Clip of Paul McCartney Taking Video of Elton John at Glastonbury Goes Viral

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Music fans have described the moment Paul McCartney was spotted filming Elton John during his Glastonbury performance as "priceless."

John, 76, played his last ever show in the U.K. at the world famous Glastonbury music festival on Sunday night.

While many big names were rumored to be joining him onstage for his finale, including the former Beatle, McCartney sat back in the wings and watched his good friend from backstage.

elton john and paul mccartney
Sir Paul McCartney and Sir Elton John are pictured during the Elton John AIDS Foundation InStyle Party 2002 in Hollywood, California. Music fans have described the moment McCartney was spotted filming his friend John during... Kevin Mazur/WireImage

The pair have known each other since the late 1960s. In his 2019 memoir Me, John said McCartney walked into his studio at the famous Abbey Road recording studios in London and sat down at the piano to play him a new song he'd written called "Hey Jude."

The friendship has clearly endured and McCartney was seen filming John on his smartphone as he sung his hit song, "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me."

The video was shared to Twitter and went viral, with one person describing it as "an icon videoing another icon."

The person who shared the video captioned their tweet: "Paul McCartney taking a video of Elton John performing Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me ? This is PRICELESS."

Another person added: "Game recognises game."

John played to a capacity crowd at the headlining Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury and even though McCartney did not join him on stage, he did pull out some stars for his final show.

The first special guest was Jacob Lusk of Gabriels, who joined John in a rendition of "Are You Ready For Love?," along with The London Community Gospel Choir.

The star later performed "Until I Found You" with Stephen Sanchez and invited The Killers' frontman, Brandon Flowers, on stage to perform "Tiny Dancer."

Finally, Rina Sawayama joined the Oscar-winner to sing the duet "Don't Go Breaking My Heart."

John took a moment to explain to the crowd why he did not invite his A-list musician friends to perform with him.

"When I chose my guests for this show I wanted to have newer artists, save for one person, and this boy I heard last year on the radio… I've asked him to come to Glastonbury to do his song and he's an amazing young talent," John explained referring to Sanchez.

John first announced his intention to retire from touring in 2018 and labelled his final tour as the Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour, but it was postponed because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

About the writer

Shannon Power is a Greek-Australian reporter, but now calls London home. They have worked as across three continents in print, newspapers and broadcast, specializing in entertainment, politics, LGBTQ+ and health reporting. Shannon has covered high profile celebrity trials along with industry analysis of all the big trends in media, pop culture and the entertainment business generally. Shannon stories have featured on the cover of the Newsweek magazine and has been published in publications such as, The Guardian, Monocle, The Independent, SBS, ABC, Metro and The Sun. You can get in touch with Shannon by email at s.power@newsweek.com and on X @shannonjpower. Languages: English, Greek, Spanish.



Shannon Power is a Greek-Australian reporter, but now calls London home. They have worked as across three continents in print, ... Read more