British Summer time Time: Neil Younger

British Summer time Time: Neil Younger and the Chrome Hearts
Hyde Park, London
eleventh July 2025

Neil Younger returns to Hyde Park with a efficiency that’s equal elements blistering and transferring. Elliott Simpson evaluations.

Pushing eighty, Neil Younger nonetheless generates his justifiable share of headlines. Within the build-up to his Glastonbury efficiency final month, he managed to stumble right into a beef not solely with the BBC – threatening to drag out except his set was stored off iPlayer – but additionally present pop it-girl Charli XCX, who performed reverse him on the Different Stage. In some ways, these small tiffs feed into the general public picture Younger has maintained for the previous few a long time: the cantankerous elder statesman of rock. At all times outspoken, and at all times prepared to ruffle some feathers – even when these feathers belong to his most devoted followers.

And although the beefs and information headlines are enjoyable, in addition they draw consideration away from the rationale Neil Younger grew to become such a monumental determine within the first place: the songs. Not solely is he one of many biggest songwriters of all time, but additionally one of many biggest guitarists. And, in its finest moments, his efficiency at Hyde Park italicised these information. If Neil Younger appeared misplaced in a post-Brat Summer time Glastonbury, then that’s as a result of his finest songs exist outdoors of time. They really feel like they’ve at all times existed.

The afternoon build-up to that headline set was stuffed with performances from smaller acts, reminiscent of the wonderful Naimi Bock, in addition to two songwriters who rose to prominence similtaneously Neil Younger: Van Morrison and Cat Stevens. Each artists at the moment are fifty years faraway from their business peak, however have largely managed to age gracefully into their heritage act period. Cat Stevens adopted the persona of a playful grandfather on stage, grinning on the viewers and inspiring hearty sing-alongs. Although the dynamic along with his band felt a little bit stilted at instances – and some songs, reminiscent of If You Need To Sing Out, Sing Out, veered too near kids’s entertainer territory – his set was the best balm for the thirty-degree warmth. His barely wizened voice added some extra melancholy to his finest songs. Father and Son, already extremely transferring in its unique kind, felt a lot heavier coming from a seventy-something Cat Stevens.

The identical may be mentioned of the highlights from Neil Younger’s set, such because the opening acoustic dirge of Ambulance Blues. A real deep reduce, the track set the tone for the present, signalling that it wouldn’t simply be a biggest hits run-through, that an viewers anticipating Coronary heart of Gold would stroll away disillusioned. For dedicated attendees, although, this was a superb commerce. Ambulance Blues stands as certainly one of Younger’s best songs: a sprawling meditation on the loss of life of the sixties that has solely gathered extra emotional heft over time. The band adopted it up by tearing into Cowgirl within the Sand, a primitive rocker from the early days of Loopy Horse. Facet by aspect, these opening songs acted as an ideal showcase of Neil’s twin skills: wordsmith and electrical guitar shredder.

A lot of the remaining set leaned on the latter of those skills, exploring the heavier, looser aspect of Neil Younger’s again catalogue. Fuckin’ Up stays a enjoyable, if blunt instrument, with its yell-along refrain and chugging chords, whereas the brooding pressure of Hey Hey, My My (Into The Black) had the entire crowd bashing their heads alongside. The temper solely dipped in just a few locations, primarily when the band waded into newer materials, with the viewers viewing the eleven-minute Solar Inexperienced as little greater than a chance to get one other beer. The track’s broad, environmental lyrics lent it a bland preachiness that stood out in opposition to extra basic materials. Although Neil Younger’s activism has at all times been an enormous facet of his music, nobody would argue that he’s at his finest when he delves into extra private territory.

Regardless of his fame as a guitar shredder, probably the most affecting moments of the set got here when Neil stripped issues down. The one-two punch of The Needle And The Injury Accomplished and Harvest Moon elicited the strongest response, with the group’s comfortable sing-along to the latter being one of many largest highlights of the evening. One other was the solo rendition of After The Gold Rush. Accompanied solely by a piano, Neil’s voice sounded prefer it was stuffed with holes; his seventy-nine years grew to become extremely seen when all of the guitar suggestions was stripped away.

In what seems like a convention, Neil Younger and his band closed out the evening with Rockin’ in The Free World, a track that solely turns into extra related each day. Among the many bleak lyrics of heroin-addicted moms and neoliberal decay, it additionally comprises some of the plain riffs of his profession. The band tore by way of the track for a superb ten minutes, littering the stage with false endings, till the ten-thirty curfew lastly silenced them for good.

Though he was in the end reduce off at Hyde Park, it’s not possible to think about Neil Younger ever placing down his guitar for good. He’s, and has been for the previous sixty years, the perfect at what he does.

~

All phrases by Elliott Simpson. You’ll find extra writing by Elliott for Louder Than in his writer’s archive and different work on his web site. His 33 1/3 e book on Yo La Tengo’s And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out is accessible now.