Adele, Coldplay break Glastonbury television viewing records

Adele and Coldplay drew strong viewing figures on the BBC during last weekend’s Glastonbury festival, reports Music Week.

Adele’s Saturday night headline gig on the Pyramid Stage had a short-lived peak of 3.7 million viewers, the highest since Jay Z in 2008, while Coldplay had an average of 2 million viewers as they were joined by Bee Gee Barry Gibb, organiser Michael Eavis and paid tribute to Viola Beach on the Sunday.

It was a less successful story for Friday’s main act Muse however, with a comparatively low average audience of 420,000 during their performance’s airing on BBC Two.

The Sunday teatime slot at Glastonbury has steadily become the unofficial headline booking since Johnny Cash relaunched his career there in 1994, and this year was no different as Jeff Lynne’s ELO enjoyed the biggest ever television audience for that time with an average of 2.4 million.

Thoughts are already turning to next year’s event; Guns N Roses and the returning Slash are considered one of the favourites to headline.