We now move on to the final headliner of Glastonbury 1995, British legends The Cure and their performances over the years. This was already their third time headlining, but first when Glastonbury was starting to gain more prominence.

I was able to watch the show through a YouTube video recorded on an old video camera at the festival which is very cool. However, there are a few pro-shot videos of certain songs available (even though they are bad quality too). It is interesting that the crowd sings along to “Inbetween Days” in this show but not in the next one I will discuss…

The Cure returned to Glastonbury in 2019, which was now a massive cultural event, with many of the biggest artists in the world having played. This has caused many acts to go above and beyond for their sets. For example, rapper Stormzy controversially headlined the 2019 festival on the Friday night. Many questioned if he had the songs, with only one album released. However, he put on a massive production, fit with a gospel choir, people riding bikes on stage, and many guests including Chris Martin from Coldplay! He also got the crowd singing most of the words. The Killers put on a fantastic performance on the Saturday with some brilliant guests as well.

In contrast, The Cure return to Glastonbury to do a typical Cure show: no fireworks or guests and minimal chatter. For a band that has moodier music like The Cure, this totally works in my opinion. They make it quite charming in fact. At one point, Robert says he’ll probably win the award for the least amount of talking in a Glastonbury headline show.

I find this show interesting, as it works as a headline set with not that many songs the crowd knows. Although I am surprised the usually loud Glastonbury crowd doesn’t know tracks like “Lovesong,” “Just Like Heaven,” and “Lullaby.” The lineup for the festival is announced after tickets go on sale, so the audience may not be made up of massive fans.

The setlist is a journey that builds up to a big climax, compared to 1995 which I don’t think has a strong setlist. Smith timidly waves at the crowd and they start off with the slow but beautiful tracks “Plainsong” and “Pictures of You.” Most bands would start with some bangers, but The Cure introduce their darker side right from the off. They then go into some lighter tracks, such as the kooky “High” and raise the tempo with the aforementioned “Lovesong.” Smith even plays a weird flute thing in “Burn.”

“Inbetween Days” and “Just Like Heaven” cap off this mid-section, before returning to some gothic sounds preceding the massive encore. At the end of “Disintegration” Robert exclaims he needs a few minutes to put his “pop head” back on. I do believe some songs could’ve been cut from the first half of this set, to make it more tight and engaging for the crowd. I would cut songs six, eight, nine and thirteen.

He returns for the encore and says that the next half-an hour is Glastonbury. The band proceed to rattle out a slew of perfect pop songs. Even with ones the crowd don’t sing such as “The Caterpillar” and “The Walk,” they are visibly dancing and there are a lot more crowd shots. They then end on a high with the hits “Friday I’m In Love,” “Close To Me,” and “Boys Don’t Cry.” Smith does a lot of slightly restrained goofy dancing which is hilarious. He looks overwhelmed by the response of the crowd at the end. I believe this gig is one of the greatest Glastonbury headline sets of all time. Although no “Lovecats” again!

This year Olivia Rodrigo headlined the Sunday Night of the festival. The other headliners were The 1975 and Neil Young (I will talk about him in another post). I am not a fan of The 1975’s music and found that their headline set was cringey and safe. Matty Healy’s antics are too vague for me, as it’s hard to tell when he’s being serious or not and I don’t really see the point he’s trying to make. To me, nothing particularly special happens in the set, which I found strange as it was their only show of the year.

The reason Olivia Rodrigo’s set ties into The Cure, is that her sensational guest was Robert Smith. They do “Friday I’m In Love” and “Just Like Heaven” together and it is magnificent. It seems that as usual people were apprehensive about Rodrigo headlining. She is, to me, wrongly seen as a lightweight pop star. Surprisingly, for such a massive singer, her crowd is quite small for a headliner.

Nonetheless, she completely proves her worth to the crowd with a rock n roll show. Her music has a definite power pop/pop-punk influence, along with new wave sounds that I now hear through the guest of Robert Smith. The track “Pretty Isn’t Pretty” definitely has a Cure vibe.

I even hear some Britpop in her music – the quirky keyboards of Pulp, the angular guitars of Blur and the pop-punk energy of Supergrass. This is combined with lyricism that appeals to young girls, with phone lighter ballads mixed in. It you took the instrumentals and put the normal lyrics and vocals of Supergrass over it, you wouldn’t bat an eye!

To me, this show by Rodrigo is a 101 on how to do a great Glastonbury headline set. For only having two albums, she has so many hits to choose from, placing mega-hits “Vampire” and “Driver’s License” early in the set. She has a fiery and commanding stage presence, similar to rock front-women of history such as Debbie Harry from Blondie. Her all-female band regularly do extended solos and outros. There are no dancers and a relatively pared back light show, which adds to the rock feel. She also tells the Somerset crowd how she loves Colin The Caterpillar sweets from M&S. And of course, the aforementioned guest of Smith.

All in all, I believe that Rodrigo’s set is one of the best in the history of Glastonbury. It almost feels like another Pulp 1995 moment of proving everyone wrong. I think she will definitely be back and will surely get a large crowd. It feels like a bridge between the rock past of Glastonbury and the modern musical landscape. With the other legends she’s brought on stage such as David Byrne from the Talking Heads, who knows who will join her. Thanks for reading this longer article.