Coldplay’s world tour was almost axed over money worries

Coldplay were close to cancelling their ongoing Music of the Spheres world tour due to financial constraints, frontman Chris Martin has revealed.

In a new interview with fan site ColdplayXtra, the singer said that the tour, the staging of which has seen the band commit to unprecedented sustainability measures, almost had to be pulled due to spiralling costs.

“It became financially stressful, which we hadn’t had before. We never really had a big financial crisis,” he explained. “This was the first time where there was a point where we couldn’t do the tour due to all the money stuff.”

He went on to say that the global stadium run was only able to go ahead after the intervention of unnamed benefactors. “But luckily we had some help and they saved the day and we did a few changes here and there.”

“This tour was about trying new things and some of them work and some don’t,” he continued, in an apparent nod to the environmental considerations the band have made. “We are so lucky that we can survive and sustain losses and that’s OK.“

Eco-friendly aspects of the Music of the Spheres tour have included cutting direct emissions by 50 per cent compared to their most recent tour, as well as powering their shows with what they’ve described as renewable, super-low emission energy.”

The concept has met with a mixed response, with the Transport and Environment campaign group having slammed the band as “useful idiots for greenwashing” over a deal they struck with Finnish oil company Neste to supply sustainable biofuel for the tour; the firm’s own palm oil suppliers cleared at least 10,000 hectares of forest in countries including Indonesia and Malaysia between 2019 and 2020.

“When we announced this tour, we said that we would try our best to make it as sustainable and low carbon-impact as possible, but that it would be a work in progress,” was Coldplay’s response in a statement back in May. “That remains true. We don’t claim to have got it all right yet.”

The tour last month took in a six-night stand at London’s Wembley Stadium, which saw them joined onstage by an eclectic cast of special guests that ranged from Stormzy to Steve Coogan, the latter covering Kate Bush’s ‘Running Up That Hill’.

More UK dates are set for 2023, with extra shows having been added due to demand. You can see them below. The band have so far shifted more than 1.4 million tickets on the Music of the Spheres tour. Rolling Stone UK called the final night of their Wembley residency “a masterclass in showmanship” in a four-star review.

Coldplay, May 2023:

31 – Manchester, Etihad Stadium

June 2023:

1 – Manchester, Etihad Stadium

3 – Manchester, Etihad Stadium

4 – Manchester, Etihad Stadium

6 – Cardiff, Principality Stadium

7 – Cardiff, Principality Stadium