Brisbane NIMBY The Reason Coldplay Didn’t Tour Australia For Eight Years

Coldplay frontman Chris Martin recently revealed why the band hadn’t toured the East Coast of Australia in eight years, stating that an unhappy resident in Brisbane scared them off for years.

The band, currently playing shows in Melbourne and Sydney on their Music Of The Spheres tour, haven’t toured Australia since their 2016 A Head Full Of Dreams tour, before landing back down under last year for a pair of exclusive shows in Perth.

It turns out that there was a person in Brisbane with the NIMBY mindset (not in my backyard) that the band remember all these years later.

“We haven’t been to Melbourne and Sydney and Brisbane for quite some time,” Martin began, per news.com.au. “I’m going to tell it, f**k it.”

Revealing that he read a negative review of Coldplay’s concert at Brisbane’s Suncorp Stadium in December 2016, Martin continued, “The reason we haven’t played [here] for quite some time is, I made the mistake eight years ago, I looked at the press, and a gentleman wrote an article saying that he lived next to the stadium, and he said we ruined his night.

“So, I was like, ‘Oh s**t’.”

Martin then thanked the audience for supporting their current Music Of The Spheres tour while apologising to “anyone who can hear outside and we’re ruining their [night].”

He added, “What I learned from that is it’s OK if someone doesn’t like you. As long as you’re doing your best, maybe you’re helping them by being a safe target.”

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While that may be one reason the band hasn’t toured Australia in years, there’s also another: in 2019, following the release of their double album Everyday Life, Chris Martin shared that they wouldn’t tour the album—or any album—until Coldplay tours could be environmentally “beneficial.”

“We're taking time over the next year or two to work out how our tour can not only be sustainable [but] how can it be actively beneficial,” Martin told BBC News.

Adding that he wanted the tours to positively impact the environment, Martin explained that flights for the band, crew and gear were a substantial hurdle in the goal. He also stated that he wanted to remove single-use plastics from Coldplay shows and the shows to be solar-powered.

“We've done a lot of big tours at this point. How do we turn it around so it's not so much taking as giving?”

Last year, Coldplay added Perth to the Asian leg of the Music Of The Spheres tour, revealing that playing in Perth meant they got to travel fewer miles to Jakarta compared to playing in Sydney.

Explaining how they were reducing their carbon footprint and impact on the environment for two Perth shows, a spokesperson for the band said: “For all band and crew flights, more than 80 per cent of emissions are negated by the use of fossil-fuel-free Sustainable Aviation Fuel.

“For fireworks, Coldplay use a new generation of sustainable pyrotechnics that have less explosive charge and new formulas that greatly reduce harmful chemicals.”

The band’s team added, “All confetti used is 100 per cent biodegradable. Coldplay have reduced their CO2 emissions by 47 per cent compared to the last tour – verified by MIT Environmental Solutions Initiative – and aim to continue improving on this as the tour continues.”

You can find out more about the band’s environmental vision here.