Yungblud had been waiting his whole life for this moment. “It’s taken 24 years for me to get here!,” screamed the Doncaster-born vocalist and guitarist as he bounced onto the John Peel Stage at Glastonbury 2022. Despite having two full-length albums and multiple mixtapes and EPs to his name, the artist born Dominic Harrison has never played at Glasto – until now.
It certainly seemed as though he was making up for lost time, too. In front ample pyro and pyramid of guitar amps, Harrison jumped, high-kicked and cartwheeled his way through a barrage of huge alt-rock anthems and tear-jerking ballads, making for an all-out celebration of individuality and defiance. Here’s everything that went down…
Let the chaos begin…
“This is a show about the person that I am,” declared Harrison as he prowled along the lip of the stage. “I am Yungblud, I am crazy, and I am fucking proud of that.” He repeatedly told his crowd that he fookin’ loves them, how they’ve changed his life and how, together, they’re a community.
Have some of that!
Things could have easily headed south as technical issues caused Harrison’s mic to cut out during ‘Parents’. Yet he chose to embrace the unpredictability of the situation, and interacted with the excitable fans that lined the barrier. What a hero.
No pyro, no party!
A golden rule of any Yungblud show is that there are no rules, so it didn’t take long for the crowd to flirt with danger…
Yungblud debuts unreleased material
Harrison debuted tracks from his forthcoming self-titled album (due September 3), including ‘Tissues’ – which samples The Cure’s ‘Close To Me’ – and the soaring pop-rock anthem ‘I Cry 2!’. Lucky us!
When Yungblud says jump, you jump
Energetic and changing gears multiple times, there was a real freedom to Harrison’s stage presence. He relished in the joy of being loud and deliberately messy – it was a vision of an artist that has nothing left to prove.
Tonight, he’s a rock’n’roll star
Harrison has spent the past half-decade carving out his place as a voice of his generation. His righteous songs of overcoming disillusionment, mental health issues and violence continue to resonate with young rock fans across the world – he’s giving them something to believe in and hold onto. The cult of Yungblud just keeps on growing…
Mission accomplished
As the barnstorming chorus of ‘Loner’ gradually began to wind down, Harrison came back down to Earth to thank those that packed out the tent for his performance. See you here again next year?
Yungblud played:
‘Strawberry Lipstick’
‘Parents’
‘superdeadfriends’
‘The Funeral’
‘I Love You, Will You Marry Me’
‘Tissues’
‘Weird!’
‘I Cry 2!’
‘Fleabag’
‘Memories’
‘Loner’
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