The Beatles legend Paul McCartney to become Glastonbury’s oldest ever solo headliner at 80

Sir Paul McCartney will become Glastonbury Festival’s oldest ever solo headliner when he takes to the stage this weekend.

The festival, which has been cancelled for the last two years due to the coronavirus pandemic, will return with the former Beatle as its Saturday night headliner – his second time topping the Pyramid stage bill after a performance in 2004.

The show will come exactly a week after he celebrates his 80th birthday and more than 60 years of making music.

In May, he said his tour and Glastonbury performance this year will be full of hits from his time in the Beatles and Wings, as well as some of his best-known solo material.

Speaking during rehearsals, he quipped that most of the audience “have paid good money, have brought their mums and dads” and do not want to hear his “deep cuts”.

Sir Paul’s performance is expected to attract an especially large crowd and could rival those of The Rolling Stones in 2013 and Adele in 2016.

The Stones will spend this Saturday performing to tens of thousands of fans at the British Summer Time festival in London’s Hyde Park.

Meanwhile, Glastonbury 2022 will also play host to its youngest ever solo headliner in the form of 20-year-old Billie Eilish on Friday night.

Sir Paul was born in Liverpool in 1942 and met George Harrison at school. Then, when he was 15, he met John Lennon and his skiffle band The Quarrymen at a church fete and was invited to join.

Sir Paul and Lennon later branched off on their own, with Harrison joining them, along with Stuart Sutcliffe on bass and Pete Best on drums.

The group called themselves The Beatles – the name intended to be a homage to Buddy Holly’s backing band The Crickets – and when Sutcliffe left the band in 1961 Sir Paul took over on bass.

Sir Ringo Starr replaced Best as drummer in 1962.

Brian Epstein signed The Beatles in 1962 and they had their first hit with Love Me Do later that year.

Over the next seven years, The Beatles had hits with songs including Hey Jude, She Loves You, Twist And Shout, and All You Need Is Love until they split in 1970.

Sir Paul later formed a new group, Wings, with his wife Linda as one of the members.

Wings went on to have hits with songs including Mull Of Kintyre and James Bond film theme Live And Let Die, before they disbanded in 1981.

The singer’s solo career has included some high-profile collaborations, including Ebony And Ivory with Stevie Wonder in 1982, The Girl Is Mine with Michael Jackson later that same year, and, more recently, FourFive Seconds with Kanye West and Rihanna in 2015.