NEWS
Neil Young has performed a rare cut, ‘Ambulance Blues’ in the Netherlands – check it out below.
Just days after he headlined the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury 2025 on Saturday (June 28), Young and the Chrome Hearts performed at Summerstage in the Netherlands, where they performed ‘Ambulance Blues’.
The performance marked the first time that Young has played the song live with the Chrome Hearts, and his overall third time ever performing the song with a band in 51 years.
Though he has played the song a number of times as a solo act, he’s only played ‘Ambulance Blues’ with a band three times – the first was with R.E.M. at a benefit concert in 1998, the second was with Promise of the Real at a private gig in 2016.
Before launching into the song – which kicked off the Summerstage set – Young said to the audience: “I haven’t played this in like 100 years. We’ll see what happens.”
Watch fan-shot footage of the rare performance below.
The performance came just days after his Glastonbury 2025 performance – which in the lead-up to the gig saw the folk icon at loggerheads with the festival for a brief stint over its partnership with the BBC.
Around the end of last year, Young made headlines when he shared a statement with fans, confirming that he was set to perform at Glastonbury as a headliner (before the official line-up was announced) – but had pulled out due to creative differences, calling it a “corporate turn-off”.
Just days later, he would go back on this decision and describe it as a misunderstanding. “Due to an error in the information received, I had decided to not play the Glastonbury festival, which I always have loved,” he said. “Happily, the festival is now back on our itinerary and we look forward to playing! Hope to see you there!”
When the BBC rolled out its coverage plans, Young’s headline set was excluding from livestreams on iPlayer, with Glasto boss Emily Eavis adding that she “didn’t believe” that his set would be shown. The BBC later said that Young’s absence from their coverage plan was a decision made “at the artist’s request”.
However, on the morning of June 28, the BBC shared that it was “delighted” to confirm Young’s set would be live-streamed after all.
His no-frills headline set scored him a four-star review, with Patrick Clarke writing for NME: “It is, in short, the definition of no frills. It’s testament to the power of Young’s songwriting, then, just how brilliantly it all works, how little the momentum drops… Here, then, is a headline set that proves that sometimes, there’s still power to be found in an old-school approach.”
NEWS
Oliver Tree’s team has provided a new update following the singer’s death in a helicopter crash on June 14, confirming that a new artist grant will soon be established in his memory to help creatives secure funding, a plan he had detailed in his will before his passing.
Accompanying a collection of photos highlighting Tree’s performances, travels and creative work through the years, a post shared Sunday (June 21) on his Instagram account revealed that the musician’s remains have been brought back to California, the state he called home and where he will be laid to rest. “His legacy will live on through his foundation/endowment named ‘Dr. Oliver Tree’s Extremely Epic Grant For Baby Geniuses’ coming soon,” the caption reads. “This is something that Oliver had put together before his passing.”
“We will make sure his wish comes to fruition so that more joy, love and art can be spread into the world, that was his final wish,” the statement continued, adding that “the constant love, support and positivity” shown by fans throughout the past week has helped his “family, friends and collaborators make it through these extremely difficult times.”
Tree was among six people who lost their lives in a helicopter collision in Rio de Janeiro. The musician was in Brazil for his The World’s First Tour run and had performed what would ultimately be his final concert on June 6 in São Paulo. The other victims of the crash were identified as passengers Lucas Vignale, Gaspar Prim and Lucas Brito Chaves, along with pilots Alexandre Souza and Charles Marsillac.
Just months before his death, Tree discussed his plans to direct his fortune and future earnings from his music toward a grant program for artists during an appearance on the Zach Sang Show. “I take no credit for anything I’ve ever done,” he said during the April interview. “Furthermore, I don’t believe that any of the wealth or things that get made from it is mine. So when I die … my will is set up so that when I pass, my family, nobody is going to get a penny.”
“If I have a wife or kids or anything, they’re not getting a penny,” he added at the time, explaining that the initiative would focus on helping artists create work rather than funding education. “I’ll get my kids through college, that’s the agreement, but there’s not gonna be a silver spoon. All the money is going to go back to artists.”
