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Stunning view Coldplay Navi Mumbai stadium concert

My Experience Attending Coldplay’s Music of the Spheres Concert in Mumbai

By Mithun Divakaran
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Jan 31, 2025
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Concerts, Music/Videos

Date: January 18, 2025

As a fan of Coldplay since A Rush of Blood to the Head, seeing them live has been a bucket-list item for well over 15 years. Heck, back in 2011 I even went to see a tribute band play in UB City. X&Y (my favourite Coldplay album) had the stadium anthem “Fix You” and Viva La Vida and Death and All His Friends had its stadium anthem with “Viva La Vida”. But we’re now in the era where a “Sky Full of Stars” going viral on social media alone has marketed Coldplay’s Music of the Spheres concert series better than ever before, and introduced the 25-year-old British band to a new stadium anthem.

The album Music of the Spheres was released 2 years ago — Coldplay’s first album produced by my all-time favourite music producer — Max Martin. But the popularity of the concert has made Coldplay continue to tour for so long that it is now, officially, the most attended tour of all time and the second highest grossing tour of all time (first is Taylor Swift’s Eras tour)!

I won’t go into the ticketing headache that was the BookMyShow experience, so I will just talk about the Coldplay experience.

I wanted to get inside the venue early so as to avoid last minute rushes.

Tandoor roti paneer thali Navi Mumbai — I had a hearty lunch before leaving for DY Patil Stadium

From my hotel, I then walked to Turbhe railway station.

Turbhe railway station Navi Mumbai — It was 1.5 kms from Hotel New Elite Inn, where I was staying

A ticket to Nerul station was Rs. 5 ($0.05/€0.05) and the train would arrive in 15 minutes.

Inside Navi Mumbai train — I’m constantly astounded at how cheap local trains are in Mumbai

Outside Nerul East exit station Mumbai — I took the Nerul East exit

Nerul East exit Navi Mumbai — I just pulled up Google Maps and followed the path to DY Patil University

Wall mural Navi Mumbai — My ticket’s entry was Gate 8, so I walked in the direction towards the Architecture College at DY Patil University

Navi Mumbai shops street — Navi Mumbai felt breathable compared to super congested Mumbai

Girls Navi Mumbai Coldplay concert — I could tell I was on the right path once I noticed girls dressed to the tee on my way

Direction boards Coldplay gates Navi Mumbai — There were direction boards plastered all along the route

Navi Mumbai apartments above shops — Navi Mumbai translates to ‘New Mumbai’ and is a better planned city to the messy ‘old’ Mumbai

DY Patil architecture college entrance Gate 8 — I was near

I could see scalpers desperate to sell off their tickets outside and I was happy to see them struggle! Clearly their attempts to sell tickets at 3~4 times for so long failed, and were now trying get the tickets off their hands.

Gate 8 entrance Coldplay concert Navi Mumbai — My section was Block M, so we had to go through the College of Architecture

DY Patil is a private university offering various bachelors and masters programs.

DY Patil open ground Navi Mumbai — To say the facilities and the campus is awesome would be an understatement!

And yes, even the massive 45,300-seat stadium is part of the campus.

Coldplay LED wristband Moon Goggles Mumbai concert — I went in and collected my LED wrist band and Moon Goggles

What are the Moon Googles for? You will see later.

DY Patil stadium Block M entrance Navi Mumbai — These are the entry point for L1, L2, and L3 at Block M (L = Levels)

Toilets were not too far off from the entry points and there were water stations too. I had carried a tiny juice bottle which I refilled. Otherwise you had to buy a ₹100 cup which you can refill with water as much as you want.

L1 section Block M view DY Patil stadium — This is the view from the L1 Section (₹4500). I wouldn’t book a seat in the back row here — your photos WILL be obstructed by the L2 balcony above

View from L2 section M block DY Patil stadium — This is the section from L2 balcony. Now I know why they charged ₹12500 for this section.

View from L3 section M block DY Patil stadium — And this is the view from L3 section (₹3500), up front

DY Patil stadium L3 block M last rows — My seat was L36, all the way up on top

DY Patil stadium P sections Navi Mumbai — Next to mine were sections N, O, and P. Section P were priced lower, so maybe the view isn’t as good?

Lounge section DY Patil stadium Navi Mumbai — That’s the Lounge section, priced at ₹35,000 — watch this Instagram Reel to see what it was like after spending that much!

Courtyard Marriott DY Patil stadium view — The guests at Courtyard Marriott get a free view of the concert too… just not the stage

The view from my seat wasn’t too bad.

Coldplay stage view from Block M DY Patil stadium — Sure, I couldn’t see the performer on the stage much… especially via my phone’s camera, which lacked zoom

But as you will see in the video at the end of this blog, you will see I was still immensely pleased with the view!

Bisleri water booths Coldplay concert — The one benefit I had with my seat was that I only had to bend backwards to fill my bottle with free water

I would manage my water intake so as not feel the urge to go to the bathroom and miss out on the songs I wanted to hear. I’m not a fan of “All My Love” from Moon Music, so I told myself that would be my bathroom break song.

This was setlist Coldplay used for all their India shows.

Coldplay India tour setlist — Source: https://x.com/setlistcoldplay

Activity zone Coldplay concert DY Patil stadium — I decided to go back down and check out the activity zone for this area

Coldplay concert merchandise booth Mumbai — The official Coldplay merchandise booth

Coldplay t-shirts Mumbai concert — Prices for T-shirts started at ₹1500

Dominos Pizza Burger King booths Coldplay concert — Dominos Pizza and Burger King were the main food booths. Prices were much higher than what the same items cost in a restaurant. ₹450 ($5.20) for a 7″ pizza?!

Jameson booth Coldplay concert — Jameson Irish whiskey was the official liquor vendor

I actually looked around to see if any guy would come to this Coldplay concert wearing a black t-shirt of a famous rock band… because I kinda knew there would be at least a few casuals who would do such a thing.

Iron Maiden tshirt at Coldplay Mumbai concert — And voila! Guy wearing an Iron Maiden t-shirt… to a Coldplay concert

I went back to my seat. It was honestly tiring to climb the flight of stairs to get to L3 section — so be mindful of that when you get a seat up here.

Shone opening act Coldplay concert — At 5pm, the first of three opening acts took to the stage — Shone is a Zimbabwean artist

He was alright, but the next singer was even better.

Elyanna Coldplay Navi Mumbai — Elyanna is a Palestinian-Chilean singer, who sounded AMAZING

Elyanna sang mostly in Arabic and put on a good show with her dancers. She was also featured in Coldplay’s “We Pray” single.

Jasleen Royal Coldplay concert Jan 18 — The third and final opening act for the show was Jasleen Royal… who was NOT amazing

Jasleen Royal phone lights Coldplay concert — Initially I thought “maybe she’s sick” — but no, Jasleen sang the same across every India show

How Jasleen Royal became a popular Indian singer is beyond me. She was a mediocre singer at best! What’s even embarrassing was India’s best playback singer at the moment, Shreya Ghoshal, was in the audience as a concert attendee!

Coldplay concert about to start Mumbai — Anyway, time for the main show to begin!

After the concert ends, we’re supposed to return our LED wristbands as they are re-used all throughout the world tour.

Coldplay LED wristband return rate Mumbai — Tokyo currently leads with a 97% return rate (not surprised). Abu Dhabi’s return rate was 79%. I had a feeling India’s return rate would be bad.

By 7:50pm or so, the lights dimmed and the stadium roared as Coldplay’s members walked towards the stage. When our LED lights started to light up to match the programmed sounds… it was an amazing sight to behold!

Coldplay Mumbai concert LED lights Block M L3 — I mean, seeing nearly 60,000 lights dance to the music was a visual spectacle to behold!

As a fan of Coldplay since 20 years, I can enjoy their concert even without the LED lights… but to say the LED wristbands don’t amplify the experience would be such a pretentious lie!

Chris Martin talking Mumbai concert — The LED wristbands would switch off during songs like “The Scientist” and whenever Chris Martin spoke to the audience

Watch the video below, as it is 43 minutes long in 1080p and turn on the captions to get my thoughts throughout all the songs from the show.

Coldplay Sky Full of Stars Mumbai concert — The whole stadium erupted for “A Sky Full of stars” — a song that has now become Coldplay’s most popular, thanks to social media

While it’s true there were many attendees who were simply there to brag about… well, being there… and to shoot social media content, I would say 50% of the audience knew 70% of the setlist very well.

Coldplay concert DY Patil stadium — I could hear enough singing from the real fans echo all the way up my ears — so contrary to some reports, the audience was NOT dead!

Again, watch my video below if you don’t believe me.

Coldplay third stage closer Mumbai — The band came closer to my side for “Sparks,” the band member introductions, and Chris’ impromptu songs segment

Was I disappointed with anything? Sure, I would have loved to hear “Magic” or “Daddy” instead of “Everglow” during the part Chris invites a fan on stage. Instead of “Sparks” I would have liked “Trouble” or “Don’t Panic” from Parachutes instead. Then again, Coldplay have sooooo many good songs from every album that if they included the songs I would personally like to hear, the show would run 4 hours long!

Towards the end of the concert, we were told to put on the Moon Goggles for “Good Feelings” (from Moon Music).

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End of concert Coldplay Mumbai — The show ended around 10pm and I absolutely loved it!

What I didn’t love was pretty much everything that happened after the concert ended.

Crowds leaving Navi Mumbai concert — It was a slow flow of people trying to fit through narrow exit gaps

We were told by concert staff — including Coldplay’s own staff from the UK — that we would have to return our LED wristbands, and I did so willingly. Stupid thing was, there were so many trying to keep it as memorabilia! What for I don’t know! Most people wouldn’t know how to trigger the lights because the wristband has no buttons or even Coldplay branding. I just know India would have the worst return rate in the world! What’s even worse is that, after a few years, these LED wristbands will be thrown out by those who kept it after finally realizing they can’t do anything with it. Sigh…

DY Patil stadium after Coldplay concert — As I walked out of the stadium, I still couldn’t believe this massive stadium was part of a university’s campus!

DY Patil campus building — The private college facilities are very impressive!

Navi Mumbai outside DY Patil after concert — Once outside, eateries and restaurants were jam packed!

I managed to find a table inside a bar which also had a good enough menu for dinner. I finished eating before it got even more crowded. I decided to eat first because I only had two restaurant options near my hotel and I still had to figure out how to get back this late at night.

So many were struggling to book Uber and Ola taxis, and prices were three times than usual. Auto rickshaws were no better!

Jeep dealership Navi Mumbai traffic — I walked towards Juinagar train station

Once I got to Juinagar station, the lines were so long for the ticket vending machines that I gave up after 5 minutes and resumed walking. Along the route towards IKEA Navi Mumbai, I stopped auto rickshaws passing by and tried negotiating prices. Finally, as I was talking to one driver, a group of Keralites nearby overheard me and asked me which way I was going. As my luck would have it, they were staying in the same hotel I was. Eventually the auto driver agree to ₹500 for the four of us. Way too much for just 2 kms but what to do, we all got to get back to our rooms safely and quickly. I imagine many struggled that night to find a ride back to the Mumbai side. Makes me glad I took the right decision to book a hotel not far from the venue just for tonight. (I will blog about all that later).

Overall, I was super happy with the concert. I can’t speak for everyone as there were some who faced issues — but I had a blast! It was organized well, I enjoyed the view, the music, and felt it was worth spending to come all the way here to witness it all. Truly a once in a lifetime joy!

Will I go see Coldplay even without the LED light show? Yes, of course I would! I’ve been dreaming about seeing the band live since the X & Y and Viva La Vida days. I can’t wait to see Coldplay again… just, hopefully in Bangalore next time.

Enjoy the concert video and enable captions to read the captions I added:

SM Town World Tour III – Live in Bangkok: An Indian SONE’s experience!

Date: 25th November 2012

It has been a dream of mine to attend an SM Town concert. For those who don’t know, SM Town concerts are a collective of all artists under SM Entertainment, performing in one night and for over 3 hours! Now considering you are seeing SNSD, TVXQ, Super Junior, SHINee, f(x), BoA, Kang Ta and now EXO all in one night, you can see why it’s an epic concert!

Being an ardent K-pop fan, I got to know of an SM Town happening in Thailand back in August itself. I just needed a confirmation and when it was formally announced, I couldn’t let go of this opportunity. The date worked perfectly for me as the 24th of November was the Yee Peng Lanna event in Chiang Mai. An event I’ll blog about later, but long story short, I now had two big reasons to visit Thailand a fourth time!

But unfortunately, my ordeal wasn’t as satisfying as the concert ended up being. First I had to get tickets. I was hoping Thai Ticket Major would be the usual website from where I could get tickets, but no. Instead, SM had partnered with mobile and cable operator True Corporation and the booking website to go to was webooking.com. They announced the date and time when tickets would go on sale and I waited for the day to come.

11am Thailand time, 9:30am in India, was when the tickets would go on sale online. I woke up at 9am on a Sunday and kept hitting refresh until I could see the ‘Buy Tickets’ button come up. At 9:29am it did. I knew I wanted one 5000 baht ticket in the A2 section. But when I clicked on the section and chose my ‘seat,’ (A2 & A3 were standing sections) I couldn’t buy it until the entire seat layout loaded. Yup, seat layout for a freakin’ standing section! And by now the servers were showing signs that it was getting hammered by traffic from K-pop fans just like me desperately trying to buy tickets. When I finally got the ‘Buy ticket’ button to pop-up, it then told me the seat had been taken! This same thing happened to me thrice! And when I tried a fourth time, all the ‘seats’ showed red. As in fully booked. Grrrh!

Frustrated and upset, I decided to try for a seat in the A6 section. And I got one there. I breathed a sigh of relief knowing I at least got something. But when I came back home after 4 hours and went to webooking.com just to check if the entire concert was sold-out, I was surprised to see it hadn’t. And guess what… when I clicked on the A2 section, 5-6% of the seats now appeared in white – as in, available and open for purchase! I was like: “Awww man, now what?”.

I then decided to go ahead an book a seat in the 5000 baht section. I figured, I could easily find a buyer for the A6 ticket I had – right? I wasn’t happy that I spent 9500 baht (Rs. 17,195/US$309) when I am still technically without a full-time job. But what to do. A Sone’s got to do what Sone has to do to see his favourite idols.

Sadly, my ordeal didn’t end there.

Upon landing in Bangkok, I wanted to collect the physical tickets so that I could easily sell the 4500 baht ticket I didn’t want. But when I went to the big True branch in Sukhumvit, they told me to check with another branch. I took the MRT to the Central Rama 9 branch. There I waited but was finally told by the staff to go to the Central Rama 3 branch. I took the MRT and a taxi to the branch with the webooking.com counter where after being charged a 20 baht service fee, I was told “no have ticket, come tomorrow”.

I told them I couldn’t do that because I needed to leave for Phuket that night and that I would collect it at the venue. I was very frustrated sitting in the taxi back. As if the 9500 baht wasn’t enough over-spending, I spent in excess of 200 baht going around for nothing! Waste of time and made my experience in Bangkok even worse.

Anyway, on the day of the concert, I chose to stay near Victory Monument because I read I could get buses to SCG Stadium (the concert venue) easily. After much directional pointing by locals, I found a long queue of young fans holding K-pop merchandise, so I knew they were all going for SM town.

Line for van taxi Bangkok — I joined the queue

Fortunately a girl in front of me spoke decent enough English and told me that this line was for a van taxis to Muang Thong Thani. She told me not to worry and just follow her. I sighed relief knowing I had a local who could help me

The venue was over 15kms from the Victory Monument area and took nearly 30 minutes to reach. Traffic was piling up so I was a bit glad I chose to leave early. Of course, that and the fact I had to collect my tickets and then sell the 4500 baht ticket before I could go in!

There were thousands of K-pop fans, stalls selling all sorts of K-pop merchandise and a big festive atmosphere all around. I held a piece of paper stating I had one extra ticket for sale. Once I got my tickets, I was approached by a few fans and touts. I just wanted to get my 4500 baht back but most were offering less. I didn’t want to sell to the touts because they were obviously going to sell it for profit. But seeing the thousands thronging inside the venue, I was getting restless. I finally gave up and sold it to a tout for 4000 baht. I was just desperate to get in and find a good spot.

Crowd outside SCG Stadium Bangkok — I was getting a bit claustrophobic as I hadn’t eaten a proper lunch in the hurry to get here early. Plus the heat and being surrounded by sooo many people… it was getting to me.

SM Town Bangkok crowd inside stadium — As if two security checks outside weren’t enough, there was one more inside the arena too

Muang Thong stadium SMTown crowd — Damn, the A2 section was already nearly full!

Continue reading “SM Town World Tour III – Live in Bangkok: An Indian SONE’s experience!” »

Above & Beyond Live in Bangalore: Photos and videos from TATW 450

Date: November 10th, 2012

Finally! The last time Above & Beyond played in Bangalore, I missed it. I hoped they would return but I never expected my favorite trance outfit to return like this. I couldn’t believe Submerge managed to snag an epic event like this and bring the group down to Bangalore for it! Trance Around the World, my favourite trance podcast, episode 450 – which they announced at the end of episode 449 would be their last – was going to be transmitted live from Bangalore!

Six hours of amazing trance with other Anjunabeats artists such as Jody Wisternoff, Andrew Bayer, Norin & Rad, Mat Zo, and finally Above & Beyond taking the stage for a two-hour set. Since I knew I couldn’t dance for six hours straight, I only made it to the venue at around 5:30pm just as Andrew Bayer was on stage.

Andrew Bayer Tatw 450 Bangalore India — The stage setup, the sound, the impressive venue… it was all really well put together

Andrew Bayer Tatw 450 Bangalore — I really enjoyed Andrew Bayer’s set — pure trance at it’s finest

Norin and Rad TATW450 Bangalore India — Next up was American duo Norin & Rad

Norin & Rad Tatw450 Bangalore live — Didn’t dance a lot to their set, although they were great in getting the crowd pumped up

Norin Rad Tatw450 Bangalore concert — A good hour-long set none the less

Submerge says dance bucket Bangalore — Submerge says dance, and dance we did!

Above & Beyond TATW 450 live in Bangalore — I still couldn’t believe after all this time I waited to see Above & Beyond in concert, it would be for a live recording of the final episode of the trance podcast I’ve been listening to since 2006!

Mat Zo TATW 450 live in Bangalore — Mat Zo, the final ‘warm-up’ act took to the stage for his hour-long set

Mat Zo TATW 450 Bangalore — His set was much better!

Crowd Tatw450 Above & Beyond Bangalore concert — They had streams of colourful cloth spreading through the crowds. It was symbolic for it is the graphic that represents Group Therapy Radio – Above & Beyond’s new radio show

Above and Beyond stage group therapy — As the clock struck 8pm, it was now time for the main act. The crowd went wild as three men took to the stage.

Paavo Jono Tony Tatw 450 Bangalore India — (L-R) Paavo, Jono and Tony – or better known as the legendary Above & Beyond! I won’t mention their DJ Mag ranking… mostly because I don’t give a shit how high they rank!

Above & Beyond Tatw 450 Hello Bangalore — Needless to say all of us were going bonkers seeing all three of them on stage together (Usually two of them go on tour while one stays back in the studio)

Above & Beyond group therapy Bangalore concert — The end of Trance Around the World and the beginning of Group Therapy Radio episode 001

Above & Beyond stage Bangalore Tatw 450 — The played classics from like “Liquid Love” and even some world-exclusive first listens. If it weren’t for ‘Tri-State,’ I wouldn’t have heard of Above & Beyond.

Above & Beyond live Bangalore India — But of course, there’s always that one moron who keeps shouting for “Sun and Moon” right from the start. Ugh. (They played it towards the end of course)

Above & Beyond confetti concert India — Epic six-hour long live broadcast ended with an epic shower of confetti!

Paavo hugging Tony end of TATW 450 — Paavo and Tony seemed pleased

Above and Beyond members Bangalore concert — So were we

Above & Beyond Group Therapy Bangalore India — I began to leave the venue as they closed out with “Good For Me” (from ‘Tri-State again). I was kinda disappointed they didn’t play “Good Day” as it was the one song I was so looking forward to singing as loud as I could.

Above & Beyond Group Therapy radio Bangalore — But this being a ‘good night,’ play “Good Day” they did. Although it was the vocal mix. Still, it didn’t stop I or anyone else from singing along.

Jaymahal palace concert venue Bangalore — Nikhil Chinapa, who is one of the men behind Submerge, then took to the stage to thank his home crowd for an amazing night

This year marked the 10th anniversary of Submerge, an institution that started out as a platform for Indian DJs back in 2002 and which has since grown into a tour de force in the promotion of electronic dance music in India. You’ve really got to hand it to them. Even Nikhil Chinapa said he never expected they would get this far, but all the applause he got from the crowd was well deserved. Sunburn Festival, all the international DJs they bring to India, and the Submerge nights… Nikhil has done EDM in India a world of good!

As for videos from the night, here are a bunch of clips recorded on the Samsung Galaxy SII (also used for all the above photos). You might want to turn down the speakers as I was close to the stage, and so there’s a lot “brrrr brrr”. Also, if you’re epileptic, you have been warned!

You can listen to TATW 450/Group Therapy 001 in full here.