[2002-Jun-28] Coldplay Live at Glastonbury Festival

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Glasto welcomes Coldplay into the hall of fame... Ash, Doves and, erm, Nelly Furtado come highly recommended

Chris Martin has grown in stature before NME's eyes, from nervous curly-coiffured shyboy to sharp-suited sex totem in the time it takes most acts to record an album. Grinning and purposeful, he commands the stage as though he was born there. Unveiling tracks from new album, 'A Rush Of Blood To The Head' something strange occurs. We love 'Yellow' and 'Shiver' but get this – the new songs are better. Not slightly or a notch above but full-blown gobsmackingly, nerve-strokingly astonishing.

Show opener 'Politik' shaped around an unrelenting snare drum dazzles with a sophistication and heartfulness that makes previous smash singles seen almost limp by comparison, while 'The Scientist' drips beauty from every chord. However, 'Yellow' stands its ground touching even the hardest-hearted cynical hack.

As fireworks fade into the star-filled sky, Chris Martin must surely know that the job is done - Coldplay join the small elite of headlining acts - including Pulp and Radiohead - who effortlessly fill an entire field with the seductive appearance of utter intimacy.

is the pure distillation of festival chic, hippy chick. If she didn't exist, The Face would have invented her for a themed novelty photoshoot. Big on charisma - and in normal circumstances medium to petit on tunes – she wowed every kind of festival-goer from leery beerboy to the disturbing number of, well, ramblers on site with tunes which soundtracked the sunshine adroitly.

Jimi Goodwin is overcome. The sun is beating down, the crowd have just burst into an impromptu singalong to 'Here It Comes' and Jimi is utterly overcome. "Are we doing okay Glasto?" he beams. "I don't know what to say!" The tunes speak for him, though. Blissfully laidback as ever but now with enough backbone to be termed anthems, new single 'Pounding' and 'There Goes The Fear' make Bush one of the weekend's highlights before the sun's even gone down on Friday. Stunning stuff.

Alabama 3, the nation's favourite mobile phone salesmen, battle gamely against sound problems (a trumpet-augmented 'Heroin Is So Passe' sounds particularly flatulent) and the fact that they're playing at the same time as the crowd-friendly and that's with the emphasis on vague, as Gavin Rossdale's diet grunge was never going to sit easily at Glasto. Material from current album, 'Golden State' might possess a promising demonic swagger but on this stage it's all about the hits and 'Swallow' gives the people what they want. Their closing muscular jolt through REM's 'One I Love' sounds like an admission of defeat.

[a][/a] are perfect for the vaguely ridiculous summer loving going down today. They kick off swaggering through 'Woke Up This Morning' and 'Cocaine Killed My Community' sees the Brixton collective rock like champions. This deep fried Americana might be as authentic as Bjorn Again but it's tremendous fun.

The 40-strong Shibusashirazu Orchestra kick off the morning with a riot of experimental Manga funk, pink people waving pom-poms and a man jutting his lunchbox into the crowd is a perfect Glasto spectacle but we're still talking about performance jazz. They return to their natural habitat, the Jazz World stage tonight at 8pm.

http://www.nme.com/reviews/festivals/6510

The Oracle on 28 June 2002: Glastonbury Festival, Worthy Farm, Pilton, Somerset, England

September 15, 2008 - submitted by nadia, Peru

Q. hi dear oracle!!

long time ago--it`s really long-- i was watching a chapter of "storytellers" at VH1 and Coldplay was there, telling stories of course!, and the said something about a concert where they were playing Clocks -i think- and suddenly a really enormous laser appeared behind them!...could you ask the guys where and when it was?i think it was at Glastonburry but i'm not sure...and could you please tell me if they have any video of that?and if they do,can they post it at the timeline,please??--as a big favor!!--cause i've looking for it since then.

PS:sorry if i commit any grammatical mistake...it's because i'm latin :9

The Oracle replies:

It was indeed Glastonbury 2002 when they headlined the Pyramid Stage on the Friday. The album (A Rush of Blood to the Head) hadn't been released at this point. The band had just completed a mini tour of the UK but they were all small venues with limited lights etc so the green laser had to make its debut at Glasto. The BBC televised it and therefore they own the copyright to that footage. There are various videos on the web (at You Tube etc) where you can see it.