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.
From my hotel, I then walked to Turbhe railway station.
A ticket to Nerul station was Rs. 5 ($0.05/€0.05) and the train would arrive in 15 minutes.
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.
DY Patil is a private university offering various bachelors and masters programs.
And yes, even the massive 45,300-seat stadium is part of the campus.
What are the Moon Googles for? You will see later.
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.
The view from my seat wasn’t too bad.
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!
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.
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.
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.
He was alright, but the next singer was even better.
Elyanna sang mostly in Arabic and put on a good show with her dancers. She was also featured in Coldplay’s “We Pray” single.
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!
After the concert ends, we’re supposed to return our LED wristbands as they are re-used all throughout the world tour.
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!
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!
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.
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.
Again, watch my video below if you don’t believe me.
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).
What I didn’t love was pretty much everything that happened after the concert ended.
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…
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!
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: