as possible, if this is even possible in a situation where tens of thousands of people are having fun, and, of course, the flow of cash and non-cash pounds.

But, as soon as the final set was over, experts and just fans began to share their fears about the future of one of the most famous festivals in the world. And some pessimism, in general, is quite appropriate. It just so happens that all the main stars of the festival have either already become veterans or are ready to join the prestigious club of pop-rock retirees. They still rock big crowds, but almost every big tour and festival outing could be their last.

Sharp-sighted photographers immediately noticed Paul McCartney, who came to watch The Pretenders perform. The lead singer of the group, Criss Hynde, incredibly touched by such attention, of course, pulled Sir Paul to bow, but will the 81-year-old legend not only bow, but perform at Glastonbury, say, next year? Will he ever go on a big tour?

Elton John swears he won’t go. He probably became the main character of the festival, because his performance was presented as the last big concert in England. Actually, the rest of the world is left to admire Sir Elton’s live shows for a very short time. His farewell tour ends this weekend with two concerts in Stockholm, and then, apparently, a joyful retirement and maybe some charity performances. On the main stage at Glastonbury, Elton was, as always, irresistible. For duets, Japanese-British singer Rina Sawayama and The Killers leader Brandon Flowers took the stage with him. In general, solid, rich and not without an ocean of popular love.

Blondie has not said goodbye to anyone yet, but frontwoman Debbie Harry is well over 70, and we still cannot count on the fact that the killer sets of punk legends will please us for many years to come. Against this background, the British Arсtic Monkeys are almost juniors – they are not even forty. But the group’s career has been going on for more than twenty years, and calling them young people is also not entirely correct. Their festival performance led to the stormy delight of British music critics, but this group has not yet become popular.

Gun’N’Roses, who gathered a few years ago in a line-up close to the original, is of course younger than McCartney, but it’s no longer easy to beat garage rock on the eve of the sixtieth anniversary. It is noteworthy that Glastonbury was not exactly their festival. In Britain, all things American are treated with a certain suspicion, as Noel Gallagher so elegantly put it. People like to turn to him for comments (just like we do to Vine), probably because the Britpop legend easily says what others may agree with, but are embarrassed to formulate. Asked to comment on the headlining of the Guns, Mr. Gallagher made a face of bewilderment and said: “Are they headliners? This is some shit!”

In their reviews of the performance of Excel and Co., journalists chose their expressions more carefully, but they agreed that the thinner Excel Rose now looks much better than she sings. Which, of course, is much better than the old Moscow concerts, when he looked and sang so-so. Excel, however, thought differently. The band attempted to complain to the BBC’s engineers for the eerie sound in the broadcast and the resulting damage to the band’s reputation. True, the process of the century did not work out of this, but the sediment clearly remained. “We will withstand much more hate than you can,” the musicians wrote on the group’s social account, apparently devoting this line from the Chinese Democracy song to all the critics.

Bad luck at Glastonbury and Lana Del Rey. The festival has rather strict rules regarding the time of entering the stage. You can’t be late, because after the performance you need to prepare the stage for another artist. Not even the Gun’N’Roses were late, although they were never punctual. And Lana was late for half an hour. And for this same half an hour, her performance was reduced, turning off the electricity in the most unceremonious way. This was once at the ZD Awards ceremony with Masha Rasputina, she considered herself the indisputable queen of the song, to whom everything is allowed, but the Kremlin administration calmly pointed out her true place. Lana, like Masha, tried to sing without a microphone, the audience actively sang along, but all this was already laughing at the chickens. “People actually paid money, but they were deceived because someone was late,” the commentators were indignant and, probably, they were absolutely right. And Lana could feel a little like not only Masha Rasputina, but also Garik Sukachev, who, in ancient peacetime, because of a timing violation, also cut off his microphone during a performance at the Russian Winter festival on Trafalgar Square in London. There were times!

However, for other American artists, everything turned out much more successfully. Sparks were incredibly good. The cool special effect of the set of this well-deserved group was the actress Cate Blanchett. She starred in their video The Girl Is Crying in Her Latte, and at the festival she went on stage and repeated the dance from the video. Queens of the Stone Age play too serious music for a dance, but if there is rock and roll perfection, it is a frequent guest at their concerts.

In addition to the aforementioned musical dinosaurs, dozens of artists have been noted, and many of them have played excellent concerts. But for a real festival spirit, of course, you need legends that both children and their parents know. And no matter what ancient music they play, it is this sound and these songs that attract thousands of people. So far, such popularity is clearly not threatened by young artists.

It seems that very few people now plan a long career in music, this is too troublesome. In addition, the songs themselves have recently been only part of the promotion strategy. The ideal is considered a career according to the model of three hundred and sixty degrees, that is, you need to grab onto everything that can bring fame and money. In such a fuss, completely plastic, disposable music most often appears, with which, of course, it is difficult to become the headliner of the festival. By and large, there is simply no one to replace rock pensioners, which, of course, in the future can make life much more difficult for those who make big musical events.

It’s still premature to worry about Glastonbury, though. They are the ones who can scold Gun’N’Roses and argue about serious bets on Maneskin. We would somehow collect the ruins of what used to be the music industry. So far it doesn’t come out…