Tearful Lewis Capaldi returns to Glastonbury in unbilled set

Singer shares new single about mental health

Scottish singer-songwriter Lewis Capaldi made an emotional return to Glastonbury Festival on Friday, two years after he struggled to finish Someone You Loved on the Pyramid Stage and took a break to focus on his mental health.

The 28-year-old’s set on Friday afternoon was not on the bill but a huge crowd was waiting after word got out.

“I’m not going to say much up here today, because if I do I think I’ll probably start crying,” he said. “I just wanted to come and kind of finish what I couldn’t finish the first time around.”

His set included new single Survive, released on Friday, which details his mental health challenges, and ended with Someone You Loved. “I might struggle to finish it for a different reason today”, a visibly emotional Capaldi said.

Beth Simpson, who was in the crowd two years ago, said it was good to sing along in better circumstances for the singer.

“It was really great that everyone picked him up at that time, but it’s lovely that we’ve been able to do that in a time when he’s felt that positivity as well,” she said. “It’s such a lovely full circle moment.”

Earlier in the day, Lorde attracted a large crowd on the Woodsies stage, where she sang tracks from her new album Virgin, released on Friday.

“It was absolutely incredible, she is such a brilliant performer,” said Jamie Pringle, 26, who had just made it to the stage before the gates were shut to control crowds.

Rock band Supergrass opened the Pyramid Stage, 30 years after they first appeared at the festival. “Glastonbury, what’s up,” frontman Gaz Coombes told a sun-drenched crowd.

Ironic singer Alanis Morissette and Scottish band Biffy Clyro will be on the Pyramid later on Friday, before pop rock group The 1975 headline the festival for the first time.

Other acts performing on the 10 large stages on Friday include Busta Rhymes, Maribou State and Anohni And The Johnsons.

The Searchers, the Liverpool band that topped the charts in the 1960s with Sweets for My Sweet, Needles and Pins and Don’t Throw Your Love Away, will play their final show on Friday after 66 years of touring.

Formed in 1959 by John McNally and Mike Pender, the group was part of the Merseybeat scene alongside Gerry and the Pacemakers and the Beatles that broke through in the early 1960s before finding success in the United States.