Coldplay pay tribute to Viola Beach as they headline Glastonbury

Updated

Coldplay paid a touching tribute to "all the bands that don't exist any more" as they gave Viola Beach a posthumous Pyramid Stage debut at the Glastonbury festival.

The Sunday night headliners played Viola Beach's song Boys That Sing in honour of the band who died in a car accident in February, as well as giving nods to "Prince and Bowie and all the bands that don't exist any more".

Coldplay were joined by Barry Gibb for a short set which included Stayin' Alive, fulfilling a dream of festival organiser Michael Eavis who said he had "seriously wanted" the Bee Gees to appear.

Viola Beach - Kris Leonard, River Reeves, Tomas Lowe and Jack Dakin - died with their manager Craig Tarry when their car plunged more than 80ft into a canal in Sweden.

Coldplay frontman Chris Martin said: "We're going to create Viola Beach's alternate future for them and let them headline Glastonbury with their song.

"So Kris and Jack and River and Tomas and their manager Craig, this is what would have maybe been you in 20 years or so and I hope we do this song justice."

He called on fans to send Boys That Sing "up the charts tomorrow".

Martin told the audience they had restored his "faith in the world" in the aftermath of the EU referendum result.

"We came here a little bit scared about the state of the world, but the vibe at Glastonbury makes me feel like people are great and together we can do wonderful, wonderful things," he said.

"Thank you for restoring my faith in the world."

Martin later told fans that he was amazed at their positivity despite "the collapse of a country".

Coldplay, who played hits including Fix You, Hymn For The Weekend and Charlie Brown, were joined on stage by Martin's children Apple and Moses for new single Up&Up, with their mother Gwyneth Paltrow snapping photos of the performance from the side of the stage.

But it was the appearance of Barry Gibb which particularly pleased Eavis who said he had "seriously wanted" the Bee Gees - which also included Gibb's late brothers Robin and Maurice - to perform at the festival and suggested Coldplay cover some of their "lovely" songs.

Gibb then performed the Bee Gees hits To Love Somebody and Stayin' Alive with the band who were playing their record fourth headline slot.

Mr Eavis himself closed the event by reprising Frank Sinatra's My Way, which he had sung to festival-goers during karaoke on Thursday night.

Earlier, Muse made a triumphant return to the festival when they played the Pyramid Stage on Friday, completing their hat-trick - having now headlined all nights of the festival.

Adele overcame her nerves about the size of the crowd to make her Glastonbury debut as Saturday headliner, which she hailed "the best moment of my life".

Between cackled anecdotes and rambling expletive-filled musings, Adele treated the crowd to hits from her career-making Hometown Glory to Send My Love and When We Were Young from her new album 25.

Glastonbury also paid tribute to David Bowie, with an Aladdin Sane stripe suspended above the Pyramid Stage, as well as flash mobs, sing-alongs, and a classical orchestra headline act on the Park Stage.

Across the festival, acts made sure to include many of Bowie's songs as parts of their set.

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