Why Coldplay Almost Missed Their First Glastonbury Set

Coldplay are looking back on the early days of their career. 

The band reflected on making their Glastonbury Festival debut in 1999 in the new BBC documentary Coldplay: Our Glastonbury.

Lead vocalist Chris Martin, 47, said that they nearly missed their chance to perform because their tour manager dropped them off at the wrong entrance shortly before they were expected on stage, according to NME. 

"The hunger to go there was so huge,” the “Fix You” singer said in the documentary. "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."

The band released their first EP in 1998 and were set to appear at the music festival ahead of recording their second EP – which came out in October 1999. 

"We sort of had a very quick intake of the whole place, and then started where you should start, which is in the New Bands Tent, first on," Martin continued to say. "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."

Now, Coldplay is gearing up to headline Glastonbury for the fifth time on Saturday, June 29. The performance will be livestreamed globally from 4:45-6:45 p.m. ET on the BBC website.

Earlier this month, the seven-time Grammy Award-winning band announced that their 10th studio album, Moon Music, will be released on Friday, Oct. 4. The forthcoming 11-track LP, produced by collaborator and Swedish hitmaker Max Martin, will have limited hand-signed, eco-friendly vinyl editions available for fans to order via the band’s website.

Martin first teased Moon Music in January 2023, telling Toronto City News that they were in the process of "finishing up" the album.

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Coldplay is currently on a world tour and will be making sold-out stops in Rome; Dusseldorf, Germany; and Helenski following their festival appearance.

In May, the band made headlines for a special interaction between Martin and a fan named Saundra Glenn as she struggled to make it to their concert in Luton's Stockwood Park in England.

In an interview with the BBC, Glenn, who lives with osteoarthritis and "a dodgy right hip," said she was walking to the box office when she took a break and rested near a fence. At the time, she considered turning around and watching the concert from home. Then, a black Mercedes approached her, and a woman inside asked her if she needed a ride.

"The door opens and I said, 'Oh that's Chris Martin, I can't get in with him,'" Glenn recalled. However, others in the vehicle reassured her, "'Yes you can.'"

Glenn wrote on social media of the interaction: "What a decent bloke ❤️. We had a nice chat too."