Paul Simon made his first ever Glastonbury festival appearance in the regular Sunday afternoon ‘legends’ slot on the Pyramid Stage today (June 26).
The 70-year-old played in the slot which has previously featured the likes of Johnny Cash, Neil Diamond and Brian Wilson. “It’s great to finally make it to Glastonbury,” he told the massive crowd on a swelteringly hot day.
Simon and his band’s set featured a host of his solo classics, including set opener ‘The Boy In The Bubble’, ’50 Ways To Leave Your Lover’ and ‘Slip Slidin’ Away’. He also played three songs from his new album ‘So Beautiful Or So What’, including the title track.
But the biggest cheers were reserved for his 1986 single ‘You Can Call Me Al’, which closed proceedings.
But surprisingly Simon only stuck to solo material and two covers: ‘Mystery Train’ by Junior Parker and ‘Wheels’ by Chet Atkins. That meant there were no Simon & Garfunkel songs in the set.
This disappointed some fans – Emily Kendrick from London said: “It was alright, but he could have mixed it up a bit.” Meanwhile, Mike Clewley said: “I was hoping for some more upbeat songs and definitely some Simon & Garfunkel too. But ‘You Can Call Me Al’ was great, everyone was singing along.”
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Another crowd member, Chris Davies, had a different view. He said: “I loved it. The sun was out. The band was great. The atmosphere is generally brilliant today, although the heat’s a bit much.”
Paul Simon played:
‘The Boy In The Bubble’
’50 Ways To Leave Your Lover’
‘So Beautiful Or So What’
‘That Was Your Mother’
‘Hearts And Bones’
‘Mystery Train’
‘Wheels’
‘Rewrite’
‘The Obvious Child’
‘Slip Slidin’ Away’
‘The Afterlife’
‘Diamonds On The Sole Of Her Shoes’
‘Gumboots’
‘Kodachrome’
‘Gone At Last’
‘You Can Call Me Al’
NME.COM is coming live from Glastonbury 2011 this weekend – stay tuned to NME.COM/festivals/glastonbury for news reports, reviews and photos from Worthy Farm. Then head back from Monday for backstage video interviews.