5 ways to nail the Glastonbury Legends slot and become a Worthy Farm icon
To mark what would have been the Glastonbury weekend the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú is bringing you The Glastonbury Experience featuring over 100 archive performances available to watch on Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú iPlayer or listen to on Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú Sounds and a dedicated channel showing nothing but great performances from the Glastonbury archives from Thursday 25th to Monday 29th June.
Glastonbury's Sunday afternoon on the Pyramid Stage, very affectionately known as the 'Legends slot', is always something to look forward to. The tradition dates back to 1994's Johnny Cash performance, and has seen everyone from the Beach Boys' Brian Wilson and Paul Simon to Dame Shirley Bassey and Tom Jones perform at teatime.
After two or more days of a proper warm-up, it usually finds the crowd in jubilant spirit, with young and old coming together to witness a masterclass from a music icon. To celebrate Sunday of the Glastonbury Experience, let's take a look at some of the legends that have graced the Worthy Farm stage to deliver a show-stopping set.
1. Give the crowd a good ol’ singalong
Glastonbury is all about moments when hundreds of thousands are united in song, swaying and waving their flags all to the same tune. And it's often the Legends slot that provides these glorious singalongs. After all, you don't become a legend without having a classic or 10 in your repertoire.
In the past we've had everyone belting out Sweet Caroline with Neil Diamond in 2008, Dolly Parton putting everyone's voices to work with 9 To 5 in 2014, beloved Beach Boy Brian Wilson sparking a mass ode to California Girls in 2005 and Mr Blue Sky himself Jeff Lynne getting the whole of Glasto to ponder "where did we go wrong?"
2. Bring along famous friends
Glastonbury is all about the iconic team-ups. In 2017, we saw Coldplay and Barry Gibb perform together. In 2010, U2’s The Edge joined Muse for the night, while in 2016 Patti Smith invited the actual Dalai Lama onstage for the crowd to sing him Happy Birthday.
The Legends slot has inspired the odd surprise guests over the years too, most notably Bon Jovi’s Richie Sambora joining Dolly Parton in 2014, and Kylie raised the bar even further in 2019 by inviting not only Nick Cave on stage for a rendition of Where the Wild Roses Grow but Coldplay's Chris Martin too (on guitar duties for Can’t Get You Out Of My Head).
3. Provide some big fashion moments
Dolly Parton on the Pyramid stage
Highlights of Dolly Parton's set on the Pyramid stage at Glastonbury 2014
You have to look good for your Legends set - where you're the Man in Black himself Johnny Cash in 1994 or Al Green in 1999, who was the epitome of cool in a sharp all-white suit back in 1999. We also witnessed James Brown's iconic black and red ensemble in 2004.
As you might have expected Dolly Parton duly delivered on the glitz and glam in 2014 with rhinestones a-plenty, while Shirley Bassey's fashion choices were hard to beat as well, with Dame Shirley arriving at Worthy Farm in a helicopter in 2007 whilst ... Try topping that!
4. Take on Glastonbury's 'unofficial anthem'
Barry Gibb
Highlights of Barry Gibb's set at Glastonbury 2017
There's one song that has been performed during Glastonbury's Legends slot more than any other and that's the irresistible Islands In The Stream. The track has been belted out by both of the artists who originally recorded it (Kenny Rogers in 2013 and Dolly Parton a year later) as well as the man who penned the hit (Bee Gees' Barry Gibb in 2017). It's pretty much the unofficial anthem of Glastonbury by this point.
5. Embrace the Glastonbury spirit
Lionel Richie
Highlights of Lionel Richie's set at Glastonbury 2015
What really makes Glastonbury truly unique is its sense of unpredictability. We've learned to expect the unexpected, and some of the best Legends slot moments come from the artist connecting with that Glastonbury spirit.
There was the time that Dolly Parton wrote and performed a song on the spot (all about mud!) The moment when a group in fancy dress chucked Barry Gibb a Bee Gees-esque gold jacket and he proceeded to wear it (despite it being a little on the small side...) while performing Tragedy.
And how can anyone forget Lionel Richie's jam-packed set in 2015, which prompted the star to ask the crowd: "Glastonbury, what the hell is going on?"
Richie later described it as "a crowd’s best performance ever," saying: "I haven’t had that much fun onstage in I don’t know how long. The crowd just took over the show… Not only singing back my songs, but in between they decided to sing a song all by themselves."
Frankly, these are the sort of things that stars simply never forget.
But they're not the only legends at Glasto...
It's not just the Legends slot at Glastonbury that's reserved for music icons, you can find them right across the bill too - from Robert Plant performing on the Pyramid Stage in 2014 to Mavis Staples bringing the soul in 2019.
And do musical legends get much bigger than David Bowie, whose seminal 2000 headline performance was a legends set in everything but the name, cementing Bowie's place in the history book. We're airing the showstopping set in full for the very first time, and it's definitely not to be missed.