Coldplay’s ‘Music Of The Spheres’ world tour was almost pulled due to money troubles

Coldplay were close to cancelling their plans for their ‘Music Of The Spheres’ world tour after the band faced money issues.

That’s according to singer, guitarist and pianist Chris Martin, who told The Sun that a “big financial crisis” was looming for the band for the first time in their history, and that unnamed people or organisations came to their rescue.

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

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“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. We are so lucky that we can survive and sustain losses and that’s OK.”

Credit: Stevie Rae Gibbs

Coldplay’s current world tour is being staged in as eco-friendly a manner as is possible, including measures such as cutting direct emissions by 50 per cent compared to the band’s tour in 2016 and 2017. They are also using 100 per cent renewable energy and having solar installations at every venue, all of which is likely to have required a bigger tour budget.

Martin added that drummer and backing vocalist, Will Champion, has the final say on Coldplay’s ideas for varying up their live shows from previous ones. For the tour in support of their latest album 2021’s ‘Music Of The Spheres‘, the group have at points been wearing alien masks and played with their invented alien puppet band, The Weirdos.

“We have ideas people and filters in the band. Without both we couldn’t operate. For every idea that you see on stage there has been about 51 that Will said, ‘No way.’ But that is how it works. He has to feel it. Once he feels it, we do it.

“That is why Will is the heart and the anchor of the band. If it doesn’t resonate with him, we don’t do it. If it’s close, we keep going until it does.”

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Martin added: “The aliens and all that stuff, it’s allegorical. It’s us talking about life on Earth but without naming names because we are not really into criticism or finger pointing.

“But having alien heads is us saying we really believe in the equality of all people and all beings. So when people say they don’t really understand, I feel like that’s OK, it is maybe not for everybody.

“It is only for, like, six minutes. It allows us to go even more free and that is the whole reason we exist these days – to be free and to encourage others to be free.”

Coldplay
Coldplay open their ‘Music Of The Spheres’ world tour in Costa Rica. Credit: Stevie Rae Gibbs.

The band have sold approximately 1.4million tickets for their recently-announced 2023 UK and European tour. They will be hitting the road in the UK and Europe across May, June and July next year for further gigs including stop-offs in Manchester and Cardiff.

Find any remaining tickets for the dates here.

Last month, Martin revealed that Coldplay knew their classic track ‘The Scientist’ would be a song that they’d “play forever” at live shows after hearing it for the first time.