Glastonbury 2024: Watch Coldplay perform ‘Yellow’
Coldplay are veterans of Glastonbury Festival, having made their first appearance in 1999 at the New Bands Tent. Within three years, they had returned to Worthy Farm as headliners, and their latest set cements their status further in the history books as they top the bill for a historic fourth time.
Prior to tonight, the last time Coldplay appeared on the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury was in 2016, when they were joined by Barry Gibb and also provided a poignant tribute to the late Viola Beach by covering ‘Boys That Sing’.
Love them or loathe them, Coldplay are a storied part of the history at Glastonbury, and at this stage, they are essentially part of the furniture at Pilton. Even when Coldplay aren’t headlining, there’s a strong chance that Chris Martin will still find a way to make a surprise appearance.
Touching on the band’s special relationship with the festival, frontman Martin told The Guardian in 2016: “Everyone in our band comes from disparate places, but Glastonbury is the one place we all feel we come from.”
While they’ve recently announced details of their new album, Moon Music, set for release on October 4th, it’s the old songs which illuminated the greatest reaction from the Somerset crowd. ‘Yellow’ was the track that introduced millions to the band over two decades ago, and soundtracked the childhoods of many thousands who were in attendance at the Pyramid Stage.
Notably, upon release in 2000, it became Coldplay’s first top ten single and also established a platform for the band on an international scale. The iconic video, featuring Martin walking across a beach in Dorset in treacherous rain, received constant rotation on music channels for years and took Coldplay to new heights.
However, as their performance at Glastonbury proves, ‘Yellow’ truly comes to life when it’s performed in front of over 100,000 fans in Pilton. The track, while it splits opinion, can bring people together on a mass scale when played live, and the universality attached to its message explains how Coldplay has become the most accessible British band of the century.
During the 2020 documentary Rockfield: The Studio on the Farm, Martin explained the origin of the hit song and revealed how it was naturally conceived during a difficult moment while recording their debut album, Parachutes.
At this time, Coldplay were just another emerging indie band with hopes and aspirations before Mother Nature intervened to put them on the map with ‘Yellow’. “We were recording ‘Shiver’ and went outside for a breather, and it was so beautiful outside,” Martin recalled.
He continued: “All four of us were outside, and Ken Nelson, our producer, said look up there lads – and he literally said ‘look at the stars’ which is the first line of the song.”
Watch Coldplay perform ‘Yellow’ at Glastonbury 2024 below.
Never Miss A Beat
The Far Out Music Newsletter
All the latest music news from the independent voice of culture.
Straight to your inbox.