Fireworks explode, lasers shoot, giant balls bounce and a sea of LED wristbands pulse in synchronicity as a rugby stadium in Hull is turned into an exploding candy shop of colour. Now in its third year and approaching a final 10 nights at Wembley Stadium – though it’s expected to return from 2027 – Coldplay’s Music of the Spheres tour is now the highest attended in rock history with more than 12m tickets sold.
It’s easy to see why. Over the Springsteen-esque shimmer of Higher Power, Chris Martin and co offer up a dizzying dose of Technicolor funk-pop with a level of production that is as impressive as it is overwhelming. At times it’s like being plugged into a VR version of a “good vibes only” LSD trip, including sections with the band dressed as cute aliens and the audience wearing 3D glasses that turn everything into lovehearts.
There’s no kiss-cam drama tonight and Martin is in effusive form, gushing praise for Hull and the crowd to almost sycophantic levels. It’s arguably futile to criticise the cloying earnestness and heavy-handed sentiment of Coldplay, given how baked into their DNA and appeal it is by now, but it’s laid on so thick it can feel exhausting.
However, it is lapped up thirstily. When Martin tells the audience to “dance like nobody’s watching” over the EDM stomp of A Sky Full of Stars, to wave at someone in the crowd as if they are “a best friend you’ve not met yet” during the eruptive surge of Yellow, or to send positivity to the people of Sudan through wiggling their fingers as pyrotechnics pop, they do just that.
Fix You is turned into an almost candlelit mass-type singalong as the audience’s wristbands turn into a warm yellow glow, and from a pounding version of Clocks to the gentle acoustic hum of Sparks, the band command, control and own every inch of the vast space as they move around it.
An attempt at a karaoke-style singalong with the crowd to All My Love as a finale falls flat but it matters little. Fireworks are soon exploding again, bookending an evening that is pure visual extravaganza and intoxicating spectacle – like a rush of sugar to the head.
