Coldplay: Music Of The Spheres World Tour 23/08/2022

Paul is fussier than me when it comes to who to go see in concert but we both agreed Coldplay were worth the trip and expense. I even caught him singing along to ‘Viva La Vida’, not that he was trying to hide it. We got our tickets at face value before Ticketmaster inflated the prices to over two hundred pounds each. Ours were just over eighty pounds each, which isn’t bad at all considering how huge and in demand Coldplay is. I can’t fault Ticketmaster though, as I’ve bought most of my tickets through them and have never had issues. Touch wood. The tickets weren’t available to print until a couple of days beforehand but we can’t figure out who is to blame for that. So many people on Twitter were stressed out, as they were already travelling and didn’t have easy access to a printer. It does seem an old-fashioned way of doing things and not very eco-friendly, which seems like something the band would be against. The timings were also altered, so doors opened at 5pm instead of 4pm as originally planned. The change actually benefited us, as we had to travel all the way down from Inverness.

It was kind of strange going back to the same hotel and venue as last time for Ed Sheeran in June. I experienced a bit of deja vu! Paul paid to park in someone’s driveway again. I still think it is so funny that you can do that. We were expecting a woman going by the name on the website but it was a very masculine but friendly guy! Train workers weren’t on strike this time around and extra late-night trains were even organised to help control the inevitable crowds. Paul’s idea was smart, as we parked away from the madness and congestion (a leisurely ten to fifteen minute walk from the stadium) and managed to avoid the entirety of it on the way back to the hotel instead of getting trapped in the ASDA car park again. It was also an okay day, weather-wise. It rained on and off but stopped before either of the opening acts came on. I lathered on sun-cream but I burn in ten degree sun, so that doesn’t mean much.

Paul got the album cover tour t-shirt and I chose the more plain one with the colourful continent shapes on the back. We were soon handed out the light-up wristbands and exclusive ‘LOVE’ pin badges (we got purple ones). We heard Coldplay’s sound-check, which was upsettingly short compared to Keane’s. We joked that they have been doing this so long they know they sound good immediately. The wristbands are a great idea and I adored them. Except when they kept popping open. I had to swap mine over to my right hand as I found out I have absolutely no rhythm with my left and I wanted to wave it around like everyone else. They light up differently during each of the songs. For e.g., they turned yellow before ‘Yellow’ so we knew what was coming next and I don’t know how they did it but certain people’s wristbands lit up in certain seats, making two or three red heart shapes along the sections opposite the stage. We were asked to hand them back at the end, so they can re-use them at future shows. I wanted to hold on to mine but we at least got to keep the pin badges as souvenirs.

The VIP people went in fifteen minutes before the rest of us but our turnstiles were luckily closer to the entrance point than any on the East side. We dashed (as much as we could get away with) up the slope and squeezed past the slow people birdy-stepping their way down the stairs towards the pitch. We agreed we would try for a spot in the middle of the walkway if there wasn’t a gap at the barrier elsewhere or much space left in front of the main stage. We didn’t expect to reach the barrier but there was only one woman in front of me, who I could thankfully see over. We did well getting so close, considering the time of day we arrived. The security guards were chatting to the people at the front of the queue at the turnstiles and we overheard a couple saying they had been waiting since eleven in the morning. They somehow ended up behind us! The funniest security guard moment was when one of their phones rang and their ringtone was the sound of bagpipes. It drew a lot of unwanted attention and jibes at his expense. We were surrounded by VIP people. We could tell because of their striped wristbands and some of them had big star-shaped badges. We tried to blend in and not look like we pushed our way to the front.

The opening acts were Nina Nesbitt and H.E.R. We both preferred NN and appreciated how she was a local artist, reminding us of Greg Pearson at OneRepublic. We enjoyed it most when both acts covered well-known songs (as, like most opening acts, we didn’t know any of their stuff beforehand). I didn’t expect to hear a Britney Spears cover (‘Toxic’) at a Coldplay concert but life is full of surprises. NN has a fantastic voice and her songs are pretty catchy. I might give them another listen on Spotify. I still find two opening acts too many, unless they are bands I know and like already. I was getting restless by the end of H.E.R.’s set and started checking my phone, which was pretty bad. I wasn’t sure H.E.R. fitted Coldplay’s vibe all that well but the lead singer was undeniably talented (being able to play so many instruments, including drums) and the seventeen year old singer was impressive for his age, which they made sure to point out. I couldn’t make out many of the lyrics, which made it more difficult to get invested. Paul found the echo/reverb confusing but I couldn’t decide whether it was meant to be there. The wait between acts wasn’t nearly as bad as it usually is, as the screens showed the “left side” and “right side” of the stadium competing with each other, dancing on the kinetic dance floors to help power the concert. That is a fun idea and they also had bikes you could ride but we were in too good a spot to leave.

The woman beside us who Paul semi-befriended politely asked him to hold her place twenty minutes before Coldplay came on because she’d decided to trust him. She never came back and her husband had to go looking for her when she wouldn’t answer her phone, which is a bit of a worry. Paul had to place her half-finished drink over the barrier to get rid of it. A girl also climbed over the barrier to leave, as she wasn’t feeling well. I heard one of the security people say to another “Band’s on! We’ve got to go!” A few moments later, the screen showed the band walking out. We were completely unprepared for them to walk right past us, on our side! It’s always surreal seeing famous people and I guess I’ll never get used to it. I only really know Chris Martin out of the band members but he said the bassist Guy Berryman is who everyone is actually here to see. They climbed up via the end of the walkway and powered through the opening number. A man was dragged out by security before the end of it! The colourful balls (spheres) came out of nowhere and got everyone very excited. They disappeared just as suddenly and we couldn’t work out where they went. It was one spectacle after another until the end of the show with the screens, lights, wristbands, disco ball, confetti canons, fireworks etc.

CM talked quite a bit between songs, which was nice. He mentioned King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut during ‘Politik’ and again later when he said they performed ‘Sparks’ there a long time ago when they were first starting out. He said some of us in attendance weren’t even born when their first albums came out and that his trousers are probably older than a lot of people there. He engaged with a lot of fans, pointing to them and singing directly to specific people. He came up with a random name and asked if anyone was here named Susan, knowing the chances would be high. We’re guessing he comes up with a different name every concert. Or is it always Susan? He was conscious of not being able to face everyone at once, having to turn his head “like an owl”. When they were over on the C Stage, he apologised to those over in the far end for being at the opposite end of the stadium but said at least they don’t have to smell them, as they don’t smell so good at this stage of the show. He said one day our grandchildren will ask us what the loudest crowd they’d ever heard on a Tuesday night was and he wanted it to be us. He said there were 50,004 people here and I didn’t realise until later that the extra four were the band members. Oops.

He was also very observant and professional. There were technical issues with the lighting interfering with the aesthetics of the show and he stopped a song in order to address them and get them fixed as soon as possible. He didn’t seem like he was being a diva about it but wanted everyone to get the best out of the experience and the whole thing wouldn’t look as good with those lights flickering on and off. When he paused the song, he said it was a good time for us to check our e-mails etc. It was a little awkward but the technicians fixed the issues within a couple of minutes. There were still complaints on Twitter about it but it looked sorted from where we were. He restarted ‘A Sky Full of Stars’ to get everyone to put down their phones and properly enjoy the moment, which got a big cheer. Someone hilariously recorded the song from their bedroom window on the second night at the stadium and posted it on Twitter, saying he didn’t say anything about recording it outside the stadium. He also stopped during ‘In My Place’ to take a drink of water, which was pretty funny as I was entranced up until that point – it being one of my favourite songs of theirs. I did ask Paul how the bands I see are always so flawless and nothing ever catches in their throats etc. Well, I guess it does happen sometimes.

When they were at the C Stage (the dance floor on the right-hand side), a girl shouted Chris’ name and he stopped to ask her what her question was but she didn’t actually have one. He said, “You just wanted to shout my name. Okay, I love you too,” and carried on. She threw away her one chance to talk to him. The guest star of the night “from the hills of Scotland” was Edwyn Collins. I didn’t know he was Scottish or that he sang ‘A Girl Like You’. They did an enjoyable rendition of it. I loved the guitar and much preferred him as a guest star to the likes of Stormzy or “Alan Partridge”, who performed at two of the recent Wembley shows. It’s exciting not knowing who’s going to come on as the guest star and it’s usually someone local. I wrongly guessed it would be Lewis Capaldi but he’s always busy. And there’s heaps of Scottish musicians to choose from. It was EC’s sixty third birthday! Everyone sang ‘Happy Birthday’ to him but it took a bit of uncomfortable prompting. CM thanked a load of people (the opening acts, organisers, security, volunteers on the bikes/dance floor etc.) for bringing everything together and said Scottish love “is the best kind of love”, somehow. He got us to wiggle our fingers to send out the love towards the stage for fireworks to go off. It was pretty corny but I didn’t sustain an injury from cringing too hard.

Near the end, CM got us to face the people on the other half of the stadium and wave/acknowledge each other, like we were on Tinder. It was supposed to get us to recognise each other in the streets or in bars etc. and make friends, which would make the experience even better, supposedly. There was a man directly opposite Paul who had a ’46’ (Valentino Rossi/The Doctor) cap and Paul had a ’46’ t-shirt on. That was a funny coincidence and maybe they would be good friends if they ended up interacting with each other. Perhaps CM is on to something. I don’t know why he insists on wearing yellow to each of these concerts but it’s hilarious, seeing as he never wants to stand out and that t-shirt glows in the dark under certain lighting conditions. I temporarily coloured my hair blue and purple to fit the theme and wore a tie-dye shirt and black leggings. Like the wiggling fingers thing, CM asked us all to wave goodbye to the band. Right at the end, he threw his t-shirt to a girl who held up a sign asking for it. I’ve seen them all over Twitter. I still think that’s a bit weird and would prefer a guitar pick. Especially after him talking about how bad they smelled. People were very jealous of her.

I was sad for it to end but my body was beginning to hurt everywhere from standing in the same cramped position for so long. Maybe I’m getting old. My knees were so sore the next day from stretching to see the band every time they moved to another stage or different area of the stadium. I’ll definitely see them when they tour again. They just announced new UK dates for Manchester and Cardiff next year but I’ll wait until their new tour, unless they change the setlist dramatically or something. Tickets will probably sell out immediately, if they are anything like these two dates. It was initially just the one night they were planning for Glasgow but they added another because of how quickly it sold out. That happens a lot with shows which are in high demand. We had such a good time and I know I’ll be thinking about this concert for a long time to come.