Coldplay frontman Chris Martin wowed Luton by closing BBC Radio 1’s Big Weekend in Stockwood Park with a specially written song about the town and its football club, the Hatters.
Hundreds of thousands of fans flocked to the three-day music festival which built to a final crescendo with the headlining rock band, who will next month be the showpiece act at the world-famous Glastonbury Festival.
An electrifying set included huge hits including ‘Paradise’, ‘Viva la Vida’, ‘Clocks’, ‘Fix You’ and a duet with US pop star Sabrina Carpenter on ‘Magic’. But it was the inclusion of their most famous song, ‘Yellow’ that had Hatters fans waiting with bated breath.
A tongue-in-cheek campaign had been launched earlier this year by BBC Three Counties presenter and Hatters fan Justin Dealey to persuade Martin to change the lyrics of the chorus to orange, to honour Luton Town Football Club, and because yellow is the colour of the bitter football rivals Watford.
However, when it came time to sing the song, Martin introduced it as having “nothing to do with Luton”, while asking the huge crowd to “trust him” ahead of signing the original lyrics.
He added: “If you’re from Luton, I’m going to ask you to just suspend your anger or fears or anything you might be worried about at this point in our concert of what songs we might play or might not play,”
And after finishing the set with a firework show send-off of ’Sky Full of Stars’ the band left the stage but Martin remained. Taking centre stage with a “£200 keyboard” he told the crowd: “It reached me a while ago that there were some people in Luton who were worried or disgruntled and maybe even angry about the concept of our band coming here and singing a song called ‘Yellow’ because… of the Hatters and Kenilworth Road and the Luton Town Football Club.”
The weekend marked a year since Luton Town FC won promotion to the Premier League and though relegation had been confirmed the week before, there was still a feeling of positivity in the town with the likes of hometown acts Myles Smith and his band wearing Luton shirts and JW Paris flying a Hatters flag as they both played the festival’s Introducing stage.
“Luton means a lot to people, and it means a lot to us,” Martin said, adding: “Those people that gave us a hard time about the song ‘Yellow’, this is especially for you.
“This is a song that appeared last night, in the middle of the night. This is called ‘Orange’.
After a false start, Martin then sang: “It’s hard to be a football fan in Luton Town FC. Sometimes you do the best you can, still you find you’re going down.
“We didn’t win all our matches, we didn’t win the cup, but when you get knocked down in Luton, you always get back up.
“So you can come in singing ‘Yellow’, that’s all right with me, I prefer a warmer colour spelt o-r-a-n-g-e.
“Yeah, dress me in my orange, I love Luton Town FC. I want born in love with Luton and I’m always gonna be.
“I love you Luton, I love you Luton, I love you Luton Town FC. I love you Luton. My only Luton. I was born in love with Luton and I’m always gonna be.
“No disrespect to Watford or a team of any colour, the wonderful thing about football is we really need each other.
“It matters not in Kenilworth, that sometimes we taste defeat, it only makes the next time that we win taste much more sweet.
“So I don’t care if you sing ‘Yellow’, these tickets were for free, dress me up in orange, spell it o-r-a-n-g-e.
“Oh, dress me up in orange, for my Luton Town FC. I was born in love with Luton and I’m always gonna be.”
Martin then urged the crowd to “sing together” to “end the festival”, with “I was born in love with Luton and I’m always gonna be. I was born in love with Luton town and Luton Town FC.”
Coldplay setlist:
Higher Power
Paradise
Viva la Vida
Hymn for the Weekend
Clocks
Play Video
Fix You
People of the Pride
Something Just Like This (The Chainsmokers cover)
Magic – featuring Sabrina Carpenter
Yellow
A Sky Full of Stars
Orange
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