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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Alexis Petridis

Neil Young at Glastonbury review – ragged glory from a noisemaker who never treads the easy path

Neil Young headlining the Pyramid stage.
Neil Young headlining the Pyramid stage. Photograph: Jonny Weeks/The Guardian

Neil Young’s second headlining appearance at Glastonbury has a turbulent history, even before you get to his publicly expressed fear that, despite being a Canadian with American citizenship, he won’t be allowed back into his adopted homeland because of his criticism of Donald Trump.

He announced that he was dropping out of the festival even before the lineup was announced, having picked a slightly baffling fight with the BBC over their coverage of the event, which he described as a “corporate turnoff”. Two days later, he announced he’d changed his mind, although the wrangling over whether or not the BBC would be allowed to livestream his performance seems to have gone down to the wire: last week they issued a statement saying they wouldn’t, but in the event the live stream went ahead.

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