Glastonbury review: Headliners Coldplay soothe the masses

A festival that will be remembered for the mud and the politics
Muddy music: Adele and Coldplay were among this year's highlights
Ben Birchall/PA
Rick Pearson27 June 2016

Coldplay sang Glastonbury to a glorious finish with the help of a famous farmer and a former Bee Gee. Michael Eavis lent his inimitable pipes to Frank Sinatra’s My Way after Barry Gibb joined Chris Martin and co for the high-pitched funk of Stayin’ Alive.

It was a fine end to a festival that will be remembered for the mud and the politics. With an on-site poll suggesting 83 per cent of Glastonbury-goers voted Remain, the air was thick with righteous anger at the EU referendum result.

Billy Bragg told us “now you know how we felt in 1979 when we found out Thatcher had won the election”, while PJ Harvey simply read out John Donne’s poem No Man Is An Island.

Yet few things unite mankind like good music and bad weather. “Let’s get miserable together,” suggested Adele to the crowd who had traipsed through the mud to see her at the Pyramid Stage on Saturday night.

Some had questioned whether the non-dancing Londoner was cut out for the high-energy requirements of the festival headliner. They needn’t have worried. Fiery soulstress during songs, funny fishwife between them, she offered up ballads and banter in equal measure. Sides were split, spines were tingled and Someone Like You prompted the weekend’s first bona fide “Glastonbury moment”.

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Those in search of their dancing fix would have found it at the Other Stage on Friday, where Christine and the Queens dazzled the crowd with sophisticated electro-pop and Michael Jackson-inspired dancing. At the other end of the spectrum, perma-hatted soul man Gregory Porter was a hangover-soothing delight on Sunday afternoon.

But it was Coldplay, headlining the festival for a record-breaking fourth time, who had the songs to soothe the masses.

Paradise was euphoric electro-pop, Fix You packed an enormous emotional wallop and Boys That Sing was a touching tribute to Viola Beach, an up-and-coming British band who died in a car crash earlier this year.

As fireworks exploded and arms wrapped around shoulders, you couldn’t help but wish the rest of the world could be as united as Worthy Farm on a Sunday night.

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