Cyndi Lauper review, Glastonbury 2024: A celebratory reminder of a career well spent

One of many annual highlights of Glastonbury is a set by a star you forgot has a litany of classics to their identify. You’ll be able to really feel the gang flip in increments, from slight indifference, to head-nodding recognition, to full-blown enthusiasm.

Final yr this appeared to occur to Sophie Ellis-Bextor, a couple of months forward of her Saltburn-assisted profession revival, who charmed the Pyramid Stage with a protracted set of glowing Noughties pop. This yr, the identical position has been inhabited by Cyndi Lauper, an typically underestimated pop veteran with a New York squawk of a voice and the sprite-like power of a punk rocker.

Maybe as a result of warmth, the gang right here takes some time to heat as much as Lauper, a subdued air hanging over proceedings. There are audio points at first, too, Lauper greedy at her ear-piece for “The Goonies ‘R’ Good Sufficient”, her theme track to the 1985 household basic – however a monitor that few within the crowd appear to recognise.

Issues choose up by the point Lauper pivots into “I Drove All Night time”, a kind of nice, dramatic Eighties energy ballads. Lauper’s voice is raspier than ever, however she nonetheless manages to hit the excessive notes spectacularly.

She is 71 now, wearing silver skinny denims, a unfastened silver corset and a blue tiered costume that appears like a marriage cake. Her hair is shaggy and the color of ice, and he or she strikes with a scrappy, endearing lack of polish. She seems like a one-woman flashback to a time that’s on the cusp of now not present – thick Brooklyn accents, punk golf equipment, the arty oddballs present on the intersection of pop and efficiency artwork.

The larger Eighties numbers power the gang to concentrate. “Change of Coronary heart” is a synthy banger; the chaotic “Cash Adjustments Every part” has a contact of Springsteen to it, Lauper’s band exploding right into a cacophony of noise, and Lauper screaming at them to go even more durable. The romantic “Time After Time” is blissful, the gang singing and swaying alongside in unison.

In fact, Lauper is primarily synonymous with one stone-cold basic. She is aware of it, too. Circling the entrance of the stage, she speaks with mock casualness. “Are you guys able to have some… …”

There’s something nearly religious about “Ladies Simply Need to Have Enjoyable”, which can have the status of being a breezy hen-do normal however has an actual grit and ache to it – “Some boys take a fantastic woman/ and conceal her away from the remainder of the world / I need to be the one to stroll within the solar / Ladies simply wanna have enjoyable.”

It’s extremely heartbreaking, with Lauper splitting the track in two to debate reproductive rights and equal pay, and discuss up her charitable fund Ladies Simply Need to Have Elementary Rights.

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She concludes with “True Colours”, that wealthy, transferring torch track that’s all the time landed on the proper facet of cloying, the gang by this level rapt.

Lauper is on the cusp of a farewell tour, with Glastonbury doubtlessly serving as her most high-profile UK goodbye. It could be a strong exit: celebratory, infectious, and a reminder of a profession nicely spent.