“We’ve got a lot of songs tonight,” says Lionel Richie, the cartoonishly consummate showman and conductor of a field full of bleary eyed beings at the Pyramid stage. “Welcome to the party!”
While Dolly Parton’s heritage slot at 2014’s festival brought rhinestone-encrusted majesty and kitsch country to a claggy Somerset field, Richie, in spite of some shoddy sound issues, offers a succession of watertight soul, funk, tender sex jams, not to mention a backing band member who is capable of playing a one-armed sax solo while simultaneously simulating the missionary position atop his instrument.
As promised, the 66-year-old’s pristine, Vegas-styled show is a party, of sorts – perhaps more like the kind of party which starts with champagne in the jacuzzi and ends up on a shagpile. It’s exactly the type of smooth sentimentality and silliness that a Sunday afternoon audience at Glastonbury deserves: from the gloriously gooey Penny Lover, to the chintzy You are my Destiny and the funk triumph of Brick House, Richie, dressed in a black blazer adorned with a glittered trim, packs every single second of the show with unbridled pop theatrics.
Most vital to the Alabama-born singer’s Glastonbury debut is his knowing relationship with his audience, many of whom are wearing masks and T-shirts emblazoned with drawings of his face. Well aware of his camp charisma, he wins support from the crowd immediately, complimenting their ability to remember his lyrics, whipping them into a yobbish singalong for Three Times a Lady, and triggering some bolshie dance moves during Dancing on the Ceiling. The opening to the Commodores’ Easy even prompts a sigh of joy from the crowd. In contrast to Kanye’s cold, brutalist headline set the night before, Richie provides a reassuring hour of tender, tacky hits; mud melts into milk chocolate, the grey clouds are silky silver pillows, joy is restored.
Before capping off his set with All Night Long, he necks a glass of what looks like vodka cranberry, and the thousands of fans and converts cheer and laugh. Lionel Richie; party starter, people pleaser, a Glastonbury highlight.
