Glastonbury 2024: Coldplay thrill crowd with record-breaking fifth headline set
Grammy-award winning band Coldplay thrilled audiences with old hits and treated crowds to some new music, as they made history on the Pyramid Stage becoming the first act to headline Glastonbury Festival five times.
No other act has headlined the festival as many times as the band who first topped the bill in 2002, four years after making their Glastonbury debut.
Their performance marks their first Pyramid Stage appearance since 2016 and sees them overtake The Cure, who have headlined the slot four times.
Frontman Chris Martin, guitarist Jonny Buckland, drummer Will Champion and bassist Guy Berryman opened their record-breaking set with the hit song Yellow from their 2000 album Parachutes.
Martin told the crowd: "I look around I just see amazing wonderful people all over the place, and that’s what makes Glastonbury the greatest city on earth in my opinion."
During their set, which featured lasers, fireworks plenty of hit songs like The Scientist, Clocks, Viva La Vida and their Chainsmokers collaboration Something Just Like This, one of the t-shirts Martin wore featured the slogan "Everyone is an alien somewhere."
The band were joined by a whole host of guests throughout the set including singer-songwriter Victoria Canal, Palestinian-Chilean singer-songwriter Elyanna and Nigerian music legend Femi Kuti.
Little Simz also joined the band on stage just hours after her debut headline set, with a cameo from Burna Boy, to debut a new song, reportedly called We Pray, from their upcoming album Moon Music.
Moon Music will be their first album since 2021’s Music Of The Spheres, and will continue their environmental focus with the band announcing earlier this month that it will be released on vinyl made from recycled plastic bottles.
As the band made their way to a platform in the middle of the field, a voiceover of Louis Armstrong, talking about his song What A Wonderful World, was played.
Martin thanked all of the crews and festival staff, before telling the audience: “Most of all thank you to all of you for the effort it takes to come to a big festival, to camp and to go through the lines and the weather and the everything, the ticket fiascos, everything…”
During the show, the frontman also asked the crowd to put away their phones and sing along as one for a second take of their song A Sky Full of Stars.
"Put Your phone in your pocket and your hands in the sky - that's the way we're gonna make the whole world fly," he said.
The headline set also saw Chris Martin address individual members of the audience, making up short odes to them on the spot.
After addressing several members of the audience, Martin picked out Glastonbury co-founder Sir Michael Eavis, singing: “Sir Michael we just want to thank you As humans go you’re the best of all sorts. You’re a musical charmer. You’re the world's greatest farmer. Whoever got knighted wearing shorts?”
Back To The Future star Michael J Fox was brought on to the stage in a wheelchair and played the guitar for the song Fix You alongside the band.
The activist and former Hollywood actor, 63, was diagnosed with young-onset Parkinson’s disease a year after Back To The Future Part III was released in 1990.
Their performance followed a jam-packed Saturday line-up on the Pyramid Stage which has seen performances from Little Simz, Michael Kiwanuka, Keane, Cyndi Lauper and more.
Pop superstar Dua Lipa headlined the festival on Friday with a string of hits, impressive choreography and several outfit changes.
Coldplay - Setlist - Friday 28 June
Yellow
Music of the Spheres
Higher Power
Adventure of a Lifetime
Paradise
The Scientist
Clocks
Hymn for the Weekend
Charlie Brown
Viva La Vida
We Pray
That's Alright
Arabesque
Violet Hill
Infinity
Something Just Like This
My Universe
A Sky Full of Stars
Sunrise
Sparks
Jumotron Song
Humankind
Fix You
Feelslikeimfallinginlove
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