Taunton man with spectacular hat steals the show as Coldplay sing him a song

A GLASTONBURY Festival devotee from Taunton enjoyed his moment in the spotlight last night as Coldplay’s Chris Martin sang a song about his hat.

Alex McGuire, a shop assistant at Asda, is at the Somerset festival for the seventeenth time this year after first attending in 2003.

For the last five years, he has created his own spectacular hats to wear at Worthy Farm, which he designs around the headline acts.

This year, he donned a Coldplay-inspired hat, featuring a 3D-printed replica of the Pyramid Stage, Lego characters resembling the band members, a miniature piano and LED lights.

His hard work paid off when frontman Chris Martin ad-libbed a short song on his acoustic guitar to thank him for attending his band's fifth headline set.

Chris Martin performs on the Pyramid. (Image: Yui Mok/PA)

During a section towards the end of the stunning show, which also saw actor Michael J Fox appear as a guest for Fix You, Martin introduced a section that saw him directly address members of the crowd via the big screens.

“This is something we’ve been wanting to do for a long time,” he said.

“We’re going to ask our amazing camera team and the BBC camera team to find somebody that we can say hello to.

“I wish we could say hello to each and every person but, right now, we’re going to find some of you and see what happens – so let’s go looking.”

When Mr McGuire appeared on the screens, Martin ad-libbed: “I want to thank you my brother. You could have been at someone else’s concert instead. But you showed up here, this time of year, with the Pyramid Stage on your head.”

The cameras also picked out five men in colourful matching tracksuits (“they didn’t come today dressed as Coldplay, they came dressed as One Direction”) and a man with a hat that was eventually identified as a pineapple after some confusion, before festival founder Sir Michael Eavis appeared on screen.

Last year, Mr McGuire designed, built and wore a Sir Elton John-themed hat. (Image: Alex McGuire/PA Wire)

Before the festival, Mr McGuire told the PA news agency that he had started preparing his Coldplay-themed hat in September – months before they were officially revealed as the Saturday night headliner.

“My friend has 3D-printed a replica of the Pyramid Stage and it’s taken him a while to do that,” he said.

“I had people tell me early on it might be Coldplay and I’ve taken a risk with that to get it themed ready for Coldplay.”

He also said his themed hats take “a couple of hundred hours” to create.