For the past few years, the Sunday afternoon Glastonbury legends slot – a regular teatime fixture – has seen the likes of Kylie Minogue and Diana Ross leading huge dancealongs in the Pyramid Stage field. Compared to their energetics, Yusuf Islam, also known as Cat Stevens, is a muted booking. Less than usual in number, a fair few of the audience that greeted the beginning of his set were also in a prone position.
Stevens started with soft versions of The Wind and Moonshadow, but it was when he stopped to talk to the crowd that he won them over with his humility, seeming genuinely moved that thousands had come out to see him: “Woah!” he exclaimed. For the very few who didn’t know already, he explained how he’d started his career in a Sixties Soho club, once touring with Jimi Hendrix: “What a journey,” he observed. The musician then performed a Sixties medley including a beautiful The First Cut Is The Deepest, his voice as strong as ever.
