Photo: Screenshot
Coldplay paid moving tribute to Viola Beach at Glastonbury last night, announcing, “We’re gonna create Viola Beach’s alternate future for them, and let them headline Glastonbury for a song.” Watch footage of it below.
The rising indie stars were killed with their manager when the car they were travelling in plunged from a bridge into the river below while driving through Sweden. They were yet to even release their debut album.
Last night, towards the end of the band’s headline set, Chris Martin explained why they wouldn’t be playing David Bowie’s ‘Heroes’, as is the norm at this point in the show. “When we started in 1996, we got our record deal in 1999, and we played Glastonbury in the new bands tent,” he told the crowd.
“This year at the beginning of the year, maybe you read on the news about that beautiful young band called Viola Beach. A band that just got signed, and were just on their first tour of the world, and went through a tragic accident and they got taken away.
“We as a band thought that was just the worst. It just reminded us of us, and all the other bands that come through here. The excitement and the joy and the hope, and we really felt that in them. So we decided instead of playing ‘Heroes’ tonight, we’re gonna create Viola Beach’s alternate future for them, and let them headline Glastonbury for a song. So Chris and Jack, River, Thomas and their manager Craig, this is maybe what would have been you in 20 years.”
Bursting with pride. Tonight the @Viola_Beach boys' music made it to the greatest stage of them all https://t.co/Bnzb9FAkxU
— BBC Introducing (@bbcintroducing) June 26, 2016
Elsewhere in their set, Coldplay brought out The Bee Gees’ Barry Gibb, as well as festival founder Michael Eavis for a rendition of ‘My Way’.
