Coldplay performed an incredible tribute to Viola Beach at Glastonbury last night

Three days of mud, music and more mud came to an end last night as Coldplay closed out the Pyramid stage with an epic technicolour set taking in all of the hits from their seven albums on their fourth appearance as headliners.

However, while they may not be to everyone's taste, there was no denying that they provided one of the most moving moments of the whole festival when they paid tribute to the band Viola Beach, whose four members and their manager all lost their lives when their car drove off a bridge just outside Stockholm in February. The band were at the start of what promised to be a long career and had been heavily supported by BBC Introducing as well as many other publications before the tragic accident.

Coldplay's Chris Martin explained that during the shows on their current tour, they would normally perform a cover of David Bowie's Heroes, but had decided to do something different for Glastonbury, as they remembered playing the new bands tent at their first Glastonbury - now named The John Peel Stage - which Viola Beach would have been likely to have played this year.

Martin said on stage, "A band that just got signed and were on their first tour of the world and went through a tragic accident and got taken away. And we as a band thought that was just the worst. It just 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."

He continued, “We’re going to create Viola Beach’s alternate future for them and let them headline Glastonbury for a song. So Kris and Jack and River and Tomas and their manager Craig, this is maybe what would have been you in 20 years or so and I hope we do this song justice.”

He also dedicated the performance to “Prince and Bowie and all the bands that don’t exist any more” before a video of Viola Beach's Boys That Sing played, Coldplay then taking over with their cover.

Martin called upon fans to send the song, "up the charts tomorrow" - at the time of writing it's currently at number nine in the iTunes chart.

You can watch the clip below - well played Coldplay.