Coldplay thrilled Glastonbury as they performed their record-breaking fifth headline slot on Saturday night with actor Michael J Fox among their special onstage guests.
Back to the Future star Fox was brought onto the stage in a wheelchair and played the guitar for the song Fix You alongside the band.
Coldplay singer Chris Martin described Fox, who has joined Coldplay on stage in the past, as "our hero forever and one of the most amazing people on Earth".
The activist and former Hollywood actor, 63, was diagnosed with young-onset Parkinson's disease in 1991, a year after Back to the Future Part III was released.
He announced his retirement from onscreen work in 2020. In 2023, he starred in the Apple TV+ documentary Still: A Michael J Fox Movie, exploring how Parkinson's has impacted his life.
Coldplay first headlined on Glastonbury's Pyramid Stage in 2002 and overtook The Cure, who have headlined the slot four times, on Saturday night in a performance that saw them travel back to the year 2000 by opening with their hit song Yellow.
Frontman Martin, guitarist Jonny Buckland, drummer Will Champion, and bassist Guy Berryman started their history-making set after a clock counted down on screens, which was followed by a BBC logo on the screen before the music started.
Their second song of the night was Higher Power, from their ninth album Music of the Spheres.
Martin sat down on the stage as he started the song Paradise, from Coldplay's 2011 album Mylo Xyloto, where singer-songwriter Victoria Canal joined them on the piano.
Tom Cruise and his Mission: Impossible co-star Simon Pegg were among the celebrities photographed ahead of the band’s set.
Martin told the audience, who were wearing LED bracelets that change colour in time with the beat of music: "I look around and I just see amazing, wonderful people from all over the place and that's what makes Glastonbury the greatest city on Earth."
During Coldplay's set, which featured lasers, fireworks aplenty, and 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 on stage by Little Simz, just hours after her debut headline set, Burna Boy, and Palestinian-Chilean singer-songwriter Elyanna to debut a new song, reportedly called We Pray, from their upcoming album Moon Music.
Nigerian music legend Femi Kuti, who earlier had performed on the Pyramid Stage, then joined for a rendition of the song Arabesque, with Elyanna also singing.
Also on the menu was My Universe, which Coldplay recorded with K-pop boy band BTS. The song was co-written by the groups and produced by Swedish songwriter and producer Max Martin, who has worked with acts including Britney Spears and Taylor Swift
Recorded with the seven-member boy band, it features lyrics sung in both English and Korean, which Martin performed on Saturday night.
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..."
He added: "It's just amazing to see, and especially at such, what could be perceived to be a very divided time on Earth, thank you for giving us and me restored faith that most humans can gather together very peacefully with all different flags, all different colours, all different genders, sexualities, ages, everything, and just sing and have a good time and ice-cream.
"There's no fighting, there's nothing like that. So thank you for being inspiring to us and hopefully we’re sending this out into the world all together as a beacon of togetherness in a time when it might seem like that's impossible..."
During the show, Martin asked fans to put away their phones for a second take of the song A Sky Full of Stars.
He also had the cameras zoom in on audience members and Glastonbury founder Michael Eavis.
The Coldplay frontman made up a small song, telling Eavis: "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? Thank you, Michael. We love you."
Pop star Dua Lipa was the headline act on the Pyramid Stage on Friday night. On Sunday night, American singer-songwriter SZA will headline.
The upcoming Moon Music will be Coldplay's first album since 2021's Music of the Spheres. It will continue their environmental focus with the band announcing earlier this month that it will be released on vinyl made from recycled plastic bottles.
Coldplay will play four shows in Croke Park in late August and early September.
Source: Press Association
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