Coldplay, tour review: Rock colossus Chris Martin roars band out of the dark times ahead of new album launch

From the moment they sprinted on stage and tore into their new album’s chant-friendly title track, A Head Full Of Dreams, Coldplay were re-invigorated, says John Aizlewood
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John Aizlewood4 December 2015

It's not always straightforward being planet earth’s most popular band. Last year’s Ghost Stories, Coldplay’s fourth successive British and American No 1, was a subdued affair and they refused to tour it. A year on, with their seventh album out today and a world tour including three June nights at Wembley Stadium and the Super Bowl half-time show beckoning, they’ve rediscovered themselves.

Attended by a select few including Sophie Dahl, Simon Pegg and Jamie Cullum, last night’s show for Radio 1 was broadcast worldwide. With a spring in their step and a smile on some of their faces, from the moment they sprinted on stage and tore into their new album’s chant-friendly title track, A Head Full Of Dreams, Coldplay were re-invigorated.

Leaving nothing to chance, there were lasers, confetti as early as the fifth song and detailed projections that made the church’s walls look like stained glass. The band unfurled a handful of new tracks, most notably Up & Up, the epic rocker they’ve always seemed on the verge of writing, and Hymn For The Weekend, which suggested that funk is not beyond Coldplay before bursting into a thrilling, stentorian coda.

Chris Martin was at his best: a bundle of tics and twitches while sat at his piano, he transformed himself into a rock colossus when he prowled the stage. If there were fears that Fix You would lose its reason to exist now he and Gwyneth Paltrow are no more, the crowd carried it home. Better still, Viva La Vida — with drummer Will Champion stage-front thwacking timpani and clanging bells — and the pounding Clocks brought stadium theatricality to the intimacy of a church setting.

After the broadcast, there was a mass singalong of Happy Birthday to the band’s US manager “who’s been with us through the good albums and the not so good one” and a festive treat of Christmas Lights, which segued neatly into White Christmas. For Coldplay, the dark times and the tired times are over.

St John at Hackney Church

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