Paul McCartney joined by Dave Grohl and Bruce Springsteen onstage at the Glastonbury Festival

Paul McCartney, Bruce Springsteen, Dave Grohl
(Image credit: Harry Durrant/Getty Images)

Being a Beatle and the oldest Glastonbury headliner ever meant Paul McCartney's potential to be the set of the weekend was always high, but besides arguably the greatest song catalogue of any living musician he had two other tricks up his sleeve for the night; Bruce Springsteen and Dave Grohl.

His famous friends are headline-worthy in their own right (as Springsteen proved in 2009 and the Foo Fighters in 2017) but as Grohl took the stage for a run-through of the Fab Four's I Saw Her Standing There followed by Wings classic Band On The Run, there was also poignancy for fans. 

This was Grohl's first performance since the death of his close friend and Foo Fighters bandmade Taylor Hawkins in March, and when Springsteen joined them for a blast of the latter's Glory Days and the Beatles' I Wanna Be Your Man, the mood was celebratory. 

McCartney's epic setlist spanned his songs from the Beatles, Wings, The Quarrymen and his solo career. There was a huge singalong for Hey Jude and an encore that included a duet with John Lennon on video screen for I've Got a Feeling before Springsteen and Grohl returned for The End at the conclusion of the Abbey Road medley. It capped a triumphant night for the 80-year-old. 

Here's the full setlist:

• Can't Buy Me Love
• Junior's Farm
• Letting Go
• Got to Get You Into My Life
• Come On to Me
• Let Me Roll It (with Hendrix Foxy Lady outro jam)
• Getting Better
• Let 'Em In
• My Valentine
• Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-Five
• Maybe I'm Amazed
• I've Just Seen a Face
• In Spite of All the Danger (The Quarrymen song)
• Love Me Do
• Dance Tonight
• Blackbird
• Here Today
• Lady Madonna
• Fuh You
• Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!
• Something
• Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da
• You Never Give Me Your Money
• She Came in Through the Bathroom Window
• Get Back
• I Saw Her Standing There
• Band on the Run
• Glory Days (Bruce Springsteen cover with Bruce Springsteen)
• I Wanna Be Your Man
• Let It Be
• Live and Let Die
• Hey Jude

Encore:

• I've Got a Feeling
• Helter Skelter
• Golden Slumbers / Carry That Weight / The End

5 songs guitarists need to hear by… The Beatles

Rob Laing
Guitars Editor, MusicRadar

I'm the Guitars Editor for MusicRadar, handling news, reviews, features, tuition, advice for the strings side of the site and everything in between. Before MusicRadar I worked on guitar magazines for 15 years, including Editor of Total Guitar in the UK. When I'm not rejigging pedalboards I'm usually thinking about rejigging pedalboards.