1 day Ago By Mid-day
You might think we’re from the UK, but we’re actually from Ahmedabad,” joked Coldplay’s joyous frontman, , towards the finale of his first concert at Narendra Modi Stadium on January 25, 2024. Having spoken a bit of Gujarati, Hindi earlier, Martin introduced his bandmates—Jonny Buckland (on guitar), Guy Berryman (bass), Will Champion (drums)—as residents of Ahmedabad, with detailed descriptions/addresses of where in the city they’re from! Anywhere else, the sheer sense of recognition of those locations would have local audiences cheer on madly in unison! I felt the response kinda muted. The reason is, most of at Modi stadium were, in fact, not Amdavadis, not even Gujaratis.
True for Coldplay in Mumbai too. Wherein, apparently, only about 30 per cent of the crowd was from Maharashtra; 25 per cent, Mumbai; 15-17 per cent, Karnataka (chiefly, Bengaluru); another 15 to 17 per cent from NCR (Delhi, Gurugram, Noida). As Ashish Hemrajani from the event-organiser and ticketing app, BookMyShow, put it to CNBC-TV18’s Shereen Bhan, “The situation in Ahmedabad was [even] more different.
The ‘transactors’ (ticket-holders) came from every single state and Union territory in India. Only 15 per cent from Gujarat; 85 per cent, outsiders!” I see these stats in real-time on Indian rail. That is, on my 1.
40 am, special Coldplay train, from Ahmedabad to Bandra (Terminus), in Mumbai—that’s already had three gigs of the London band. The coaches, tattered AC-III tier and chair-cars, seem prehistoric. Food is, of course, off the table.
Aisles are packed, down to coach-attendants’ berths. Nobody’s complaining. These passengers would’ve first arrived at the dry , attempting to score liquor permits for pre-gaming at the concert.
Which takes half a day, sometimes, if it arrives at all. Bootleggers are probably better options. Chris Martin had to face no such issue.
He’s a teetotaler. I could spot empty whiskey bottles around the parking lot of ND Mall, three-four kilometres from Modi stadium, which is the marathon distance many would’ve undertaken before/after the show. As with religion, Indians take entertainment seriously enough to struggle/suffer for it.
They always have. I wasn’t at Coldplay, because they were in Ahmedabad. But because, I already was (for a family function).
That said, do we know anything from living memory, like the quarter-million nomadic, inter-city backpacking, -like phenomenon—making Coldplay in India, the world’s largest ticketed concert in history, in 2025? How’s that? I don’t know. Hence, asking aloud. It’s a band that debuted in 2000, when millennials were still on Walkmans.
But Internet had largely exploded. So did social media, about half a decade later, and that’s my first guess. It places Coldplay among the first retro, top bands, to acquire relevance, simultaneously between generations, as they dropped albums—even collaborating with Noel Gallagher (Oasis), at one end, to BTS, at the other.
This happenstance of a continually refreshed Spotify/YouTube playlist skipped equally huge classic rock groups, say, U2, or Roger Waters (Pink Floyd). I’ve been to Mumbai concerts of both. They were largely for the country of old men/women.
You could see everyone, from kids, including my 14-year-old nephew, to geriatrics, although mostly 30-somethings, fair gender-ratio, for Coldplay in Ahmedabad. Each with their own memories, recent or distant. For, what’s music, if not core memory? It probably helps that soulful songwriter Martin’s messaging—leading the cheeriest band ever, with great compositions—is largely on fellowship/camaraderie; both real, and cosmic.
I know it’s generic. But it’s in the generic that universal love resides. Getting too specific gets you on the edge of the debatably political.
Like those rages against the machine, that we usually identified with rock bands, back in the day. Does this enduringly mainstream legacy then explain how Coldplay, live, is several times taller than them on the current/weekly music charts? No. Coldplay simply know how to put on the greatest show.
Surely, you’ve seen their Insta reels. They’ve been on ‘Music of the Spheres’ tour since March 2022. It feels unreal as you step into the stadium with over a lakh fans wearing LED wristbands changing colours with every song, as balloons and heart/star-shaped confetti envelope the air, throughout a tight act, where Martin interacts individually with some audiences.
He makes you feel special. You wanna be there. Even if to say, you were.
The FOMO feels right. This vibe is beyond music. Besides tourism plus pilgrimage, I think Indians have lately travelled between cities, mainly for big-ticket cricket.
Not a surprise that when Martin teases Ahmedabad crowds with an early exit; nobody yells the usual, “Once more...
.” They go, “Coldplaaaay, Coldplaaay..
.” Exactly like, “Saachiiin, Saachiiin..
.” Narendra Modi is also a cricket stadium. I’m gonna attribute some of this hitherto-unseen enthusiasm to a post-pandemic world.
You go to any big city in the world—having noticed this, from São Paulo to Singapore, London, New York, Mumbai—streets on weeknights seem significantly quieter than they were before COVID-19. Even fewer people in theatres for regular movies. This doesn’t mean they prefer being indoors.
It shows they value their going out more. It has to be something truly special! Tickets disappear in seconds then. As do tables at beyond-expensive restaurants/clubs.
Prices, locations/cities don’t matter. That’s Coldplay-effect. Template’s set.
We’ll witness more..
