Coldplay urged to adopt 'orange' at Luton Radio 1 Big Weekend

Coldplay are closing BBC Radio 1's Big Weekend in Luton on Sunday, 26 May

It was Coldplay's international breakthrough hit and remains one of the band's best-known numbers: Yellow.

But could the main lyric be changed - just for one night - to appease fans focused on a local football rivalry?

Coldplay is headlining Radio 1's Big Weekend in Luton in May. While Luton Town play in orange, Watford, 17 miles (27km) down the M1, wear yellow.

Some Lutonians are suggesting the Y-word could be easily switched. The BBC has asked the band for its reaction.

• Listen: The case for changing Yellow to Orange

Luton resident Bex Jones suggested Coldplay should change "yellow" to "orange and blue".

Luton Town, who wear orange, play in the Premier League at Kenilworth Road - a stadium famous for its old school style

Championship side Watford FC play in yellow - as sported by former chairman and lifetime honorary president Sir Elton John in a mural at Vicarage Road

In an interview with BBC Three Counties Radio, Bex appealed to lead singer Chris Martin.

"Come on Chris, do it," she said. "You have to, you're coming to Luton for one night only."

Kev Harper, from the Luton Town Supporter's Trust, said: "The crowd would love it."

He joked Coldplay "should have called it orange in the first place" as "it's a superior colour".

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James Taylor, head of regeneration at Luton Borough Council, said: "The crowd would absolutely pop.

"It would honour the Luton fans and honour Luton as a team and as a town.

"We've seen some of the world's biggest football teams come to Kenilworth Road and have to adapt their style of play, so why not have the world's biggest band come to Luton and change the words just for us?"

As it happens, Chris Martin says he wrote Yellow at Rockfield recording studios in the Welsh countryside while his bandmates were watching football.

He was inspired by seeing the starry sky, but the title came as he spotted the Yellow Pages across the room.

With the same number of syllables, it remains to be seen whether Coldplay will swap "yellow" for "orange" at Stockwood Park to keep Luton fans happy.

Luton's old-school stadium, surrounded by the terraced housing of Bury Park, became football's most-memed away end when they got promoted in 2023 and returned to the English top flight for the first time since the 1991-92 season.