Elton John to say goodbye with final UK gig at Glastonbury Festival
After months of touring, this is it – the final chance to see music legend Sir Elton John performing live in the UK.
The Rocketman is hanging up his hat (but hopefully not the big glasses) with his Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour. After some gigs were rescheduled during the pandemic, this now ends in Sweden in July – but the star’s final show on home turf takes place at Glastonbury Festival tonight.
Sir Elton is one of the biggest-selling artists in the world – a performer with 32 studio albums under his belt, 10 number ones, and more than 300m in record sales – but surprisingly has never played at the world-famous festival before. His headline set closing the Pyramid stage will be his first and last chance to experience that 100,000-strong crowd, which so many performers who have experienced it before him describe as like no other.
In interviews, Sir Elton has said performing at Glastonbury “couldn’t be a more perfect ending”.
It’s hard to imagine how the star who has entertained the world for more than 50 years will walk away from performing completely – but what a stage to bow out on.
So will this really be the end?
Tom Smith, NME’s commissioning editor for music, says while there is lots of speculation the star may not be able to resist a comeback later down the line, it feels like this really could be his farewell from live performing.
“There’s always been a kind of ‘will he, won’t he’, but he seems pretty set that this is going to be the last UK show,” he told Sky News. “I think the way that he’s gone about it and prepared for the show and talked about all of the new bands he wants to celebrate in his career, you know, this long tour that he’s been on, it feels like it could be it, it really does.”
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Sir Elton ‘not chilling out’ after farewell tour
However, Sir Elton’s husband David Furnish told Sky News ahead of the festival that this won’t be the end of his music altogether.
“I don’t think he’ll be sitting on the sofa with a remote control,” Furnish said. “He’s going to go back into the studio in October and start his next album. Which will be great. He’s not done a studio album in a long time.”
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We know for Glastonbury, the star plans to bring out four special guests – Furnish confirmed it would be a star-studded line-up, but didn’t give anything away.
Bookies are offering odds on everyone from Lady Gaga, Harry Styles and Rocketman star Taron Egerton, to recent collaborators Britney Spears, Ed Sheeran and Dua Lipa. Sir Paul McCartney, who headlined the festival last year and was spotted at the side of the stage for the Foo Fighters’ surprise set on Friday, is also now a late addition to the speculation.
Sir Elton has also teased that he will play a different set to that played on his farewell tour.
Whatever he sings, whoever he brings out on stage, one thing is certain – he will want to go out with a bang, and go down in the Glastonbury history books.
“You look at Paul McCartney last year – it was an incredible celebration of music for people of all ages, over his career, The Beatles to Wings and solo stuff,” NME journalist Tom added. “Elton’s got that level of repertoire and that goodwill among music fans. There’s every chance in 10, 15 years it could be: ‘I was there for Elton’s big send-off’.”
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Fellow Glastonbury first-timer Rick Astley – who drew a huge early crowd to the Pyramid stage on Saturday morning – believes few artists have had Sir Elton’s impact.
“With Elton, you’re naming one of the people who literally put one of the foundation blocks of music,” he said. “There’s a few people, men and women, who’ve laid down the rule book, the story book – everything – for the rest of us, and he’s one of them. There’s just no one comparable to him.”
One fan who is looking forward to tonight’s show is Alex McGuire, 47, who lives near to the festival site in Taunton.
Festival-goer Alex McGuire with his specially created Elton hat
Now on his 16th time at the event, for the past five occasions he has been making hats to celebrate his favourite acts.
For Glastonbury 2023, he says the decision was easy.
“It’s Elton’s final tour and final chance to see him quite possibly. It’s absolutely amazing for the Eavises to get him,” he told Sky News.
Alex has recreated Sir Elton on the Pyramid stage, complete with a grand piano and rainbow rockets – and it even lights up.
“It’s going to be a legendary moment,” he said. “Like Paul McCartney last year – it’s the ultimate for Glastonbury.”
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Sir Elton ‘anxious’ ahead of Glastonbury
In the run-up to the festival, Sir Elton has been teasing his performance – even sharing a picture of some spangly custom-made wellies on Instagram.
“It’s just come at the right time,” he said in one interview. “I’m a great believer in serendipity and fate – this is the most wonderful way to sign off in England.”
Angelina Jolie says although she appreciates being an artist, she would prefer for her legacy to be “a good mother” and to be known for her “belief in equality and human rights”.
The Oscar-winning actress stars as Maria Callas in the new Pablo Larrain film about the opera singer’s life.
Pic: StudioCanal
She has called Maria “the hardest” and “most challenging” role she has had in her career and put months of preparation into immersing herself into the world of opera.
Jolie, who recently reached a divorce settlement with actor Brad Pitt, told Sky News: “To be very candid, it was the therapy I didn’t realise I needed. I had no idea how much I was holding in and not letting out.
“So, the challenge wasn’t the technical [side of opera], it was an emotional experience to find my voice, to be in my body, to express. You have to give every single part of yourself.”
The biopic combines the voice of the Maleficent actress with recordings of Maria Callas.
Jolie believes it “would be a crime to not have [Callas’] voice through this because, in many ways, she is very present in this film”.
Who was Maria Callas?
Born in New York in 1923, Maria Callas was the daughter of Greek immigrants who moved back to Athens at the age of 13 with her mother and sister.
After enrolling at the Athens Conservatory, she made her professional debut at 17 and went on to become one of the most famous faces of opera, travelling around the world and performing at Covent Garden in London, The Met in New York and La Scala in Milan.
Callas’s final operatic performance took place at Covent Garden in 1965 when she was 41 but she continued to work conducting master classes at Juilliard School, doing concert tours and starring in the 1969 film Medea.
Written by Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight, Maria focuses on the artist’s final years in the 1970s when she moved to Paris and disappeared from public view.
She died on 16 September 1977 at the age of 53.
Pic: StudioCanal
Jolie on changing motivations as an actor
Maria follows the life of an artist fully consumed by the art she creates and even remarks that “happiness never developed a beautiful melody”.
Reflecting on her own life in the spotlight, Jolie said she noticed her own career motivations change over the years.
“There’s this kind of study of being human that we do when we create, and we communicate with an audience because our work is not in isolation – it’s a connection.
“I think when I was younger, I had different questions about being human and different feelings and now as I’ve gotten older, I understand some things and now I have different questions.
“It’s a matter of life, right? And so maybe that’s interesting that this now is a character really contemplating death and really contemplating the toll of certain things in life that I, of course, couldn’t have understood in my 20s”.
Jolie at the New York Film Festival in September with three of her children (L-R) Pax, Zahara and Maddox. Pic: AP
A family affair
Two of Jolie’s children, Maddox and Pax, took on production assistant roles during the filming of Maria and witnessed their mother perform opera for the first time in public.
She says the film allowed them to create new experiences together and for her children to see her approach to playing a difficult role.
“Everyone in my home, we all give each other space to be who we are and we’re all different.
“I’m the mom, but I’m also an artist and a person and so my family has been very kind and gives me their understanding. They make fun of me, and they support me and just as you’d hope it would be.”
She adds: “When you play somebody who is dealing with so much pain, it’s very important to come home to some kindness.”
Maria is in cinemas now.
Tom Holland’s dad has confirmed his son’s engagement to Zendaya – revealing how the 28-year-old meticulously planned the proposal.
Zendaya, also 28, sparked engagement rumours when she attended last Sunday’s Golden Globes wearing a sparkling diamond on her ring finger.
Neither star has publicly addressed the rumours but Tom’s comedian father, Dominic Holland, has now confirmed the pair are set to wed.
He wrote in a post on his Patreon account: “Tom, as you know by now was very incredibly well prepared. He had purchased a ring.
“He had spoken with her father and gained permission to propose to his daughter.”
“Tom had everything planned out… When, where, how, what to say, what to wear,” he added.
Zendaya arrived at the Golden Globes with a noticeable piece of new jewellery. Pic: Invision/AP
Dominic also noted that while most men worry about being able to afford an engagement ring, he suspects his actor son was “more concerned with the stone, its size and clarity, its housing, which jeweller”.
Tom and Zendaya met on the set of Spider-Man: Homecoming in 2016, when they played the titular hero and his love interest MJ, respectively. Their romance was confirmed in 2021.
In his post, Tom’s father admitted fears over whether being in the spotlight could put a strain on the couple’s relationship.
He wrote: “I do fret that their combined stardom will amplify their spotlight and the commensurate demands on them and yet they continually confound me by handling everything with aplomb.”
“And even though show business is a messy place for relationships and particularly so for famous couples as they crash and burn in public and are too numerous to mention […] yet somehow right at the same time, I am completely confident they will make a successful union.”
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Zendaya rose to fame after landing a role in Disney sitcom Shake It Up, and became a household name after starring in Euphoria.
Holland – who has starred in three Spider-Man films opposite his now-fiancée – made his stage debut in Billy Elliot the Musical in 2008.
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