Michael J Fox joins Coldplay on stage at Glastonbury

Coldplay performed a record-breaking fifth headline slot at the Glastonbury Festival on Saturday night and was joined by surprise stage guests including Hollywood actor Michael J Fox.

Their second song of the night was Higher Power, from their ninth album Music of the Spheres, with Martin going on to sit down on the stage as he started the song Paradise, from their 2011 album Mylo Xyloto, where singer-songwriter Victoria Canal joined them on the piano.

According to reports, actor Tom Cruise was among the celebrities watching the band’s set.

Martin told the audience, who were wearing LED bracelets that changed colour in time with the beat of music: “I look around and I just see amazing, wonderful people from all over the place and that’s what makes Glastonbury the greatest city on Earth.

During their set, which featured lasers, fireworks and hit songs like The Scientist, Clocks, Viva La Vida and their Chainsmokers collaboration Something Just Like This, one of the T-shirts Martin wore featured the slogan “Everyone is an alien somewhere”.

Back to the Future star Michael J Fox was brought onto the stage in a wheelchair and played the guitar for the song Fix You alongside the band.

The activist and actor, 63, was diagnosed with young-onset Parkinson’s disease a year after Back to the Future Part III was released in 1990.

He announced his retirement from on-screen work in 2020, and in 2023 starred in the Apple+ documentary Still: A Michael J Fox Movie, exploring how Parkinson’s impacted his life. He has previously played on stage with Coldplay.

The band was also joined on stage by Little Simz, just hours after her debut headline set, with a cameo from Burna Boy, to debut a new song, reportedly called We Pray, from Coldplay’s upcoming album Moon Music.

Moon Music will be their first album since 2021’s Music of the Spheres and will continue their environmental focus, with the band announcing earlier this month that it would be released on vinyl made from recycled plastic bottles.

Thank you to founder

Palestinian-Chilean singer-songwriter Elyanna also joined them for the song.

Nigerian music legend Femi Kuti, who earlier had performed on the Pyramid Stage, then joined for a rendition of the song Arabesque, with Elyanna also singing.

During the show, Martin asked the audience to put away their phones for a second take of their song A Sky Full of Stars. The Coldplay frontman made up a small song, telling Sir Michael Eavis, founder of the festival: “We just want to thank you, as humans go you’re the best of all sorts, you’re a musical charmer, you’re the world’s greatest farmer. Whoever got knighted wearing shorts? Thank you, Michael, we love you.”

Coldplay followed a busy Saturday line-up on the Pyramid Stage which had seen performances from Michael Kiwanuka, Keane and Cyndi Lauper.

Talent new and old

British rapper Little Simz performed tracks from her Mercury Prize-winning album Sometimes I Might Be Introvert and her latest studio record No Thank You, as she made her Pyramid Stage debut on Saturday.

Lauper’s set earlier in the day opened with her 1980s track The Goonies ‘R’ Good Enough, going on to play hits like Time After Time, True Colours and I Drove All Night.

Indie rockers Kasabian, who headlined the Pyramid Stage in 2014, performed on the Woodsies Stage, formerly known as the John Peel Stage, following days of speculation they were the “secret show” listed as TBA on the stage line-up.

Other performances on Saturday included actor Russell Crowe’s Indoor Garden Party on the Acoustic Stage.

Pop star Dua Lipa was the headline act on the stage on Friday night and on Sunday night American singer-songwriter SZA will headline.

Celebrities photographed enjoying the music through the weekend included actress Anya Taylor-Joy, Oasis star Noel Gallagher.