British
rock
Rock most often refers to:
* Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids
* Rock music, a genre of popular music
Rock or Rocks may also refer to:
Places United Kingdom
* Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wale ...
band
Coldplay
Coldplay are a British Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1997. They consist of vocalist and pianist Chris Martin, guitarist Jonny Buckland, bassist Guy Berryman, drummer and percussionist Will Champion, and manager Phil Harvey (band m ...
have headlined eight
concert tour
A concert tour (or simply tour) is a series of concerts by an artist or group of artists in different cities, countries or locations. Often, concert tours are named to differentiate different tours by the same artist and to associate a specific ...
s and numerous promotional shows,
music festival
A music festival is a festival, community event with music, performances of singing and instrument playing that is often presented with a theme such as musical genre (e.g., rock music, rock, blues, folk music, folk, jazz, classical music), nation ...
s,
broadcast media
Broadcasting is the distribution of audio audiovisual content to dispersed audiences via a electronic mass communications medium, typically one using the electromagnetic spectrum (radio waves), in a one-to-many model. Broadcasting began wit ...
events and other live performances. Considered one of the most prolific live acts from the United Kingdom, they have visited all continents except Antarctica.
Their debut was officially held at
London
London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
's Laurel Tree in 1998. A year before, however, drummer and percussionist
Will Champion
William Champion (born 31 July 1978) is an English musician and songwriter. He is best known as the drummer and percussionist of the Rock music, rock band Coldplay. Raised in Southampton, he learned to play numerous instruments during his yout ...
busked in
Covent Garden
Covent Garden is a district in London, on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit-and-vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist sit ...
alongside vocalist and pianist
Chris Martin
Christopher Anthony John Martin (born 2 March 1977) is an English singer, songwriter, musician and producer. He is best known as the vocalist, pianist and co-founder of the rock band Coldplay.
Born in Exeter, Martin went to University Colleg ...
, becoming the first version of the group to engage with an audience.
Since then, Coldplay expanded their stagings for theatres, arenas and stadiums on the
Rush of Blood to the Head (2002–03),
Twisted Logic (2005–07) and
Viva la Vida
(, ; ) is a song by British rock band Coldplay. It was written by all members of the band for their fourth album, ''Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends'' (2008). The lyrics contain historical and Christian references (King Louis XVI of ...
(2008–10) tours.
The former was preceded by multiple warm-up shows, with one of them being a headlining performance at
Coachella
Coachella (officially called the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival and sometimes known as Coachella Festival) is an annual music festival, music and arts festival held at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California, in the Coachella Valle ...
.
According to ''
Pollstar
''Pollstar'' is a trade publication for the concert and live music industry. The publication was purchased by Oak View Group, a venue consultancy founded by Tim Leiweke and Irving Azoff, in July 2017.
''Pollstar'' holds an annual award ce ...
'', the band earned $142.9 million from 2.6 million tickets sold in North America in the 2000s decade. The promotion of ''
Mylo Xyloto
''Mylo Xyloto'' (pronounced ) is the fifth studio album by British Rock music, rock band Coldplay. It was released on 19 October 2011 in Japan and on 24 October 2011 in the rest of the world. The band worked closely with producer Brian Eno fo ...
'' (2011) then saw Coldplay headline festivals such as
Glastonbury
Glastonbury ( , ) is a town and civil parish in Somerset, England, situated at a dry point on the low-lying Somerset Levels, south of Bristol. The town had a population of 8,932 in the 2011 census. Glastonbury is less than across the River ...
,
Lollapalooza
Lollapalooza () is an annual American four-day music festival held in Grant Park (Chicago), Grant Park in Chicago. It originally started as a touring event in 1991, with Chicago becoming its permanent location beginning in 2005. Music genres i ...
,
Austin City Limits
''Austin City Limits'' is an American Concert, live music Television show, television program recorded and produced by KLRU, Austin PBS. The show helped Austin become widely known in the United States as the "Live Music Capital of the World", an ...
,
and
Rock in Rio
Rock in Rio is a biennial Brazilian multi-day music festival held at City of Rock in Rio de Janeiro. It later branched into other locations such as Lisbon, Madrid and Las Vegas.
Ten incarnations of the festival have been held in Rio de Janeir ...
.
Its
namesake tour was the first to make use of
LED wristbands and the group have been widely credited with popularising the feature.
A visit to Latin America was set for early 2013, but ended up being cancelled.
In 2014, ''
Ghost Stories'' prompted a return to theatres, matching the intimate and contained tone of the album.
Conversely, the
Head Full of Dreams Tour (2016–17) saw Coldplay perform exclusively at stadiums in every country other than the United States, which also included arena dates. It became one of the
highest-grossing concert runs of all time, with over $523 million from 5.38 million tickets sold across 114 nights.
In February 2016, their
Super Bowl 50 halftime show
The Super Bowl 50 halftime show took place on February 7, 2016, at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, California, as part of Super Bowl 50. It was headlined by the British rock band Coldplay, who called Beyoncé, Gustavo Dudamel, Bruno Mars, Mark ...
set had the biggest audience ever for a group. Months later, they headlined Glastonbury for a record fourth time. While marketing ''
Everyday Life
Everyday life, daily life or routine life comprises the ways in which people typically act, think, and feel on a daily basis. Everyday life may be described as mundane, routine, natural, habitual, or Normality (behavior), normal.
Human diurna ...
'' (2019), Coldplay paused touring to address environmental concerns. The album was instead advertised with charity events and an exclusive performance broadcast from the
Amman Citadel to the world via
YouTube
YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...
.
In 2021, the band played at the
Brit Awards for an eighth time, breaking the record for most sets at the ceremony. The year also saw them announcing the
Music of the Spheres World Tour (2022–25), which included an ecological plan to reduce
CO2 emissions by 50%, in comparison to their previous concert run. Coldplay were credited with ushering into a new era of sustainable touring with the endeavour,
becoming "pioneers" for the future of live entertainment. The first 194 shows have made over $1.26 billion from 11.4 million tickets sold, making it the
most-attended tour of all time and the first by a group to surpass $1 billion.
[$965.3 million from 11.7 million tickets:
*
$1.26 billion from 11.4 million tickets:
* ] Publications noticed that they were responsible for boosting local economies as well. In 2024, Coldplay were musical guests on ''
Saturday Night Live
''Saturday Night Live'' (''SNL'') is an American Late night television in the United States, late-night live television, live sketch comedy variety show created by Lorne Michaels and developed by Michaels and Dick Ebersol that airs on NBC. The ...
'' for the eighth time,
a record among international acts.
Moreover, they have been ranked as one of the
highest-earning live music artists in history, collecting more than $2.23 billion from 23.1 million admissions throughout their career (starting from February 2001).
Keys
Concert tours
Promotional concerts
Music festivals
Television shows and specials
Award shows
Radio shows and specials
Other live performances
1990s
2000s
2010s
2020s
See also
*
List of highest-grossing live music artists
A list is a set of discrete items of information collected and set forth in some format for utility, entertainment, or other purposes. A list may be memorialized in any number of ways, including existing only in the mind of the list-maker, but ...
*
List of highest-grossing concert tours
The following is a list of concert tours that have generated the most gross income. The data and rankings come largely from reports made by trade publications ''Billboard'' and ''Pollstar''. ''Billboard'', which launched the boxscore ranking in ...
*
List of most-attended concert tours
The following is a list of the most-attended Concert tour, concert tours with at least 3.5 million tickets sold, as well as the tours with the most tickets sold by year and the most tickets sold in a single day. The number of Attendance, attend ...
*
List of most-attended concerts
The following is a list of the most-attended concerts which have drawn at least 100,000 people. The oldest 100,000-crowd show reported to ''Billboard'' Boxscore is Grateful Dead at Englishtown's Raceway Park on September 3, 1977, with 107,019 ...
Notes
References
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Coldplay
Live performances
Lists of concerts and performances of British artists