Coldplay’s Tribute to Viola Beach Is One of Glastonbury’s Most Moving Moments

Coldplay performed a cover of Viola Beach’s “Boys That Sing” during their set at Britain’s Glastonbury Music Festival as a tribute to the late English band.

While driving through Sweden on their first world tour, the four members of rising indie-rock band Viola Beach—Kris Leonard, River Reeves, Tomas Lowe and Jack Dakin—and their manager Craig Tarry plunged into a canal in a tragic car crash that killed all of them on February 13.

Coldplay’s vocalist Chris Martin told the audience that Viola Beach “reminded us of us, and of all the other bands that come through here—the excitement and the joy and the hope—and we really felt that in them.”

Performing Viola Beach’s “Boys That Sing,” Martin said, was an attempt “to create Viola Beach’s alternative future for them and let them play Glastonbury for a song.”

As the audience went into raptures, he said: “This is what maybe would have been you in twenty years … I hope we do your song justice.”