Live concerts can leave you with an indelible experience. However, it’s no secret that they are an environmental nightmare. From travel and lighting to plastic bottles used during performances, musical events often have large carbon footprints, and are actively contributing to the deterioration of the environment.
Owing to this, British band Coldplay has decided to pause the promotional world tour of its latest album, Everyday Life. Frontman Chris Martin explained the band's decision to BBC saying, “We’re taking time over the next year or two to work out how our tour can not only be sustainable, [but] how it can be actively beneficial. The hardest thing is the flying side of things. But, for example, our dream is to have a show with no single use plastic, to have it largely 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?” Martin also expressed that Coldplay would be disappointed if their future tours were not carbon neutral and did not positively impact the environment.
On the day of their latest album's release, Coldplay held two concerts on November 22, 2019, in Jordan, because "we wanted to pick somewhere in the middle of the world where we normally don't get to play". The shows, which took place at sunrise and sunset to represent the two sides of their album, were live streamed for the band's global audience for free on YouTube. Coldplay will also hold a one-off concert today, November 25, 2019, at the Natural History Museum in London. All proceeds will be donated to an environmental charity, marking yet another step by the band towards a more sustainable tomorrow.
Fans may not know that the new album's very first single, 'Champion of the World' was actually inspired by a BBC report on the struggles of a gardener in Afghanistan, along with a store on leprosy, told by a Nigerian composer. While the band's last world tour, which also brought them to Mumbai, took place in 2016 and 2017, Coldplay was most recently spotted in India for a special performance at Akash Ambani's pre-wedding celebration.
