Chris Martin Skilfully Avoids Inhaling Paper Dove

“Everyone’s pretending they’re not that fussed, but you know that field is going to be packed”,the wise words of a stall owner who I chatted to on Thursday afternoon at Glastonbury that really summed up the mood leading up to Coldplay’s Saturday night headline set. Rarely were people admitting to having Coldplay at the top of their “Must See List” for the weekend, but you just knew that come Saturday evening the Pyramid Stage crowd was going to be packed and excited for the arrival of Britain’s biggest musical export of the last decade.

Amid the excitement of a rare festival appearance for U2 and a vaguely controversial choice in Beyoncé you could almost say that Coldplay’s return to headline Glastonbury for the 3^rd time had gone a little under the radar in comparison. Maybe with it being their 3^rd headline set in 9 years it would be fair to argue that there was less of a sense of occasion surrounding Coldplay’s set. To top all of this off Elbow just 45 minutes before they arrived on stage played the show of their lives and one of most memorable sets of the weekend, a hard act to follow?

One thing they confirmed within seconds of taking to the stage is that they were not there to play it safe, opening with new (and as yet unreleased) track “Hurts Like Heaven” from their forthcoming new album. Further unreleased new tracks got an outing throughout the evening including the fantastic “Major Minus” and “Charlie Brown”, Chris Martin gave the crowd a brief apology for playing some new ones before adding “One day they might be your favourites”. After fireworks and an unknown new song to open Coldplay induced mass sing-alongs with the more familiar “Yellow” and “In My Place”, the latter accompanied by confetti raining from the rafters of the pyramid stage. A rare outing of early single “Shiver” as well as an even rarer outing for Parachutes album track “Everything is Not Lost” contributed to making the evening feel very special.

Chris Martin looked comfortable on the Pyramid Stage (no surprise there really!) and the crowd were engaged and singing every word back, the atmosphere was very much in stark contrast to the slightly flat headline set of U2 the previous night. The night’s biggest moments however came courtesy of Coldplay’s massive singles, “The Scientist”, “Clocks” and “Fix You” were all delivered in all their anthemic glory and 2008’s “Viva La Vida” was one of the highlights of the entire festival. If there was one glaring fault in the night’s set list, then finishing on new single “Every Tear is a Waterfall” was it, not the strongest of their songs (and looking back at the new songs they aired, not the strongest track their new album will have to offer) and it finished the evening on a rather less elated note.

So after almost flying in under the radar Coldplay went from being an unexciting prospect, taken for granted, to a highlight of the weekend. Big singles, rare tracks along with fireworks, lights and confetti in tasteful measures won the day for Chris Martin and co. Even the new songs went down a treat, and most importantly everyone in front of the Pyramid stage had the time of their lives. [5.0/5.0]