Coldplay’s Chris Martin opens up about almost missing debut Glastonbury performance
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(Credits: Spotify)
Coldplay have been playing at Glastonbury Festival for 25 years now, working their way from the bottom of the line-up to the very top. However, that journey was almost over before it started, as Chris Martin revealed recently that the band nearly missed their first-ever Glastonbury slot in 1999.
Coldplay, who would go on to sell hundreds of millions of records worldwide and fill out the biggest arenas in cities around the globe, were late for their very first gig at the festival, where they were booked to play the New Bands Tent during a Saturday lunchtime slot.
“The hunger to go there was so huge,” said Martin as he reflected on the band’s first performance in the BBC documentary, Coldplay: Our Glastonbury. “Our first introduction, I think, was probably carrying a not-very-good amplifier with a drunken tour manager who, you know, obviously didn’t know what he was doing either.”
Like a lot of people attending the festival for the first time, Martin was immediately taken back by the sheer size of it, but the band had very little time to take it all in. “We sort of had a very quick intake of the whole place, and then started where you should start, which is the New Bands Tent, first on. I don’t think I thought about the wider, how wild it was. It was just like, we were here, and we’re late, and it’s huge.”
Even though the band only made it with seconds to spare, they certainly impressed. Emily Eavis, who organises the festival, was a big fan of the group’s first EP, so she asked them to play a charity show for the family.
From that point on, Coldplay has had a good relationship with the family, which has only been extended thanks to multiple appearances on the Pyramid Stage, where they delivered stellar performances. They have performed on Glastonbury’s main stage in 2005, 2011, and 2016.
Martin sees Glastonbury and the farm as such a place of inspiration that he goes there when there’s no festival to get inspiration. He has been known to climb into the bare metal structure of the stage and relax there frequently. “Even when I go there when there’s no festival,” he said, “It seems to be like a centring place for what we stood for.”
Coldplay are set to headline the festival on Saturday night. You can watch the performance on BBC, while Far Out will provide further updates on Glastonbury over the weekend.
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