Emotional Adele wows Glastonbury

Pop star Adele has conquered the Glastonbury festival with an emotional set, full of generosity and warmth.

The crowd in front of the Pyramid Stage stretched as far as the eye could see, as she opened with a note-perfect rendition of Hello.

The star changed one of the lyrics to say "I've been Glastonbury dreaming", prompting a huge roar of appreciation.

"You look amazing!" she screamed as the song reached its coda, before inviting the audience to sing with her.

"Glastonbury means the world to me, I'm not even lying," she said later. "I've always wanted to do this my whole life but I've been too scared."

She then found a young girl in the crowd and told her she'd been coming to the festival "since I was your age" and invited her on stage for an impromptu selfie.

In essence, Adele is the world's most normal megastar — a bawdy best friend, confiding her deepest secrets to an audience of thousands.

Almost every song was punctuated by a quirky revelation about a hopeless ex-boyfriend or the "dirty burger" she had eaten backstage.

But the humour did nothing to deaden the emotional impact of her songs. Tears rolled freely as she sang Make You Feel My Love and Hometown Glory — and at least one couple got engaged during the set, the Guardian reported.

The star, who famously suffers from stage fright, said at the end of the 90-minute performance: "I didn't want to come on and now I don't want to go off.

"I have never been so moved by anything in my life… This is, by far, the best moment of my life so far."

Her 90-minute, 15-song set was watched by Robbie Williams and James Corden, amongst others.

Complaints

The rapturous reception was in stark contrast to the star's last Glastonbury performance in 2007 — when she had yet to release a record.

Nine years later, she is Britain's biggest pop export, selling 19 million copies of her recent album, 25.

Nonetheless, her ascension to the Pyramid Stage ruffled some feathers, with festival veterans complaining she was "too boring".

Their comments prompted a typically bolshy response from Adele.

"I'm actually more excited than I was now, because all those rock and punk fans have been having a moan that I'm doing it and I'm like: 'You're going to get dragged along by your wife, so just deal with it'," she said during a show at the O2 Arena earlier this year.

"To be honest, those people moaning about it, I've probably been more times than them anyway, so shut up."

According to reports, the star arrived at Worthy Farm in the early afternoon, having earlier been spotted shopping at the Glastonbury village branch of Tesco.

Australian rock act Tame Impala, who played immediately before Adele, said they were sticking around to watch her set.

"I feel like it's going to be a religious moment for me," frontman Kevin Parker told BBC News. "Even though Adele is a megastar, she's England's girl. She's royalty."

Party spirit

The Pyramid Stage opened on Saturday morning with a performance by the Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Choir, who scored last year's Christmas number one single.

They played a warm-hearted set of easy listening covers, including Bridge Over Troubled Water, Love Shine and Light and Lean On Me. Many , while many of the audience carried "We Love the NHS" placards.

They were followed by Squeeze and Madness, who kept the party spirit going with a raft of pop classics including Up The Junction and Our House.

Madness' frontman Suggs was full of avuncular bonhomie, declaring: "Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to this special edition of Top Of The Pops," as the group took to the stage.

"When we started this band, Glastonbury was still a twinkle in its grandfather's eye," he later reminisced.

The band also threw in a couple of covers, including AC/DC's Highway To Hell (sung by guitarist Chris Foreman) and David Bowie's Kooks. The Last Shadow Puppets also paid tribute to Bowie by performing Moonage Daydream.

Other acts on Saturday's line-up included New Order, The Shires and James Blake.
Wolf Alice guitarist Joff Oddie powered through their punchy, raucous set with blood running down his wrist, after slicing his finger open on a guitar string.

And synth-pop band Chvrches became the latest act to reference the EU referendum.

"We were slightly worried, given our nationality, that people might not like us," said singer Lauren Mayberry — referencing the split between Scotland, who voted to remain in the EU, and England and Wales, who voted to leave.

"But you guys look like smart, thoughtful people who don't want your lives ruined by fear and hatred. So I'm kind of hoping that over the course of the Glastonbury weekend, we can figure out a way to fix the whole thing.

"I don't know how — but maybe after a few more pints an idea will come to me."

Saturday's events culminated with another Bowie tribute — Philip Glass's Symphony No 4, which is based on the late star's Heroes LP.

It was performed at midnight by Army of Generals and members of the British Paraorchestra, led by conductor Charles Hazlewood and accompanied by an ambitious laser light show, that was visible across Glastonbury's 900 acre site.

"I feel in my heart this is exactly the kind of thing Bowie would approve of," Hazlewood told the BBC.

"Quite clearly, by the means and the manner of his passing, he didn't want funerals, he didn't want memorials, he didn't want any of that mawkish rubbish.

"What he would have liked, I think, would be a big old celebration, a very theatrical, very out-there celebration of what it was he meant to all of us.

"And so, for me, this is a pitch perfect way of saying we're grateful David Bowie ever existed."