Coldplay's Music of the Spheres: the future of touring, or just virtue signalling at its most nauseating?
Coldplay has just announced a new string of UK dates as part of their ongoing Music of the Spheres tour, which has been selling out stadiums and smashing records across the world. The tour kicked off back in March to clamour and excitement - but the hullabaloo was less about the music and more about how the tour was to be made a reality: with a sustainable and eco-centric approach. The Music of the Spheres tour was prefaced with several environmental pledges: to Reduce, Reinvent and Restore, according to the band’s official website. Without going into the details, the headline aim was to reduce CO2 emissions produced by the concerts by an ambitious 50%. Anyone with any experience in the gigging and touring industry will know exactly how big a challenge that figure presents. The cynics amongst you will no doubt harbour deep scepticism about such claims. After all, the music industry is full of stars professing to want to ‘do their bit’ whilst navigating the skies at a whim ...