Coldplay begin Wembley Stadium run by thanking crowd for ‘letting us come home’
By Nina Massey, PA
Coldplay have stunned fans on the first night of an unprecedented run of 10 shows at Wembley Stadium, thanking the crowd for “letting us come home at last”.
The band kicked off this UK stint of their tour with two nights in Hull, and are the first act to play a 10-night run at the London venue.
Frontman Chris Martin thanked fans for making the trip to Wembley on Friday, adding: “So happy to see you. Thank for for letting us come home at last.”
He told the crowd the tour was not finishing at the end of the London shows, but it would be the band’s last performance in the city for a number of years.
Throughout the show Martin continued to acknowledge fans, plucking one man wearing an elephant onesie out of the crowd to join him for a performance of Paradise.
After reading fan posters, Martin chose an 18-year-old man with autism to join the band on stage, before playing Trouble, as requested by the teenager.
Later in the show the singer picked out various flags fans had brought into the stadium, including those from Argentina, Spain and Ireland.
Surveying the crowd, he spotted a Palestine supporter and said: “Welcome from Palestine, always.”
The band also brought out Palestinian-Chilean pop star Elyanna, who was one of the opening acts, for a performance of We Pray.
Martin also joked that there was a “new section” of the show poking fun at a “viral” incident at a previous concert where a man and woman were caught out on the giant screen.
He said criminals on the run, or people who should be at work, should “lower themselves” to avoid being caught out.
The segment ended with a marriage proposal after the camera focused on a man holding a sign that read: “I want to propose to her.”
Martin checked they were in a relationship with each other before advising the man to get down on one knee.
The woman nodded “yes”, to cheers from the crowd.
The show, which featured the lighting and effects fans have come to expect, finished as it started with fireworks lighting up the sky above Wembley.
The band have sold more than 12 million tickets for the tour which kicked off in March 2022, and have played at venues across Europe, North America, Latin America, Asia, Australia and New Zealand, making it the highest attended tour in history.
The Wembley shows mark a pause in the Music of the Spheres World Tour, which is expected to resume in 2027.
Some 10% of the band’s proceeds from the Wembley and Hull shows will be donated to the Music Venue Trust, to help support grassroots UK venues and upcoming artists.
The shows at Wembley are being powered by 100% renewable energy with no generator use.
Solar energy is fed into the grid through the band’s new renewable energy and ecosystem restoration project, Higher Power Farm, in the west of England.