Watch Neil Young & The Chrome Hearts perform rare cut ‘Ambulance Blues’ in the Netherlands
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.”
The post Watch Neil Young & The Chrome Hearts perform rare cut ‘Ambulance Blues’ in the Netherlands appeared first on NME.
Surej Singh
NME
