Live Review: Coldplay @ Marvel Stadium, Melbourne

Tonight’s Coldplay concert is powered by renewable energy—through power bikes and kinetic floors.

They’ve used renewable fuel for their freight, transport, and air travel. The LED wristbands we’ve received are made from compostable materials. Our ticket supports reforestation, ocean clean-up, conservation, rewilding, soil restoration, carbon capture, green and clean tech, environmental law, and advocacy.

The Music Of The Spheres Coldplay album logo flashes up on the screen to signal their performance start following a Welcome To Country, and lead singer Chris Martin unexpectedly comes out on stage for a pre-show announcement without the rest of the band.

“It’s a shame, but we waited until the last minute to tell you that our bass player, Guy, is very, very sick and will not be able to play today (for the first time ever), so we’ll have a slightly different show, and we’ll do our best to make it amazing because we’re in Melbourne with all of you beautiful people.

“However, if you see some mistakes and some problems, it’s because we don’t have our bass player, and we only had about an hour to figure it out, but we have a strange alien-weird-friend-character looking like he’s playing bass. So, you’ll hear Guy, but you just won’t see him because he’s vomiting,” Martin reveals with a nervous laugh. 

The first act of the tour follows the theme of the planets. We watch a short video travelling through the solar system as we’re welcomed into their Music Of The Spheres. They set off with Higher Power. Rainbow-coloured inflatable balls are then thrown into the air for Adventure Of A Lifetime. Martin sings a line of John Farnham’s You’re The Voice before continuing with Paradise. 

By the fourth song, things are going great, and we wouldn’t have even noticed anything different—Martin thanks the crowd for overlooking the problems that go unnoticed by the audience. Their music engineer and co-producer, Bill Rahko, steps up in a helmet and jumpsuit to play bass exceptionally well, considering he had thirty minutes’ notice. 

Martin sits at the piano for The Scientist and pours his heart out with pure emotion for the fan-favourite ballad. He stops to talk to the audience before the end to share his gratitude and officially welcomes everyone for coming out on a Wednesday night. 

Martin lets us in on a little secret story about overcoming insecurity.

“Last year we played in Perth. The reason we haven’t played in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane for quite some time is that I made the mistake eight years ago of looking at the press from our show in Brisbane, where a gentleman who lived next to the stadium wrote the review and said we ruined his night,” he explains with a laugh.

“I want to thank you for anyone who bought tickets, and I want to apologise to anyone who can hear this outside if we’re ruining their night,” he adds. He continues with the final chorus of The Scientist by encouraging the audience to sing it back to them so they can hear everyone’s voices.

The second act’s theme is moons. It starts with the whole band on the B-Stage in the middle of the stadium for Viva La Vida, followed by Hymn For The Weekend. Martin runs up and down the length of the stage at a charging pace, conjuring up an infectious energy.

Martin looks across the stadium, pointing out fans and flags and reading some of their signs out aloud. He spots two Argentinian fans with a sign proclaiming their engagement proposal was to Coldplay’s song Everglow, so he invites them up onto the stage to play it for them as the couple sits by his side at the piano for a special moment.

The band rejoins Martin as they raise the levels back up with Charlie Brown, and our LED wristbands flash in rainbow colours along with the beat of the music. The stadium then turns into a bright, warm glow for Yellow.

Act three focuses on the stars and begins with Human Heart, sung by Jim Henson’s ex-Muppet characters called The Weirdos – a fictional alien puppet band created by Coldplay for their Music Of The Spheres universe. 

Clocks quickly catch our attention, and the sounds of piano keys echo in the air, instantly drawing us back in as Martin returns on vocals. They’ve recruited some friends from Melbourne, including a choir, to join them on the anthemic track We Pray.

Martin puts on an alien head mask and a T-shirt with the text ‘Everyone is an alien somewhere’ printed across the front for Something Just Like This. The stadium becomes illuminated with a kaleidoscopic display of coloured lights as we hold our wristbands up to the sky and dance to the electro-pop track.

“All you need is love and a basic knowledge of Korean,” says Martin before diving into My Universe, featuring Korean boy band BTS singing on the digital screen alongside him.

Martin launches into A Sky Full Of Stars but suddenly stops right before it takes off for the first chorus.

“This is the weirdest show ever, but we’re having so much fun,” he exclaims. “I want to do this song with just us in this one-time gathering, and I ask for no cameras, no cell phones, nothing electronic filming or recording – just a bunch of people. All you need for this song is your phone in your pocket and your hands in the sky,” he requests. The song restarts and goes off with a blast of fireworks for an explosive finish.

The final act brings the show home. Three of the band members walk through the audience to the C-stage. “This is a song that’s twenty-something years old, and it’s only good because of the bassline, and our bass player Guy is not here, so what you’re gonna witness tonight is what’s called amateur bass playing – but this amateur happens to be our brother, Will [Champion],” Martin says. They play Sparks and make an emotional tribute dedicated to the late Shane Warne and his family.

Martin picks up his acoustic guitar and begins to thank random audience members when the camera focuses in on them in the crowd with impromptu verses of The Jumbotron Song. We then join them in putting our hands up in the air to send love from Melbourne out to the rest of the world before Fix You.

Inflatable planets of the solar system appear around the perimeter of the stadium, and we’re asked to pop on a pair of the moon goggles we were given upon arrival tonight. Our view of the light turns into shimmering stars and hearts before our eyes for a truly amplified experience during GOOD FEELiNGS, featuring Ayra Starr, who joins them live on stage to sing on the upbeat, feel-good track.

Feelslikeimfallinginlove serves as the final performance followed by an outro of ALL MY LOVE as the credits roll. An incredible fireworks display lights up the sky full of stars. We’re left with one final message displayed across the screen ‘Believe In Love’.