Venue:
Wembley Stadium
Date: 12/09/2025
The long awaited family outing to see Coldplay in concert was delayed a few days when the gig was rescheduled from the 8th to the 12th due to the TFL strike. My carefully planned booking of a parking space hastily rebooked aside, the reschedule was pretty straightforward.
I don’t much like stadium gigs. There are just too many people and, especially, getting home is a pain in the arse. When driving, the psin is on the journey to the gig and that took just over 3 hours of which the last 4 miles was about half.
We got to the concert in time to see the last half of the last support act. Pretty good but not so much that I rememebered her name or any of the songs.
A short interval and, 10 minutes late, Coldplay came on. They started with one of the new songs Higher Power. It was very good – the stadium lights up with the wristbands we were all given and this alone is a gobsmackingly brilliant bit of theatre. The song was good in that way that modern Coldplay songs go – fair enough verse and a home run of a chorus. Enough lah lah lah bits for us all to join in.
The best bits were largely obvious – The Scientist, Viva La Vida, Yellow, Clocks, A Sky Full Of Stars, Sparks and Fix You. These are songs that are built for a big stadium with the whole audience being part of the show with the wristbands lighting up, spelling LOVE and froming hearts.
The rest of the show fell into three parts. Good songs that are less familiar, less good songs and Chris Martin talking. Talking a lot. He is, I suspect, an undeniably lovely bloke. He can be amusing, self-effacing, polite and engaging. But it does begin to get tiresome. There are possibly similar levels of engagement in a Bruce show but, for whatever reason, Bruce seems engaged and engaging whereas Chris seems terribly nice but waffly.
There was a cover of I Wanna To Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me). It was something that I didn’t really need to hear. I would have swapped it for See You Now being played in a heartbeat. I may not be Coldplay’s target audience though.
All in all, it was a polished and very impressive bit of concert staging. It actually needs a stadium in order for it to feel epic I suspect. But it was a strangely antiseptic vibe – it was about as far away from rock and roll as it is possible to get whilst still being a ‘rock’ band.
The audience:
Pretty mixed. All wanting to enjoy themselves and have fun. They seemed to be successful in this quest.
It made me think..
I have tickets tfor Sigur Ros at the Royal Albert Hall next month. There will be a full orchestra and I suspect it will be all about the songs and the performance. Coldpay were about the spectacle and the staging. I suspect Sigur Ros will be more my cup of tea.
Did they play Yello which is my favourite Radiohead song?
No they played Radio Head which is your favourite Talking Heads song (possibly)
See I know that: Coldplay took their name from a Talking Heads track called It’s Yello
Was Chris Martin in Yello? Fuck me.
Well, that would explain the blank look I often see on his face.
Oh yeah
I quite like them on record. But live, they take the piss in ways that are almost certainly commonplace, but still… there are four men in the band and that’s what you see. The sound of at least 5-10 more is heard via playback. Please, just hire some more musicians and loosen up a bit! It’s not far from miming.
Sounds like a good example of “modern stadium entertainment”; slick, and using every entertainment tech trope to make it work. Not my sort of act, but I suspect I may have seen it in other bands who affect to be more “authentic”, as it’s often showbiz now, so i’m not going to be superior about Coldplay. I remember reading somewhere that The Rolling Stones were using sampling for some of Charlie’s rimshots on the 1990 tour. As you say, it’s the “getting in and out” that can be a problem. About the only larger venue concert I can imagine seeing in the future is if the “Beat” ensemble (Vai, Belew, Levin and the drummer from Tool) come to the UK next year (and Europe is due a visit). I really hope they play theatres rather than stadia. Playing rather than triggering samples will be possible there, and it can be more of a circus than Fripp would allow…
I’ve got quite a lot of time for their first 3 albums but it’s their choreographed clothes I find annoying. Nurrr.
Hmmm how many bands come out all dressed in black
Same here. Lost interest after that.
I saw this very same show at Wembley in 2022.
They’ve announced that the tour will continue into 2027.
Higher Power was released in 2021, when the tour began, so the new song you mentioned is 4 years old and the tour will last for at least 6 years.
In some ways, this is the speed of things these days. I’ve seen Coldplay a few times (2002, 11, 16, 22) and they put on a great live show, albeit with diminishing returns in terms of new material and invention. I like them and it’s great that more people can see the show. But I can’t help but wonder when they’ll decide it’s time to change things up.
But it’s a good show.
I do know what you mean about antiseptic. The overly sincere tone doesn’t really ring true for me personally and I’d likely relate better to a touch more authenticity.
It wasn’t quite insincere but it felt a lot like virtue signalling in order to create the perfect ‘love’ vibe. More like musical theatre – the band perform their roles in the band without any real emotion.
This recent article in the BBC site did a good job of explaining to me why I would probably have a good night out if I went to see Coldplay, but also have no interest in doing that.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c306m86y824o
Doesn’t sound like my thing at all, but I can see the appeal in entertainment terms. I saw them bottom of the bill at the Bull and Gate in 1999 and thought ‘that lot should do well’. Had a chat with the very friendly Chris Martin, he had a Leo Sayer-sized mop of curly hair and a knitted tank top. Spoiler alert – they did do quite well, but I was sad to see how quickly and how vigorously the edges were sanded off.
It sounds to me like a gig that I would absolutely enjoy if I was there, but I don’t think I actually want to go to the effort (and expense) of going. Which is why I was delighted when an old school friend told me he could get me in on the guest list (he knows the bass player, apparently), and I was rather looking forward to it, but then it all fell through, as my friend was abroad and organising it seemed a bit too difficult.
Maybe if they come back to London between now and 2027 I’ll get another chance.
Being the bass player in Coldplay seems like a good gig – loads of money, travelling the world in luxury, and yet only fans of the band know who you are or recognise you. I bet he can walk down the street almost everywhere without being bothered.
I imagine if any other member of Coldplay took Chris Martin home for Sunday lunch the rest of the family would say, ‘Who’s that with Chris?’ as they walked in.
We really should refer to them as Coldplayblokes.
It would help if they changed their names à la The Ramones. If they were Johnny, Joey and Dee Dee Coldplayer then people could remember who they are more easily and they’d be able to charge more on Cameo.
Ah, now you’re talking. I await their cover of Word Up with anticipation. Chris Martin in a leather codpiece. There’s a scary thought.