A Rush of Blood to the Head

Back in early December 2023, in fact while enjoying a cold beer waiting for a Ball Park Music gig to start did Fatpap buy tickets online to a show that under normal circumstances he would have little to no interest in. They were purchased with someone else in mind and given the Australian shows sold out in minutes - he’d been trying since their release - he made a bold decision to grab the last remaining pair to a show in Auckland, New Zealand on November 16th 2024 - about a year away. Secured, they were safely stowed in the TicketMaster App and soon forgotten.

Jump forward 6 months to mid 2024 and the widespread internet buzz and daily Instagram feeds touting the brilliance of this world tour with most hailing it a “must see” concert event. Remembering he still had tickets Fatpap had a number of options available, the most synergistic taking his daughter as they both saw the band together in 2012. But she was still in Canada and that didn’t really make any sense. So back in the TicketMaster App they went while Fatpap toured Vietnam and Cambodia in September. Back home, a decision needed to be made, and quickly, and it was with a casual mentioning of the confounded tickets to Lyndall that things started to take action. With neither of us ardently supportive of the band, and in fact historically critical of them, over the phone nursing sympathetic wines we capitulated and booked flights to New Zealand, two nights accommodation in Auckland, and quickly became the worlds biggest fans of COLDPLAY.

The music industry had been decimated of late with most blaming post covid trembles, a cost of living crisis and a reluctance of overseas based acts to make the expensive journey to Australia. Falls Festival at the start of the year was cancelled. Groovin the Moo was cancelled after the line up was announced and tickets went on sale. Splendour in the Grass too was cancelled under similar conditions due to “unforeseen circumstances”, and citing the same reasons, Spilt Milk was similarly cancelled at the last minute. Hell, we even had tickets to see Catfish and the Bottlemen at the Horden Pavilion in September that were cancelled at 9:00am the day of the event!

However at the same time specialist festivals like Knotfest Australia and Monolith sold-out tickets within minutes and played to capacity crowds while various country music festivals thrived during 2024. But the most significant musical events of the year were the juggernaut world tours of COLDPLAY and Taylor Swift that have grossed over 1.14 and 2.2 billion dollars respectively. So based on that data any concern about lack of support or costs involved in touring Australia can be safely dismissed if the band (or genre) in question is loved enough by the punters.

Suffice to stay live music for us both this year had been very skint so why the hell not “jump the ditch” to see a band neither of us particularly liked to tweak those live music feelings and get balls deep again in a crowded mosh. Our justifications were the tickets had already been paid for and the money we saved - well, truer to say didn’t spend - at Splendour this year would more than cover the decedent costs of a 36hr jaunt to NZ.

Like all great overseas journeys ours once again started with the shit fight that is Sydney International Airport. With a more than civilised departure time of 13:55 we arrived around 10:30 Friday morning and parked surprisingly on the top deck of the international carpark with it being almost at capacity. Our saving grace though was only having carry-on luggage and with pre booked seating and check-in we breezed through immigration and straight to the Heineken Bar. This lovely little goldmine, while murderously expensive, does offer great views of the tarmac which for any aviation nerd is a must. Starting with Bloody Marys and G&T’s, we soon moved onto scotches with a side order of truffle fries and salt & pepper squid. Checking the receipt it was determined the airfare to AKL was actually cheaper than the Heineken Bar!

Flight NZ 106 touched down on New Zealand soil just before sunset and after clearing customs we snatched a nice little 3 pack of NZ wines duty free before meeting our pre arranged driver for the short trip in to the city. We decided to pay the little extra and grabbed a CBD apartment given our short stay and its proximity to public transport. The Quest Apartments on Queen Street were the perfect digs with a flashy chess board hallway, small kitchenette and private balcony. After dumping the bags we literally headed around the corner to Vulcan Lane to find the first bar we could which happened to be Vultures Lane Craft Bar. A few rounds of drinks and a fantastic serving of chilli prawns and spicy fried chicken strips helped us see out the early part of our first evening in Auckland.

Our first impressions of Auckland were wonderful with the town architecturally modern comprising a contrast of wide streets and boutique laneways. By the time we settled most places were shut and the town surprisingly quiet for a Friday evening but with Sydney 2hr behind our body clocks were not corresponding to the one hanging from the buildings in the mall. With last drinks offered, and of course accepted, we adjourned to our private balcony to watch this actually beautiful city slow down below us for the night while enjoying 2 of our recently purchased trio of wines until 2:00am.

We rose at our usual early hour to contemplate our one morning in Auckland. The concert tickets were “early entry” general admission which on reading the website’s fine print last night revealed access to the Eden Park grounds 2 hours before all the other plebs with just regular general admission tickets. Not usually our style, and particularly not for a commercial or mainstream band such as COLDPLAY, we healthily debated the need to utilise our ticket’s full potential and in the end decided to go all out and take complete advantage of the experience. That meant an early afternoon return to the hotel was needed so our limited time in Auckland quickly became even more limited.

Auckland is a world leader in e-scooter usage and considered an innovator in shared e-mobility. With only a single glance over our balcony half a dozen scooter stations were positioned in the mall alone and that was invitation enough for Fatpap to decide it would be our best option for exploring the city with our limited time. After downloading the app and registering online we were soon upwardly mobile and freely scooting across the harbour side section of Auckland city. Of course breakfast and a coffee were a must but the New Zealanders did their best to make this virtually impossible. Unknown to us, cafe culture is not really a scene in the land of the Long White Cloud and after scouting the length and breadth of the shoreline only one cafe was spotted that uninvitingly was brimming with patrons spilling out onto the road. We took a wider loop into the city but alas nothing was either sighted nor open. So back to the Wharf Side Cafe we headed for a second time managing to jag an outside table with full views of Auckland Harbour.

The food and coffee were magnificent with the establishment offering an all-day breakfast. That was fortuitous because it took all bloody day to arrive ! Over an hour we waited but remained chilled given the location and undeterred we basked in the sun, fought off exceptionally audacious seagulls and plotted our next move. With the scooters costing only $0.45 per minute we casually took a lap of the CDB through the main streets then up the hill to Albert Park and the University of Auckland. It was a fun way to spend the morning and a really good method of exploring the city. Auckland was unexpectedly a very beautiful city and while casually scooting passed seemed to have a lot to offer. In hindsight we could have easily flown in Thursday night allowing an extra day to explore the city, however as a last minute junket we didn’t really consider that.

After returning the scooters and showering back at the hotel we readied ourselves for the main event and the whole reason we made this ridiculously decedent journey. Auckland’s main train station, Britomart was conveniently located only metres from our hotel and all travel fares were included in the price of the concert tickets. We therefore logically boarded the 14:44 service to Eden Park and along the way got to see even more of this amazing city.

Eden Park is located only three kilometres southwest of the Auckland CBD and has a nominal capacity of 50,000. Often referred to as New Zealand's national stadium it wasn’t hard to find and we just followed the hundreds of other punters down to entry gate Q. This is where the benefit of slightly better tickets came into play as we entered via a VIP passage, were adorned with numerous wrist brands and the famous COLDPLAY electric light bracelet, then corralled into “lanes” marked out with staked ropes. There were perhaps only 80-100 people in front of us and we felt very confident of securing a fantastic ring side position for the show. At times we all took turns minding queue positions as we checked out the merchandise tent, food stands and of course the bar which all were conveniently located only metres away. There we stayed for over an hour which actually flew by given the usual meet & greet chatter one engages in with other patrons similarly killing time.

On the stroke of 5:00pm a monstrously large Maori gentlemen lead us through to the arena constantly warning not to run or rush ahead. Needless to say no one was brave enough to defy his request. Walking around the back of the enormous stage was a little surreal and when actually entering the stadium it felt like we were on our own guided tour. The place was massive and of course empty, and we were ushered very civilly toward the end of a large island stage running 3/4’s the length of the ground. Here we were set loose and it was a free for all for the best positions with everyone quickly selecting their preferred setting. Our station of choice was right on the barrier of the left side of the aforementioned island stage about 20 metres from the main stage and right next to an egress passage purposely left free on the floor for obvious crowd control. We immediately welcomed those around us strategising how best to maintain our footing while making new friends which always comes in handy in situations like these.

Over the following few hours we passed the time by exchanging stories with those within earshot and swaying left and right and from foot to foot to alleviate the deep vein thrombosis accumulating in the legs. Soon a parade of support acts and welcome to country performers filled their allotted sets like a troupe of Barnum & Bailey performers. Some would say they were entertaining, we wouldn’t, but they did seem to speed up the process of waiting for the headline act and with each leaving the stage the air of expectations rose. Auckland had put on a spectacular day thus far and as the sun set westward almost directly over the main stage, the temperature dropped ever so slightly and a slender breeze swept across the colossal arena. It was getting close and the crowd knew it.

There has been a trend over the past few years for mega bands to play some majorly obscure song as the precursor to their show. On most occasions it sucks, in fact on all occasions it sucks, and tonight the theme to E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial blast through the wall of convex speakers signalling an impending arrival. The $10 Steven Spielberg received in royalties from our tickets could have easily bought another beer.

The Music of the Spheres World Tour was to promote COLDPLAY’s ninth and tenth studio albums, Music of the Spheres (2021) and Moon Music (2024) respectively and began in San José, Costa Rica on 18th March 2022. The performance we were about to see would be the bands 178th on tour and the 66th city they had visited. With over 10.4 million tickets sold to date Auckland was their last stop for 2024 and tonight their last gig for the year. Set to conclude with a 10 show stretch at Wembley Arena, London in September 2025, COLDPLAY will have performed 226 shows in 82 cities to well over 13 million fans. Not too bad for 4 geeky lads from London.

The band didn’t tour their previous album Everyday Life due to environmental concerns and spent two years developing strategies that aimed to reduce their CO2 emissions by 50%. While they make extensive use of pyrotechnics and confetti in their shows, they were adapted to minimise the group's carbon footprint. Other initiatives included crafting the worlds first mobile rechargeable show battery in conjunction with BMW which is cheekily charged by stationary bikes placed on site for the punters to use and a kinetic dance floor that generates power for the following nights show. They also plant a tree for every ticket sold and heavily donate to The Ocean Cleanup.com from their profits. As a result, tour emissions were cut by 59% during the first two years leading Time Magazine to list COLDPLAY among the world's most influential climate action leaders. Pollstar declared that they ushered in "a new era of sustainable touring" that has since been adopted by other musicians big and small.

With a global cultural impact, the Music of the Spheres World Tour has grossed $1.14 billion in revenue from 10.4 million tickets making it the most attended tour of all time and the second-highest-grossing behind Taylor Swift as alluded to earlier. The band has also set a variety of records at the venues they visit with their shows in general receiving widespread acclaim from music critics who praise COLDPLAY’s stage presence, musicianship, versatility, joyfulness and production value.

Now that all sounds wonderful and while simultaneously lubing up the globe environmentally, just how does this band perform live and what could they do to soften, and lets be truthful, us opinionated music lovers forever gimbaling toward alternative acts with a panache for quirkiness and as far removed from mainstream as possible?

Chris Martin, Jonny Buckland, Guy Berryman and Will Champion almost dawdled to the stage via a hidden set of stairs and grabbed their instruments like they were playing to a half filled pub on a Sunday afternoon in the Coldswalds in South West England. The air was palpable, the crowd surged just a little and our $10 ET royalty had thankfully expired as the house lights dimmed.

Coinciding with the very first note an ignition of coloured lights choked the stadium and confetti cannons filled the air with a magical carpet of fairytale-esque environmentally friendly paper hearts. 50,000 people exploded, literally exploded and sung every lyric only a millisecond behind Chris Martin. The second song seamlessly joined the first and by the time the third had ended not a spoken word had been uttered by any band member yet every attendee was already hoarse from singing so passionately.

Except for Fatpap.

He’d honestly never heard the first song before, the second he vaguely recalled once seeing the video clip for, and the third he vehemently despised. But such was the euphoria sweeping through the arena like an unseen plague of joyous humanity he was bouncing up and down, dancing like no one was watching while swaying his wristband way above his head and twirling beneath the still falling heart-shaped confetti. He was an immediate fanboy and unashamedly let everyone know.

Like them or not COLDPLAY live are unbelievable and 50,000 people, every night for 178 performances must convince any non believer of that. The music is cookie-cutter, particularly the newer stuff, but the anthemic ear-worms they somehow manage to regularly conjure have a deft way of seeping deep into any listener’s being regardless of their fighting urges to resist. Do that in a caldron of adorning fans with lights and sounds and confetti and blow-up balloons and even Sid Vicious would convert. Fatpap most certainly did.

COLDPLAY burst onto the scene with their debut album Parachutes in July 2000 spawning hits like Yellow, Sparks and Shiver. Winning a Brit Award for Album of the Year and a Grammy for Best Alternative Music Album, Parachutes had incredible depth given the relative age of the band members with their music melodic and catchy but with a Radiohead twang to them. As a true four piece, COLDPLAY produced 10 songs that would in time define them as musicians.

Their sophomore album, 2002’s A Rush of Blood to the Head is in this writers opinion their best work to date launching hits like Clocks and The Scientist which aren’t by any stretch the greatest tracks from the album. God Put a Smile Upon Your Face, Politik, and In My Place are arguably better but never really got the attention they deserved despite the latter winning a Grammy to go along with the other two awarded to the album. Rush of Blood is rockier than its predecessor with a heavier guitar and keyboard influence which to many encapsulates the definitive COLDPLAY sound.

X & Y followed in 2005 taking the band in a slightly new direction and landing some absolute bangers like Square One, Talk and Speed of Sound while introducing the world to the crowd favourite and ultimate tear jerker, Fix You. The music of X&Y consists of a multi-layered production with heavy electronic influences and extensive use of synthesizers. Unlike the two previous albums, characteristics that contribute to the album's grandiosity include faster tempos, dynamic drum patterns, distorted guitar riffs, and driving basslines. Borrowing for Talk the hook from Kraftwerk’s "Computer Love" with their full permission but played on electric guitar best envelops the new direction COLDPLAY were taking their music with this release.

Viva La Vida came in 2008 cementing the bands ability to write poppy anthemic songs for the masses, the most recognisable being the titular track. With some slightly darker lyrical tones touching on love, war and revolution the album contrasted with their previous releases. Using an orchestra on some tracks, others are influenced by tribal music and Afropop. Featuring less falsetto, Martin allowed his voice's lower register to take precedence and the album has a more universal approach dealing less with personal problems and more with issues of humanity. The influence of the Beatles can be found in many tracks while less subtlety in the bands touring outfits mirroring Sgt. Peppers.

What followed was a distinct change in their sound with the 2011 release of Mylo Xyloto as the band's first concept album and its thematic rock opera vibes. Telling the story of a war against sound and colour on the planet Silencia overtaken by a totalitarian government led by Major Minus who controls the population through media and propaganda. The album follows Mylo Xyloto, a "silencer", a soldier in an army tasked to hunt and track down "sparkers", people who harness light and energy and use it to create sparks, comparable to graffiti in real life. Yep, stick to music Chris and let the other Martin, George RR deal with the fantasy.

The album though did produce some fantastic tracks like Hurts Like Heaven, Charlie Brown and Every Teardrop Is a Waterfall but unfortunately unleashed the woeful track Paradise into the world forever tarnishing their discography to date. For Fatpap, this was the turning point for him and the band and he recalls telling his children at the time, who all absolutely rinsed the album on its release, that COLDPLAY were gunning for U2 status and things were about to change. Note to my children: You must confirm this in the comment section below that dad was right.

What came after that Fatpap has no idea. Ghost Stories (2014), A Head Full of Dreams (2015), Everyday Life (2019), Music of The Spheres (2021) and Moon Music (2024). All obviously were commercially successful, critically acclaimed and universally loved judging by the tour information outlined above. But at some point along that journey they adopted further Beatles inspiration and got a little bit into aliens. Having veered away from the melancholic alt-rock that made them famous and spinning themselves towards the anthemic space-pop sound that began with Mylo Xyloto, the band have moved on from single planets to whole galaxies. The Music of the Spheres tour has so much lore behind it that the band even built an app where you can learn that on “the water planet” Calypso, the inhabitants speak “Aquamarine”. So yeah, on the spectrum of sci-fi world building it’s on the Avatar end of cringe.

Having said that though, more so in a thinly disguised justification of trying not to like COLDPLAY, the band and its members are all conquering on the stage and put on THE most spectacular performance we have ever seen. Not solely for the music, that has been made clearly obvious, but for the package they deliver to their adoring fans and the feelings they invoke through their unique combination of sound, light and warmth.

Throughout the night Martin was effusive with praise and gratitude for everyone and everything. Like a minister at times, frequently asking for hands in the air, he requests we twinkle our fingers to send good vibes to “the Holy Land, to Palestine and Israel and Iran and all that” and our collective efforts cause a fireworks display behind the stage. Contrived or not. Cheesy or not. We all bloody did it ! The energy across the stadium was more than enough to engulf all and sundry and the occasional fat old man from Australia. It was all very polished but also unbelievably contrived. The crowd was delighted when Martin stopped performing A Sky Full of Stars to ask everyone to put their phones away and just be in the moment. A truthful and sobering commentary to our reliance on technology but one orchestrated at every concert in their 178 run. A quick Instagram search will confirm.

The band like many nowadays utilised 3 stage arenas to get as close as possible to all the patrons with both guitarists often roaming aimlessly, and an almost acoustic 10 minute run deep in the crowd was highlighted by Viva la Vida whipping the masses into a peaceful frenzy as the lyrics cryptically imply. Using every inch of the 50 metre central ramp Martin pranced and skipped and hypnotically jigged his way to every corner of the stadium making eye contact with those below adoringly in return. He is truly a showman and the band command an equal stage presence. However, their newer spineless tracks about peace and love, like the woefully trite We Pray, fall flat even in a sold-out stadium. People of the Pride sounds like something Muse would have done 10 years ago and Fatpap will argue to the death that A Rush of Blood to the Head has a strange, dark urgency that still feels exciting and Parachutes is a great debut even if you’re bloody sick of Yellow by now. The performance of older tracks like Clocks, Sparks and The Scientist are great reminders COLDPLAY were perhaps more musically accomplished in their earlier years before becoming commercial megastars. (Saying that while bitching about the cost of a Bloody Mary while they reap billions from this tour.) Of the 22 tracks performed in the over 2hr set Fatpap knew 10 of them, had previously heard 2 more while Lyndall was familiar with a few more than that. But that wasn’t the point, regardless of the above words doing their best to undermine this band in an effort of maintaining a perceived musical dignity, they were simply enthralling and unbelievably entertaining. Even not knowing the songs diminished the experience nor the joy and love and freedom they brought to this writer for 130 minutes on a coldish November night in Auckland. In a year tarnished by some unexpected shit but equally speckled with greater delights, this was a highlight and an absolute decadent weekend away that by all rights should never have happened. But fuck it. Though the experience was initiated for someone else, having Lyndall there dancing equally as awkward and mumbling lyrics we didn’t really know made this never imagined experience one for the books and quite rightly blog worthy.

But isn’t that the point of music. To experience new acts and hear songs for the first time. Don’t we sprout on about that at Splendour every year and the joys of discovering new artists. COLDPLAY aren’t new nor playing a 10:30 Sunday set, they are global megastars who even in their 24 year history still manage to deliver yet unheard music. That surely classifies as new and they delivered it with equal enthusiasm as an up-and-coming band playing a 10:30 Sunday set would. They amazed, they enlightened and they entertained. Fair play COLDPLAY.

The slow exit from Eden Park was to be expected but made the easier by the non stop chatter to anyone next to you about what we’d just witnessed. The trains of course were more tightly packed than earlier but ran every 5 minutes and quite intelligently non-stop back to the city. We returned to our hotel balcony around midnight to open the last of our NZ wines and relived the whole concert until the wee small hours never ceasing to find confetti hidden in pockets, hair and the back of shirts. With an Uber coming at 5:30am for a return flight to Sydney at 9:00am, we had only a few hours sleep but honestly couldn’t care less.

At the airport we of course did some light duty free shopping, had the most spectacularly delicious, and more probably unhealthy bacon & egg muffins and gleefully accepted an upgrade to Premium Economy to help soften the burdensome journey we’d been forced to endure since leaving Sydney. NZ 103 touched down at Kingsford Smith at 10:30am where we again scooted through immigration and headed straight to a birthday party for Fatpap’s daughter. Yes, his daughter. The one living in Canada that couldn’t come to the concert because she was on the other side of the planet. Well, she surprised us all by returning home for her birthday thus facilitating our hasty exit from NZ.

We were away for only 36 hours and spent way too much money but the experience was absolutely marvellous and filled with laughs and fun as any part of life should be. COLDPLAY are by no means our most favourite band but having seen them under these circumstances, we will always remember the joy they delivered to us. Auckland was awash with COLDPLAY fever with their songs audible in bars, restaurants, the bloody airport and just about every street busker belting out their version of Yellow or Viva La Vida. They must create that circus in every town they visit, and from a pair of recently converted cynical old mainstream haters, we are thankful for that power and the smile they put on every face coming into its orbit.

So again, something a little left field from us which we hope you all enjoyed. We blogged this trip wanting to illustrate how music of any type can bring happiness when you open yourself to it. It helps tying in a little “crossing of the ditch”, but you’ll never have those experiences when sitting on the couch.

See you all next time.

Peter & Lyndall

Splendour in the Mud 2022 - Part 1