Chris Martin and Co. deliver Glasto highlight

There is no doubt that Coldplay are the headliners at Glastonbury. Four previous appearances as top acts on the Pyramid Stage are testament to this. They are a permanent fixture here, practically part of the Eavis family.

Since their debut at the festival – “25 years ago,” as Chris Martin reminds us tonight – Glastonbury has seen them evolve from a cheesy indie guitar band with credibility issues to a consummate arena/stadium rock band and now a global entertainment phenomenon. Likewise, Coldplay have been the measure of Glastonbury’s changes. They have largely changed in tandem.

The advantage of this symbiosis: Coldplay will definitely not mess anything up tonight. But a lack of desire can also be a desire. Could Chris Martin and co. become complacent? Not a chance.

Coldplay’s performance at Glasto 2024 adds an extra dimension to the phrase “give it their all” as they grab every opportunity to fill their set with entertainment with both hands. Dua Lipa had fireworks after her fifth song? Coldplay had fireworks after just two songs. And glitter. Nonsense.

Fans were given LED bracelets that light up when certain songs are played (and instructions on how to recycle them). Fireworks are a regular feature. Martin – thinner and more muscular than ever – leads the crowd through the sing-along segments like a fitness instructor. For “Something Just Like This,” the band dons comical astronaut heads. It’s entertainment at its finest – like a Superbowl halftime show, but two hours long.

Is the audience ecstatic and enthralled? Certainly. But it comes at a price. When Coldplay skip the spectacle in their encore and play Sparks as a four-piece on the B stage, an album title from their debut album from 2000, ParachutesIt’s a beautiful moment, Martin’s acoustic guitar a delicate miracle, but the audience is getting restless. Where are the fireworks? Fortunately, they’re not far away.

The irony is that the whole show is a kind of musical tour de force. Coldplay’s current albums – 2019 Everyday life and 2021 Music of the Spheres – have drifted towards pop and seem to be leaving the band increasingly less room. Tonight, Jonny Buckland’s incisive guitar and the rhythm section of Berryman and Champion come to the fore. Although there is no vacuum in the visual realm tonight, Coldplay’s music is at its best when it leaves space: the empty spaces in Yellow that set the stage for its guitar epiphanies; the uncluttered melodic system of Viva La Vida.

It’s hard to imagine a modern, rock-adjacent group uniting such a large audience, here locally and across the television airwaves. Martin is a likable character, quirkier than he seems at first glance, with a singing voice that feels like a conversation even at almost maximum volume. Yet tonight he spends too much time telling the audience how beautiful and wonderful we are. Do we need that? Are we children? The world is more complex and people have less pleasant sides, which Martin knows well. Perhaps it’s a kind of wish fulfillment. If he says it, it can become that. Like one of his (still) most poignant songs, beautifully performed tonight, Martin wants to fix you.

Coldplay’s encore unfolds with the show’s entire cavalcade of musical guests being invited back on stage. Laura Mvula and the gospel choir she led beautifully on Violet Hill. The horns and the strings. In a poignant moment, Martin has a camera trained on Glastonbury patriarch Michael Eavis, who looks a little startled with a blanket over his knees. Also touching, but even stranger, is the Parkinson’s sufferer Michael J. Fox being invited on stage in a wheelchair, Strat in hand.

It is an emotional, all-encompassing conclusion. And it is authentic. That is Chris Martin’s true nature. If he believes that a rock show The much, contain The much, then all power to him. Nobody is complaining. But how can Glastonbury top that? Should it even try?

Set list

Yellow

Music of the Spheres

Higher performance

The adventure of a lifetime

paradise

The scientist

Watches

Hymn for the weekend

Charlie Brown

Long live the life

We pray

arabesque

purple hill

Infinity symbol

Something like that

My univers

A sky full of stars

sunrise

Spark

The Jumbotron Song

humanity

Repair yourself

feels like I’m falling in love

Stay tuned to MOJO4MUSIC for full coverage of the best music of 2024 including Squeeze’s greatest hits opening show, Paul Heaton and Fatboy Slim’s Housemartins reunion, Dexys on the Park Stage, LCD Soundsystem, PJ Harvey, IDLES, Fontaines DC and more.

Image: @eljaybriss