They may have a few years on their fellow performers, but Rod Stewart and Bryan Adams both proved it's not a young person's game, stealing the show at the BBC Radio 2 Festival in London's Hyde Park yesterday afternoon.
Headliner Rod took to the stage at 8.30pm, and delivered a set full of classic tunes from his astonishingly enduring career. However, it wasn't the usual top ten of hits that fans perhaps would expect. He said, "This isn't a normal Rod Stewart concert. We won't be playing 'Sailing', 'Maggie May', 'Do Ya Think I'm Sexy' or 'Baby Jane'. I wanted to make tonight special."
Rod kept himself interested, and his fans guessing, with his choice of setlist for Hyde Park
Instead, he kept his audience guessing. After kicking off with 'Every Beat of My Heart', he announced he'd only be giving the year of each song, leaving his fans to prove their knowledge of his back catalogue. He then dipped into his archive from time with The Faces, as well as lesser-known solo hits, as well as reminding everyone what he's capable of between more poppy numbers with 'The Killing of Georgie'.
Some things were comfortingly familiar. Rod was resplendent in leopard skin for the performance.
Earlier, Bryan Adams gave a more traditional set, rocking energetically through his gigantic catalogue of hits, including 'Run to You', 'Summer of '69' and 'Heaven', strangely omitting 'Everything I Do (whatever...)'. Perhaps he, like many of us, feels he's heard it enough times for this lifetime.
Other guests on the day included Irish balladeers The Corrs, reunited on stage for the first time in a decade.
Will Young, fresh from triumph with a number one album, was also in fine form, as the rain surprisingly kept away, and 55,000 packed the enclosure in the centre of London.