Coldplay completed their latest lap of Australia before a full-house Sunday night (November 10th) at Sydney’s Accor Stadium — and confirmed they won’t be back anytime soon.
After the spills, thrills, rain and pain (for bass player Guy Berryman, at least) of earlier shows, this finale followed the playbook.
On a balmy evening, Chris Martin orchestrated a love-in with 83,000 punters, punching out a set-list split in two halves, with all the old favourites and a rare live trip back to the very start, with a performance of “Don’t Panic,” the first track from the band’s debut album, Parachutes.
After more than a quarter century of tinkering and refining their show, during which time they’ve pumped out 10 studio albums, all of them hitting No. 1 in their homeland, the British band has it all figured out.
The foursome has a considerable collection of stadium toys, and then some.
For the price of admission, you’re sprayed with confetti cannons, indulged with a dazzling light-show, inflatables, lasers, visits to the stage from random fans (including, on this occasion, a blind man and another chap dressed as a unicorn), fireworks, and those ubiquitous LED wristbands that can, in an instant, turn the audience into a sea of digital glitter. When it was time for the band to hit “Yellow,” the collective gathering turned at once into a trippy field of sunflowers.
“We’re sad to be leaving Sydney tomorrow, so we’ll have to make this the best show ever,” Martin enthused during the first half, using the set-up to launch into “The Scientist,” from the band’s classy second album A Rush of Blood to the Head.
If he was sad to be leaving, the die-hards in the place will be gutted.
While hitting “A Sky Full of Stars” late, Martin urged fans to send good vibes into the world, and do so “on this, our last show in Australia for a while.”
How long? Five or 10 laps around the sun, he warned, so “let’s make it special.”
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That checks out. Coldplay’s last full tour here was in 2016, though the band made a brief return in 2023 for two shows at Perth’s Optus Stadium, an exclusive that was used as a springboard for this east coast run, also produced by Live Nation.
This Music of the Spheres world tour is a record-setter, a U.S. $1 billion box-office beast. Australia has played its part. The first leg Down Under, a four-show run at Marvel Stadium, set a new mark for attendance to witness a rock band (227,000). By the time this stint is completed, with three sold-out shows to come at Eden Park, a record for the Auckland venue, this Australasian tour will have shifted more than 700,000 tickets.
Australian artists Emmanuel Kelly (with a cameo from Elly-may Barnes on a cover of “Imagine”) and Afrobeats musician Shone got the crowd warmed up for the main act, the latter joining the group with rising Australian singer Jazzy K and others for a rendition of “WE PRAY.”
After paying tribute to the late One Direction singer Liam Payne during an earliest date, Martin, looking out into the sea of fans, shared more love for 1D.
“We feel like One Direction,” Martin quipped. “The audience is so young and powerful and vibrant. Thank you after 28 years you’ve finally made us feel like a boy band.”
The takeaway from all this is togetherness. Martin, urging those wristbands to stay high in the air, sending energy, love, good vibes, and paying thanks to everyone, including Uber drivers and staff on the hotdog stands, had a special shout-out to his bandmates, who, remarkably have remained as the same unit after all this time.
“I’m so glad we’re still together.”
Coldplay setlist at Sydney’s Accor Stadium, November 10th (via Setlistfm).
1. Higher Power
2. Adventure of a Lifetime
3. Paradise
4. The Scientist
5. Viva la Vida
6. Hymn for the Weekend
7. Don’t Panic
8. God Put a Smile Upon Your Face
9. Yellow
10. ALL MY LOVE
11. Human Heart
12. People of the Pride
13. Clocks
14. WE PRAY
15. Infinity Sign
16. Something Just Like This (The Chainsmokers cover)
17. My Universe
18. A Sky Full of Stars
19. Sparks
20. The Jumbotron Song
21. Fix You
22. GOOD FEELiNGS
23. feelslikeimfallinginlove
