Can Coldplay get any bigger? The British band have announced the biggest concert of their career – in January they’ll play the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, India, a cricket stadium which has a capacity of some 132,000.
The band announced the concert today on Instagram, and teased that they will be joined by a yet-to-be announced ‘mystery guest’. It’s one of four Indian shows they’ll play next year – the other three are in Mumbai.
The gig is part of their Music Of The Spheres tour, which has been going on since 2022, following the release of their Music Of The Spheres album in autumn 2021. Since then the band have released another album, Moon Music and set up a further global jaunt, which takes in dates in Europe, North America and Asia in 2025.
Coldplay still have some way to go before they can claim the prize of the biggest concert of all time. That resides with Vasco Rossi. Who, you might well ask. Well, Rossi, or ‘Vasco’ as he is better known to his legion of fans, is an Italian singer songwriter who played to over 225,000 at the Parco Enzo Ferrari in Modena in 2017. Virtually unknown in the UK, he’s most definitely a big deal in his homeland.
But even that enormo-gig is dwarfed by the free concerts that some artists have played. It’s estimated that over 3.5 million punters turned up to the Copacabana in Rio to see Rod Stewart play a New Year’s Eve gig in 1994, the same amount that caught Jean Michel Jarre in Moscow in September 1997 at a free event to celebrate the city’s 850th anniversary.
As for Coldplay they recently finished up a string of dates in Australia and New Zealand. The Melbourne date at the Marvel Stadium was significant for Chris Martin falling through a trap door in the stage, in much the same manner that Olivia Rodrigo did a few weeks’ earlier, also in Melbourne at the city’s Rod Laver Stadium.
So... what is it about Melbourne and pop stars falling through trap doors?
In the event, Martin was unharmed. A crew member reached from beneath the trap door on the runway and caught Martin as he tumbled. And the frontman, like Rodrigo, was able to style it out. As he climbed out, Martin said, “That’s, uh, not planned,” adding to the crew, “Thank you for catching me, so much. Holy shit. That was nearly a YouTube moment.”
Too late, Chris.
