Coldplay will make major Glastonbury history with tonight's headline performance
Coldplay fans are counting down the minutes until the band's headlining set tonight, but did you know they'll actually be breaking a major record as soon as they set foot on the iconic Pyramid Stage?
Glasto 2024 is in full swing, with punters descending on Worthy Farm in Somerset for five days of good music and (lots of) bevs.
Among a star-studded lineup including the likes of SZA, Disclosure, Little Simz and Shania Twain, plenty of music fans are there to see Coldplay's headlining set this evening (29 June).
Not only will the British brand - fronted by lead singer Chris Martin - be returning to the infamous stage for the first time in nearly a decade, but they will be making music history when they perform to the packed out Glasto crowd tonight.
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Don't expect Martin and co to be getting a multi-million pay day for their set though, because Glasto pays headliners less than 10 percent of what they could make at other festivals on average, co-organiser Emily Eavis previously revealed.
It's for a good reason though, as the festival instead chooses to donate around £2 million to charity each year.
"We're not in a situation where we're able to just give people enormous amounts of money," Eavis told BBC Radio 6 in 2017.
While it's not known what famous faces at this year's stint are pocketing, co-founder Michael Eavis previously revealed Coldplay were paid £200,000 for one of their headline sets.
So it's still not to be sniffed at.
Anyway, this will be the first time since 2016 that the iconic band are headlining - and they're going to be ticking off an impressive achievement in the process.
Tonight marks the band's fifth time headlining Glasto, meaning they've overtaken The Cure to be the act to headline Glastonbury the most amount of times.
Coldplay made their Glasto debut way back when in '99, going from humble beginnings in the New Band Tent to the big boy Pyramid Stage, topping the bill in 2002, 2005, 2011 and 2016 respectively.
It's seriously impressive stuff, to be fair.
Fans of the band will be hoping they crank out out some of their most popular hits tonight, including the likes of 'Yellow', 'Viva La Vida', 'Fix You' and 'A Sky Full of Stars'.
Safe to say, the countdown is on!
The 'Fix You' hitmakers' highly-anticipated set comes the day after Dua Lipa left fans stunned with her first ever Glasto headliner slot as she brought out an unexpected special guest.
The most iconic Glastonbury moments
2000: The year that nearly killed Glasto
While Glasto has always had people attempting to gatecrash, 24 years ago gatecrashers descended the infamous festival in record numbers.
It was so bad it resulted in the festival being cancelled the following year as ticketless punters swarmed the site, with fears at the time the chaos could kill off the festival altogether.
Luckily, as we know, Glasto is still going strong. Speaking to the Guardian in 2020, the festival's co-creator Michael Eavis explained: "The fence wasn’t good enough, the security was crap. So I was hauled over the coals by the police, who said: "You’ve got to get someone to organise your show. You’re a nice bloke and all that, but you couldn’t arrange something in a brewery, you know the saying?
"I said: ‘Fair enough. At least I can be guaranteed to get 150,000 people at the drop of a hat – I did get the knack of that!’”
The set that turned Coldplay into megastars
The set helped turn Coldplay into megastars. (BBC)
Back in 2002, the ‘Fix You’ hitmakers won fans over as they played tunes from their upcoming second album.
Apparently, the band’s agent didn’t feel they were ready for it at the time, but Eavis insisted they headlined.
And I’m sure they’re glad they listened seeing as they’ve now got nine studio albums under their belt and millions in the bank, with their A Head Full Of Dreams Tour having grossed more than half a billion dollars in its two-year run. Impressive.
Jay-Z playing Oasis on the Pyramid Stage
He hit back in the best way. (BBC)
It was the feud no one saw coming, but in 2008 rapper Jay-Z responded to Noel Gallagher slagging off having ‘hip hop at Glastonbury’ in the most hilarious way.
The star opened up his infamous headlining set on the pyramid stage playing his own version of ‘Wonderwall’, which went down a treat with fans and spawned one of the most iconic moments in Glasto history.
The muddiest year ever
It was pure carnage. (BBC)
Britain isn’t exactly known for its glorious sunshine and I think that’s especially the case when it comes to festivals, which often see punters squelching through mud in their wellies, pint in hand.
Glasto in particular has become synonymous with being pretty muddy, but 2016 really took the biscuit. Even the festival’s boss said ’in all 46 years, it hasn’t been as bad as this’ as things became an absolute logistical nightmare after weeks of rainfall beforehand.
The scenes were chaotic, to say the least. Festival-goers were filmed diving into the mud and struggling to wade through gloop in such a way that made going for a pint like climbing Mount Everest. Generally, everyone was just really trying not to fall on their ars*s.
It wasn’t a pretty sight, but of course Brits still managed to embrace the music and the photos and videos have since gone down in the Glasto history books.
The Killers' secret set
The band performed again in 2019. (BBC)
The iconic band decided to take a more chilled approach to festival life by taking over the secret act slot on the John Peel stage in 2017.
However, as is usually the case with 'secret' gigs, word spread quickly as fans flooded to the stage in their droves to catch the band in action.
It was a far cry from their previous Glasto performance, which saw their headline show become marred with serious technical issues which majorly affected the sound.
Kylie's long-awaited headline set
Kylie's set broke records. (BBC)
In 2019 Kylie Minogue set the pyramid stage alight for her headline set, but she was actually meant to grace the stage much sooner.
14 years earlier, the pop princess was forced to cancel her slot after being diagnosed with breast cancer, making her appearance on the stage even more special for both her and fans.
Her set ended up being crowned the most-watched in Glastonbury’s history, raking in 3.9million watching at its peak, beating the likes of Ed Sheeran, Adele and even Beyoncé.
Alex from Glasto
That same year, rapper Dave created probably one of the most meme-able Glasto moments when he brought a bloke called Alex on stage to perform ‘Thiago Silva’ with him, which he absolutely nailed.
Safe to say the moment went viral, with the then 15-year-old becoming known as 'Alex from Glasto'.
It's no surprise really given his unreal rapping skills and the fact that he was donning a bucket hat, FILA bag and Paris Saint-Germain shirt. Brilliant.
Topics: Celebrity, Coldplay, Glastonbury, Music, Festivals