Cat Stevens gave Ricky Gervais a special shout out during his Glastonbury set in the Legends Slot on Sunday (25 June).
Music fans celebrated the final day at Worthy Farm, Somerset, with The Chicks, Sophie Ellis-Bextor and Blondie all taking the stage before Elton John’s much-anticipated headline show.
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Yusuf Islam – commonly known by his other stage name, Cat Stevens – performed on the Pyramid Stage under sunny skies. He followed in the footsteps of previous Glastonbury “Legends” such as Lionel Richie, Dolly Parton and Kylie Minogue.
The 74-year-old and his band delighted the crowd with hits including the 1967 tracks “The First Cut Is the Deepest” and “Here Comes My Baby”.
Introducing his 1970 song “Tea for the Tillerman”, Stevens shouted out one of his biggest fans, Ricky Gervais.
“Oh Glastonbury, are you enjoying yourselves?” Cat Stevens asked his audience. “You should be, it’s teatime! The only person missing right now is Ricky Gervais.”
The comedian and actor – who celebrates his birthday on Sunday (25 June) – is known to be a huge fan of Stevens.
“Tea for the Tillerman” is used as the closing track for Gervais comedy sketch show Extras, which ran for two seasons from 2005 to 2007.
Also in 2007, Gervais selected Stevens’ classic song “Lilywhite” as one of his favourite songs on the BBC radio series Desert Island Discs.
“It’s just beautiful,” Gervais had said of the song, which Stevens previously revealed was inspired by an “amazingly bad [LSD] trip”.
“I was at Noel Redding’s house, we were on tour and he introduced me to this substance,” the musician told Mojo. “That was the worst night of my life!
“It was in his flat in Clapham Common. By the time I got to dawn and I was able to get out of the door it had snowed and it was like looking at an angelic gift from heaven! It was beautiful. Now, the song represents a recapturing of that moment where after darkness comes light.”
After his performance of “Tea for the Tillerman”, Stevens gave a special shout out to the NHS before launching into his 1977 song “(Remember the Days of the) Old Schoolyard”.
Also on Steven’s set list was a cover of “Here Comes the Sun” by The Beatles.
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