The night Prince Andrew started a fight at Glasto
The five greatest Glastonbury performances ever . . .
5) Vince And The Cables, 1977
The moment this seminal rock ’n’ roll revival group leapt on to the Pyramid Stage and started singing Three Steps To A Partial Recovery, the crowd erupted with joy.
Clad in a flared one-piece limegreen velveteen trouser suit, lead singer Vince Cable — later to become equally well-known as Secretary of State for Business — leapt around the stage, outraging those standing close to the front with his trademark pelvis thrusts.
In the chapter he devotes to this barnstorming performance in his autobiography Free Radical, Cable puts his singing days firmly behind him.
‘It would, I think, be judged inappropriate for me to sing Good Golly Miss Molly in a keynote speech at the CBI conference,’ he writes. ‘ Though I have been known to entertain Cabinet colleagues with a spirited rendition of My Ding- A- Li ng whenever Theresa May has been droning on too long.’
4) The Black And White Minstrels, 1978
I n TheIR l astever performance on the UK mainland, The Black And White Minstrels took to the Park Stage j ust after Black Sabbath and immediately before Deep Purple.
‘At that time, we’d been facing criticism for a couple of years,’ recalls f ormer Minstrel neil hamilton, later a well-known MP.
‘So, we tried desperately hard to update our act f or a more politically sensitive audience by cutting out all songs in praise of killing baby seals. It seemed to do the trick.’
The Minstrels now rarely set foot off the Isle of Man, where they reside, though they have been invited to play at the Ukip annual conference. ‘We go everywhere in our trademark make-up,’ explains hamilton, who was recently promoted to lead singer. ‘ even when we’re off duty.’
he regrets that The Black And White Minstrels have never been asked to return to Glastonbury. ‘ heaven knows why not. It’s political correctness gone mad.’
3) Cliff and Keith, 2012
The l ast t i me t he Richard brothers had played together was 50 years before, at Butlins, Minehead, with Cliff, 22, on vocals and younger brother Keith, 19, on harmonica.
Unfortunately, the concert had ended in disarray, with Keith attempting to smoke his harmonica, while Cliff struggled manfully through Bachelor Boy on his own.
Citing ‘musical differences’, the brothers split up, and their careers went i n opposite directions. Interestingly, both differ wildly from their public images: while Keith likes nothing more than to sit quietly at home with a good book and the Greatest hits Of Petula Clark on the hi-fi, Cliff prefers a night out on the town, often with five or six busty young belly dancers in tow.
Their headlining Glastonbury r e union in 2012 is widely remembered f or their encore rendition of Cinderella Rockefella, their tribute to esther and Abi Ofarim’s no 1 hit single, with Cliff singing the part of esther and Keith singing the part of Abi.
The 500,000- strong audience erupted with delight, and history was made. ‘The Rolling Stones would have been much better off with my brother Cliff as our lead singer. he’s so much cooler, ’ said Keith in a recent interview.
2) St Winifred’s S School Choir w with Alice C Cooper, 1981
AFTER the phenomenal success of their first single, There’s no One Quite Like Grandma, in 1980 th the girls of St Winifred’s School Choir were invited to perform the fo following year on the Other Stage at Glastonbury.
Intent on capturing the hearts of a more progressive audience than they were accustomed to, the girls roped in top American singer Alice Cooper to lend their act a little extra oomph.
Sadly, the first song faltered when Cooper attempted to bite the head off one of the choristers, who ran from the stage in tears.
Things subsequently picked up, and their final rendition of Saturday night’s Alright For Fighting is now regarded as a classic.
1) The Two Princes, 2002
AFTER their well-publicised 1973 break-up, The Two Princes hadn’t played together for nearly 30 years.
So, the Glastonbury crowd went wild when halfway through his Pyramid Stage concert, rock legend Prince announced that Prince Andrew (now the Duke of York) would be joining him on stage to sing Let’s Go Crazy.
Bearing a pair of maracas in his left hand and shaking his head almost i n time to the music, Prince Andrew gave his all to a seven-minute rendition of the classic song, before calling on the crowd to ( a) support British business; (b) sit still; and (c) pull their socks up. This impromptu intervention resulted in an onstage fracas, and the pair have not played together since.
‘In future, Prince would do well to steer clear of any unsavoury associations,’ declared his senior media adviser. ‘It’s best to keep these things above board.’