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 in their privately owned, fuel-guzzling private jets: think Taylor Swift. ‘Virtue-signalling’ - the act of pursuing noble endeavours whilst simultaneously letting the entire world know about it on Twitter - is a label regularly attached to multi-millionaires who claim to be trying to reduce their carbon footprint. Before you cast your judgement on Chris Martin and the rest of the Coldplay boys, let’s take a moment to explore the facets of their tour and whether or not they’re coming close to achieving their ambitious target. We’ll also see how the initiative is affecting the experience of concert-goers. 

The two most visible concepts used on the tour - and the ones which directly affect the listener experience the most - are the implementation of a kinetic dance floor and energy-generating bikes. As spectators dance along, the floor absorbs the movements and vibrations, generating and covering them into electricity. The bikes, capable of generating 200 watts of energy, are situated about the arenas and are available for fans to ride at their leisure, both before and during the gig. 

Concert-goers aboard the energy-generating bikes!

“You don’t want to come across as being overly earnest. This stuff is really good fun as well,” said bassist Guy Berryman. “That’s the way it will bed in if people see it less as a sort of onerous responsibility and more as a kind of opportunity to do something fun and it’s a benefit to the environment and to the whole concert experience.”

In terms of atmosphere and good-vibes-value, the results are impressive. At the gig in London, House of Pain’s ‘Jump Around’ was played before the show, as sections of the crowd were invited to compete with one another as to who could generate the most power. The overwhelming majority of folk were incredibly willing, and by the time the song ended, there was visible steam coming from every sweaty head on the floor - granted, it was also a very hot day! During the entirety of the time we were sitting in the stadium, the energy-creating bikes were in constant use, with people queuing up to get involved and play their part. 

“Being green is not a charitable sort of self-flagellating, holier-than-thou exercise. It’s a good business model. That’s what we’d like to show,” said Coldplay lead singer Chris Martin. Added guitarist Jonny Buckland: “It has to work.”

As well as the crowd-generated side, greener decisions have been made across the entire production, both on the part of the production and the venues. Plant-based food options have been plentifully available at every venue on the tour, and there has been a complete absence of single-use plastics. The band have pledged to minimise air travel as much as schedules will allow - when flights are necessary, the band go commercial over charter — and will use trains and electric vehicles whenever possible. Tour trucks will use alternative fuels like hydrotreated vegetable oil. Ideas on the production side are equally impressive: the tour staging is made of entirely recycled steel. Much of the tour is operated using a battery-based system: made from 40 repurposed and recyclable electric car batteries, the entire show aims to avoid drawing any power from the grid. 

Artist Management Services’ Oliver Shaw, who attended the Coldplay gig at Wembley, spoke glowingly about the experience as a whole and the sense of common purpose amongst the crowd:

“The atmosphere was electric. You expect it when you come to see a show like this, but the feeling that everyone was contributing something towards making it happen… it took the experience to a whole other level. Everyone was buzzing, and I think it’s a change that other bands should seriously consider looking at.”

But change rarely happens smoothly. Coldplay has been accused of greenwashing because it has partnered with Neste, a corporation claiming to be the world’s largest producer of sustainable biofuels. The organisation has been criticised recently for allegedly having “documented links to deforestation and dubious biofuels,” like palm oil or its byproducts. But Neste responded that “conventional palm oil” was not used as a “raw material” in the Coldplay collaboration, and it hopes to end the use of conventional palm oil by 2023.

Concrete data regarding whether or not Coldplay have achieved their 50% carbon reduction won’t be fully available until the completion of the tour for obvious reasons. Regardless of your admiration (or lack of) for the project and the novel ideas being incorporated into the live music experience, you cannot deny the ingenuity and enthusiasm on display. Coldplay benefits from having a fan base who are largely receptive to such ideas; you couldn’t imagine the same level of support if The Rolling Stones asked their patrons to straddle a Peloton and cycle 10k to power their mini-fridge. As with most of these initiatives, though, the efforts are enough to reignite the conversation about the need for sustainable alternatives to our consumer-driven lifestyle. 

by Adam Cable (Director of Communications)