British Summer Time: Neil Young

British Summer Time: Neil Young and the Chrome Hearts
Hyde Park, London
11th July 2025

Neil Young returns to Hyde Park with a performance that’s equal parts blistering and moving. Elliott Simpson reviews.

Pushing eighty, Neil Young still generates his fair share of headlines. In the build-up to his Glastonbury performance last month, he managed to stumble into a beef not only with the BBC – threatening to pull out unless his set was kept off iPlayer – but also current pop it-girl Charli XCX, who played opposite him on the Other Stage. In many ways, these small tiffs feed into the public image Young has maintained for the past few decades: the cantankerous elder statesman of rock. Always outspoken, and always willing to ruffle some feathers – even if those feathers belong to his most devoted fans.

And though the beefs and news headlines are fun, they also draw attention away from the reason Neil Young became such a monumental figure in the first place: the songs. Not only is he one of the greatest songwriters of all time, but also one of the greatest guitarists. And, in its best moments, his performance at Hyde Park italicised those facts. If Neil Young seemed out of place in a post-Brat Summer Glastonbury, then that’s because his best songs exist outside of time. They feel like they’ve always existed.

The afternoon build-up to that headline set was filled with performances from smaller acts, such as the excellent Naimi Bock, as well as two songwriters who rose to prominence at the same time as Neil Young: Van Morrison and Cat Stevens. Both artists are now fifty years removed from their commercial peak, but have mostly managed to age gracefully into their heritage act era. Cat Stevens adopted the persona of a playful grandfather on stage, grinning at the audience and encouraging hearty sing-alongs. Though the dynamic with his band felt a little stilted at times – and a few songs, such as If You Want To Sing Out, Sing Out, veered too close to children’s entertainer territory – his set was the ideal balm for the thirty-degree heat. His slightly wizened voice added some additional melancholy to his best songs. Father and Son, already incredibly moving in its original form, felt much heavier coming from a seventy-something Cat Stevens.

The same can be said of the highlights from Neil Young’s set, such as the opening acoustic dirge of Ambulance Blues. A true deep cut, the song set the tone for the show, signalling that it wouldn’t just be a greatest hits run-through, that an audience expecting Heart of Gold would walk away disappointed. For committed attendees, though, this was a good trade. Ambulance Blues stands as one of Young’s finest songs: a sprawling meditation on the death of the sixties that has only accumulated more emotional heft over time. The band followed it up by tearing into Cowgirl in the Sand, a primitive rocker from the early days of Crazy Horse. Side by side, these opening songs acted as a perfect showcase of Neil’s dual talents: wordsmith and electric guitar shredder.

Much of the remaining set leaned on the latter of these talents, exploring the heavier, looser side of Neil Young’s back catalogue. Fuckin’ Up remains a fun, if blunt instrument, with its yell-along chorus and chugging chords, while the brooding tension of Hey Hey, My My (Into The Black) had the whole crowd bashing their heads along. The mood only dipped in a few places, primarily when the band waded into newer material, with the audience viewing the eleven-minute Sun Green as little more than an opportunity to get another beer. The song’s broad, environmental lyrics lent it a bland preachiness that stood out against more classic material. Though Neil Young’s activism has always been a huge aspect of his music, no one would argue that he’s at his best when he delves into more personal territory.

Despite his reputation as a guitar shredder, the most affecting moments of the set came when Neil stripped things down. The one-two punch of The Needle And The Damage Done and Harvest Moon elicited the strongest reaction, with the crowd’s soft sing-along to the latter being one of the biggest highlights of the night. Another was the solo rendition of After The Gold Rush. Accompanied only by a piano, Neil’s voice sounded like it was full of holes; his seventy-nine years became incredibly visible when all the guitar feedback was stripped away.

In what feels like a tradition, Neil Young and his band closed out the night with Rockin’ in The Free World, a song that only becomes more relevant every day. Among the bleak lyrics of heroin-addicted mothers and neoliberal decay, it also contains one of the most undeniable riffs of his career. The band tore through the song for a good ten minutes, littering the stage with false endings, until the ten-thirty curfew finally silenced them for good.

Although he was ultimately cut off at Hyde Park, it’s impossible to imagine Neil Young ever putting down his guitar for good. He is, and has been for the past sixty years, the very best at what he does.

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All words by Elliott Simpson. You can find more writing by Elliott for Louder Than in his author’s archive and other work on his website. His 33 1/3 book on Yo La Tengo’s And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out is available now.