The Fat Angel Sings

The weather was on side for the last, and arguably most important, slot of the weekend. As the sun began its last descent over Worthy Farm, Daltrey and Townsend launched into a set of tracks made to get people singing along. With many here having missed out on more than a few hours sleep, “Pinball Wizard” and “Who’s Next” gave weary revellers one last excuse to let loose. “My Generation” was never going to be anything but a weekend highlight and on tonight’s performance, The Who earned themselves a place in the pantheon of big-hitting Glastonbury greats.

Dedicating “Pictures of Lily” to Paul Weller, who had played an earlier set, Daltrey stamped Glastonbury 2015 with a proud watermark that read ‘British rock’. While 15-minute guitar solos can often come across as self-indulgent, tonight they made for a celebration enjoyed as much by the crowd as the band.

They do this by rolling out the hits in quick succession: Who Are You, The Seeker, Pictures of Lily, Behind Blue Eyes. My Generation now comes with an odd, slow little coda in place of the old explosive, Keith Moon-fuelled ending that’s presumably there to circumvent the inevitable question of what a 71-year-old man is doing singing the line about hoping he dies before he gets old: “My generation, we’re still here today.” From a projection at the back of the stage, the young Moon stares down, doe-eyed.

Roger Daltrey can still swing a microphone around with considerable panache, but his voice is rougher than it was. Even so, it still has a powerful belligerence about it that matches the sound of Townshend’s guitar and brings out the distrust and paranoia at the heart of I Can See for Miles. The guitarist seems a bit underwhelmed by the set. “It could have been better,” he says, before a version of Won’t Get Fooled Again that sounds great. The band didn’t get to soundcheck, he complains, although frankly no one would have known if he hadn’t mentioned it.