Coldplay Refuses To Tour for New Album Over Environmental Concerns
Coldplay has released a new album, but don’t expect the band to be playing its songs on an upcoming concert tour.
“We’re not touring this album,” frontman Chris Martin told BBC.
The reason? It is the band’s way of responding to concerns over the environment.
“We’ve done a lot of big tours at this point. How do we turn it around so it’s no so much taking as giving?” Martin said.
Instead, the band kicked off its album with concerts Friday in Amman, Jordan, that were streamed live, for free, on YouTube. One concert was held at sunrise; the other at sunset.
Martin said that instead of touring behind the new album, titled “Everyday Life,” Coldplay will examine the logistical side of touring to develop a tour with a lower carbon footprint.
“We’re taking time over the next year or two, to work out how our tour can not only be sustainable [but] how can it be actively beneficial,” he said.
The British band last toured in 2016 and 2017 in its “A Head Full of Dreams Tour,” which involved 122 shows on five continents.
“Our next tour will be the best possible version of a tour like that environmentally,” Martin said. “We would be disappointed if it’s not carbon neutral.”
Getting there is half the problem.
“The hardest thing is the flying side of things. But, for example, our dream is to have a show with no single use plastic, to have it largely solar powered,” he said.
Martin said that the band is trying to do what others do in trying to protect the environment as they go about their daily routines.
“All of us have to work out the best way of doing our job,” he said. “How can we harness the resources that our tour creates and make it have a positive impact?”
Martin said that everyone will get it right eventually.
“So I think it’s a question of just accepting that you have to do your best, not be too overzealous in criticizing others, because I think everyone will catch up, I think, if you prove that it’s easy to do it the right way.
Martin said Jordan was picked for the band’s release date shows because “we wanted to pick somewhere in the middle of the world where we normally don’t get to play.”
He said the new record reflected the band’s global perspective.
“If you’ve had the privilege of traveling around the world, you know we’re all from the same place,” he said. “In a very gentle British way, this record is us saying we don’t feel different from any human on earth.”
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