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Rod Stewart at Glastonbury review – lapping up the legends slot love like a lusty, leggy Muppet

Backed by Mick Hucknall, Ronnie Wood and Lulu, Stewart brings fiddles, sax and star-spangled buttocks to this genial teatime set

Perhaps naively, not being an active member of the Hot Rod community myself, I’m struck by their enthusiasm: I see several people wearing wigs in loving homage (again, despite the heat) and I’m told that some especially passionate fans have been queuing at the front barricades since the Libertines’ set earlier this afternoon. But though a physical performer, writhing and launching around like one of the leggier Muppets, he entrusts responsibility for providing an on-stage spectacle to his bevvy of lovely ladies wearing short sequinned dresses, also supporting him with backing vocals, frequently fiddle and the occasional Riverdance action. The First Cut Is the Deepest is the first to get the crowd swaying, but when Stewart tries to get a mood going with Tonight’s the Night (Gonna Be Alright) – always a bit seedy, with the invitation to “loosen up that pretty French gown” – it skews more queasy than sexy, despite the candles projected onscreen and steadily honking sax.

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