241 Pizza

Neil Young managed to shake out levels of feedback-swathed noise that the Pyramid Stage could barely contain. “Hey hey, my my/Rock’n’roll will never die,” intoned his marvellously grizzled timbre at the beginning of a set which, two hours later, peaked with a slow, seismic detonation of the Beatles’ A Day In The Life.

By contrast, you had to feel sorry for his sometime colleagues in Crosby, Stills and Nash. On a baking hot afternoon their strangely impotent close-harmonising on Marrakesh Express dispersed the meagre stage crowd with a speed that a pair of watching policemen on horseback couldn’t have hoped to rival.

Of the big-draw Americans, Bruce Springsteen produced an unrelentingly energetic display of showmanship. While Springsteen and Young felt like welcome guests here, an evening spent with Blur and Madness felt like a family reunion.

Five of the best

Dizzee Rascal The MC has come of age

The Specials Greeted by a massive wave of goodwill

Lady GaGa Burlesque set with lots of costume changes

Lily Allen A Glasto perennial, she was right at home

Madness Superb display. Eyes misted at My Girl

. . . and the worst

N.E.R.D. Came on late and played an interminably dull set

Crosby, Stills and Nash Suggested we light up “a big one” for Marrakesh Express. We were sleepy enough

Jarvis Cocker Charisma not enough to save poor songs

Spinal Tap The joke isn’t funny now

Björn Again Gave the impression they would like to quit being Abba

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