Coldplay
Coldplay are only halfway through their current Australian tour, but already it’s managed to break a long-standing attendance record in the country.
Touring in support of their ninth and tenth albums, 2021’s Music of the Spheres and 2024’s Moon Music (which peaked at No. 4 and No. 1 on the Billboard 200 upon release, respectively), the group launched their current trek at Melbourne’s Marvel Stadium on Oct. 30, with their fourth show in the city wrapping up on Nov. 3.
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While the run of shows has featured a few surprises (including a guest appearance from The Karate Kid’s Ralph Macchio during their song of the same name), their Melbourne run has been completed with news that the band broke the attendance record for a band at the venue, with 227,000 fans turning out across the four shows.
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“Coldplay have officially broken our all-time largest attendance record for a band at Marvel Stadium, with 227k people attending across the four Music of The Spheres World Tour shows held at the Stadium,” the venue wrote on Instagram today (Nov. 4).
According to the venue’s own history, the current record for highest-attended concert belongs to fellow English musician Adele, whose performance on March 19, 2017 was attended by a total of 77,327. Just shy of one year later, Ed Sheeran broke the record for the largest attendance for a concert series by a single artist, bringing in a total audience of 257,751 across four shows in March 2018.
Coldplay’s new attendance figure breaks the previous record set by Australian rockers AC/DC, whose Black Ice World Tour saw the band perform three shows at the venue in February 2010 to a total of 181,495 patrons.
The new record sees Coldplay only just relegated to third place in terms of the venue’s all-time attendance records, with Pink’s ‘Summer Carnival’ Tour resulting in a total of 228,000 concertgoers across four shows in February and March of this year.
The current tour is Coldplay’s first in Australia since 2016, though they performed two shows in Perth in 2023 due to an exclusive agreement with the state’s tourism board. Coldplay will finish their Australian tour with four shows at Sydney’s Accor Stadium this week.
Coldplay’s Chris Martin stopped by The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on Oct. 4, where the frontman discussed the band’s 10th album, Moon Music, which dropped the same day.
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In his latest Fallon appearance, the Brit also spoke about displaying Coldplay‘s original flyers from one of their first shows to promote their tour nights in London, making the vinyl for their latest project out of recycled plastic bottles.
Martin also opened up about bringing out Michael J. Fox as part of their record-breaking set in front of 100,000 people at Glastonbury.
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“I think there are certain things – especially for those your or my age – that are so imprinted on us and made us dream of doing this job,” Martin explained to Fallon. “One of those things for me is Michael in Back to the Future.”
“It’s so trippy to me that we get to play with him,” he said of having the actor join the band on stage at the world-famous festival, adding, “It feels like seven and being in heaven.”
“He’s so inspirational as a person – and then he’s Marty McFly,” he said about Fox’s famous film character.
“The first time I played with him was at a charity show, and I asked him if we could play the two songs from Back To The Future – and in the middle of ‘Earth Angel’ started looking at his hand like it was disappearing.”
“Maybe people watching are too young to remember – but that hand disappearing was everything,” Martin explained as Fallon gushed, “That’s so cool he did that!”
Martin also brought the laughs earlier in the evening as he reprised the viral disguise he used at a Las Vegas karaoke bar as part of their “All My Love” music video.
Coldplay’s latest album, Moon Music, features a variety of collaborations, with artists like Little Simz, Burna Boy, and TINI making appearances on tracks such as “We Pray” and “Good Feelings.” The album’s lead single, “feelslikeimfallinginlove,” has already made a mark on the Billboard charts, and with other tracks like “All My Love,” the project is shaping up to be another Coldplay hit.
Coldplay has long enjoyed an impressive run of Billboard chart success throughout their career. The band’s first No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 came with their anthem “Viva La Vida” in 2008, and since then, they’ve consistently landed hits, including “Paradise” and “Clocks.”
On the Billboard 200, all of their studio albums have debuted in the top 10, with several — X&Y, Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends, Mylo Xyloto, Ghost Stories, and A Head Full of Dreams — reaching No. 1.
The band’s recent dominance isn’t just limited to the studio. Their Music of the Spheres World Tour has been nothing short of historic, grossing $945.7 million and selling 8.8 million tickets since kicking off in March 2022. That makes it the highest-grossing and best-selling tour by a rock act in nearly 40 years, according to Billboard Boxscore.
Elsewhere on The Tonight Show, Chase Stokes also dropped by for an interview, while Sabrina Carpenter gave a showstopping performance on her unstoppable hit “Espresso.” Demi Lovato also stopped by to partake in Jimmy Fallon’s “Tonightmares.”
Check out Chris Martin on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon below.
Sabrina Carpenter is in the midst of a major battle, and her fiercest competitor is none other than herself.
As the U.K.’s Official Singles Chart reaches its midweek point, Carpenter’s smash hit “Espresso” remains piping hot and is neck-and-neck with “Please Please Please” (both via Island Records) as both singles vie for the coveted No. 1 spot.
“Espresso” debuted straight in at No. 6 on the Official U.K. Singles Chart upon its release, and on May 3, 2024, it became Carpenter’s very first U.K. leader. It also marked the highest-charting U.K. No. 1 about caffeine in 24 years, since All Saints’ 2000 hit “Black Coffee.”
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Meanwhile “Please Please Please,” the second single from Carpenter’s sixth studio album Short ‘n’ Sweet, toppled Eminem‘s “Houdini” back in late June to secure Sabrina her second U.K. No. 1 single in less than two months, while “Espresso” stayed at No. 2. In doing so, Sabrina set a new Official Chart record, becoming the youngest female artist in history to hold the No. 1 and No. 2 spots on the Official Singles Chart in the same week.
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In other U.K. singles chart news, rising star Chappell Roan is also making waves. Her catchy and heartfelt single “Good Luck, Babe!” (via Island) is poised to hit a new peak at No. 4, up from its debut in the top 10 last week.
Based on midweek sales and streaming data published by the Official Charts Company, Taylor Swift’s “Cruel Summer” (via EMI) is expected to re-enter the top 10 at No. 10, riding the wave of excitement from her The Eras Tour. Swift’s ability to keep her music relevant and engaging is once again on full display, as fans continue to support her timeless hits.
Dua Lipa, fresh off her headline performance at Glastonbury Festival, is seeing her track “Illusion” (via Warner Records) re-enter the top 20, currently at No. 13. The festival’s influence is also boosting Coldplay, with their new song “feelslikeimfallinginlove” (via Atlantic) set to reach a new peak at No. 21. Both acts have clearly benefited from their standout performances, drawing renewed attention to their latest releases.
BTS icon Jimin is aiming for his third top 40 U.K. single with “Smeraldo Garden Marching Band” (via Big Hit Music) featuring rapper Loco, with the track projected to land at No. 18. Inspired by The Beatles‘ iconic Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, the K-Pop star’s latest solo effort sees him once again collaborate with renowned producers Pdogg, GHSTLOOP, and EVAN, who previously worked on his debut solo album, FACE.
Stay tuned for the final chart results at the end of the week to see which tracks secure their positions.
Coldplay honored the late Tina Turner during their show at Barcelona’s Estadi Olimpic Lluis Companys on Wednesday night (May 24) with a performance of her hit, “Proud Mary.” Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news According to a number of social media users who were in attendance at […]
It was a year in which Rammstein blasted plumes of fire from a backpack, The Weeknd destroyed a miniature city in a hurricane of black smoke, Pepe Aguilar sang on horseback amid Aztec warriors and equestrian acrobats and Elton John gave a “Rocketman” tour of space from a video screen that bled into the stage. artists provided fans with endless stadium explosions and other over-the-top spectacles. Even though Inflation and supply-chain issues considerably jacked up expenses for 2022’s biggest tours, cutting corners was not an option. “It’s really important that we don’t short-change anybody,” David Furnish, John’s husband and manager, told Billboard in November, just before the singer’s final U.S. farewell tour show.
And in 2023, stars who continue or return to stadiums after emerging from COVID-19 quarantine are unlikely to scale down. “Our show is evolving,” Aguilar says from his Mexico City home. “Once I experimented with it, it’s hard to go back.”
Here are the stories behind five other ground-breaking concert special effects in 2022:
Bad Bunny’s floating dolphins and live-video merry-go-rounds
Befitting the year’s highest grossing tour, Bad Bunny went big with stadium special effects. The giant dolphins floating above the crowds were the most instantly eye-catching, but Bunny also integrated video into the shows in new ways. During “Callaíta,” he built on the merry-go-round imagery of his 2019 video and projected a 3-D live feed of his performance, as well as captured shots of individual fans and other elements of the show, into the frames of the rotating structure on stage. “There’s a lot more to it than meets the eye,” says Adrian Martinez, creative director for Sturdy, the production company that created much of the tour’s visual imagery. “A lot of shows just use loops and clips here and there and kind of just repeat. We wanted to make sure people were looking at something new pretty constantly.”
Coldplay’s LED spheres
After Coldplay‘s designer approached Frederic Opsomer with the idea for a new effect— hovering spheres festooned with LED strips— his staff at PRG Projects began two months of problem-solving. First, they considered “hardshell with a trussing system inside.” But that could have required seven or eight trucks with a crew of more than 60, which was unsustainable given the band’s mandate to be environmentally conscious. “We have to come up with another way,” Opsomer, PRG’s vp of global scenic, told the staff. So they concocted inflatable spheres, tested lightweight fabric coatings and determined they could fit in a fractional portion of a truck with just one crew member for maintenance. After accounting for rainy and windy stadium conditions, they built structures for the tour that began in March and tested them in factory settings, but didn’t feel fully comfortable until they lit up in bright colors on the first date. “How did we celebrate?” Opsomer asks. “I think we had a big smile on our face.”
Kendrick Lamar’s shadow play
During Kendrick Lamar‘s The Big Steppers tour, which ran from June to December, the rapper hunched over with his microphone, creating a big-screen shadow during “Count Me Out” with arrows wedged into Shadow Kendrick’s back when they did not actually appear in Real Kendrick’s back. “It’s this little photogenic moment that plays with reality,” says Mike Carson, one of the tour’s show designers and show directors, who helped coordinate choreographers, directors, lighting designers and video programmers to make it work. “It’s like a magic track. I read reviews and people describe what it is and still can’t pinpoint how he did it.” (Watch the whole show here.)
Adele’s piano on fire
It was Adele‘s idea last May to light her piano aflame during “Set Fire to the Rain.” That prompted five months of designers and crew members plotting and building a faux white Yamaha grand piano that bursts into flames while Adele sings during a manufactured rainstorm at her Caesars Palace residency in Las Vegas. Those flames spread more than 100 feet across the stage, part of an effect that involves a high-tech fire suppressant and huge troughs of water. The piano, says Paul English, Adele’s production manager, is “like a bath. It contains a load of water, so there’s a moment where [the piano] falls over and the water spills out. Then it sets itself on fire.” The flames heat up to 300 degrees, which means everything around it is at risk of melting or burning – which requires an elaborate rain “curtain” to keep in check. “So, yeah, it’s been challenging,” English adds.
Lady Gaga’s flaming cannons
For her Chromatica Ball stadium tour that kicked off this summer, Lady Gaga contrasted a brutalist-architecture set design inspired by 1920s German expressionism with non-stop explosions. Her “cold, very stark feel” in the set created a gray landscape that allowed her longtime production designer, LeRoy Bennett, to go crazy with orange-and-yellow pyro, aided by Rammstein’s special-effects company, FFP. (The flaming cannons are technically known in the special-effects industry as “liquid flame giga,” or LFGs.) “We’ve always had some pyro here and there, but never really went full-on big metal or Rammstein-style flames,” Bennett says. “She loves those kinds of effects. She’s a big fan of fire and the power and drama of it.”
Coldplay is back in the studio, and frontman Chris Martin took to Twitter on Tuesday (Dec. 6) to give fans an update as well as share some of the songs he’s listening to lately.
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“I hope you’re all doing well. Here are some things I love at the moment,” Martin wrote in a note shared to the social media platform, before listing his current top tracks which include RM‘s “Yun” featuring Erykah Badu, Badu’s live rendition of “Tyrone,” Bayka‘s “She Like It,” The 1975‘s “Looking for Somebody (to Love),” Inhaler‘s “Totally,” Kyoka‘s “Hurt People” and Stormzy‘s “Hide & Seek.”
Martin concluded his message by writing, “We are in the studio. We send you all much love.”
Coldplay unveiled their ninth studio album, Music of the Spheres, in October 2021 via Parlophone and Atlantic Records. The 12-track album featured the BTS collaboration “My Universe,” which blasted onto the Billboard Hot 100 chart at No. 1, marking the Brits’ first leader since 2008’s “Viva La Vida” and giving both groups appearances on the Rock & Alternative Airplay and Alternative Airplay charts.
Music of the Spheres, meanwhile, peaked at No. 4 on the all-genre Billboard 200 albums chart dated October 30, 2021, and spent eight total weeks on the chart.
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