Rod Stewart won back the sceptics at his Glastonbury Legends set ...Middle East

It hadn’t been the easiest run up to the Glastonbury Festival legends slot for Rod Stewart. The veteran rocker complained in the weeks prior it was going to cost him £300,000 to transfer his band over from America; he was apparently close to pulling out due to an illness that forced the cancellation of five shows this month (he enlisted a personal trainer to get him gig-ready). And that’s before his very un-Glastonbury-like declaration of admiration for Nigel Farage over the weekend (read the room, Rod). When Kneecap mentioned his name onstage yesterday, it was met with a murmuring of boos.

But in what he called “a cup final” – an admirably tacit admission that he understood this wasn’t just another gig – all was forgotten as Stewart, the ultimate showbiz pro, delivered a copybook Legends slot show: hits that everyone knew, choice covers, special guests (Mick Hucknall, Lulu, his old Faces mucker Ronnie Wood) and some genuinely heartening moments (much better than his damp squib 2002 headline show that he claimed last week he can’t remember).

As well as a shout out for Ukraine, there was a tribute to Fleetwood Mac’s Christine McVie, which came before a touching version of the song she introduced him to when in the Faces, Etta James’ “I’d Rather Go Blind”. But his bringing out of Michael Eavis to celebrate his 90th birthday (a little early – it’s not until October) was truly uplifting, as he warmly embraced the festival founder in his wheelchair to huge cheers.

“I just wish they wouldn’t call it the teatime slot. That sounds like pipe and slippers, doesn’t it?” he’d said before, which gives such a clear indication of how he sees himself: forever young, a fun-loving free spirit impervious to the expectations as to how an 80-year-old should behave. It’s an attitude there in his show: Stewart trades on pure entertainment – if he wants attractive backing singers half his age in short dresses, that’s what he’ll have – and nobody was having more fun that Stewart himself.

From the get go (“Music brings us together! We’re having a party!” he said two songs in) in commendably fine voice for his age and recent bout of flu, he was energetically peacocking the stage, air guitaring and pirouetting, often singing directly to his female singers in a garish gold-patterned black suit jacket and silver medallion. His all-smiles display was infectious, and carried the iffy moments: the show can stray into cruise ship territory (as when his backing singers conga’d along the stage to schmalzy version of The O’Jay’s “Love Train”) or just a bit dated (“Tonight’s the Night (Gonna Be Alright)” should be left in 1976).

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But equally there were some fantastic songs in the first half as he raced through what was for him a shortened 90-minute set: the soft rock of his unofficial anthem “Some Guys Have All the Luck”; a moving take on Cat Stevens “First Cut is the Deepest” (he’s always been a great interpreter of other people’s work); the ever brilliant “Maggie May”, the first full pelt singalong of the set, as he strutted along the walkway looking like he was having the time of his life (and saw the funny side of a fluffed line); the propulsive modern sounding disco rock of “Young Turks”.

By the time he’d had two costume changes (one bright pink suit, then green), he’d kicked footballs into the crowd during the the 1979 disco pastiche classic “Da Ya Think I’m Sexy” and brought a dressed-down Mick Hucknall out for a gentle rendition of “If You Don’t Know me By Now”, after which the hits piled up: “Baby Jane”, a fun, superb take on the Faces “Stay With Me” with Wood (it was lovely to see their playful camaraderie and to see Wood shred it on a Faces classic). Lulu (“what a girl!”) then came out to sing “Hot Legs”, a song Stewart has been threatening to retire for decades but is just too good a tune; he went overtime for “Sailing”, wearing a sailor’s hat as he swayed the set to a communal conclusion. If this was Stewart’s cup final, he scored a well-earned victory.

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