Chris Martin Talks Stage Outfits, Financial Strain Of Touring
Chris Martin has spoken to The Sun about Coldplay‘s Music Of The Spheres world tour. The singer revealed the thinking behind some of the wacky on-stage antics and suggested that the tour was threatened by financial issues.
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Martin explained the thinking behind the part of the show that sees the band wear alien heads, “The aliens and all that stuff, it’s allegorical. It’s us talking about life on Earth but without naming names because we are not really into criticism or finger pointing.
“But having alien heads is us saying we really believe in the equality of all people and all beings. So when people say they don’t really understand, I feel like that’s OK, it is maybe not for everybody.
“It is only for, like, six minutes. It allows us to go even more free and that is the whole reason we exist these days — to be free and to encourage others to be free.”
He also suggested that, were it not for the interventions of his band mates, the surreal onstage antics might go further still, “We have ideas people and filters in the band.
“Without both we couldn’t operate. For every idea that you see on stage there has been about 51 that [drummer] Will said, ‘No way’. But that is how it works. He has to feel it. Once he feels it, we do it. That is why Will is the heart and the anchor of the band.
“If it doesn’t resonate with him, we don’t do it. If it’s close, we keep going until it does.”
Chris Martin also gave an insight into the financial strain of touring, even for bands as successful as Coldplay, ““It became financially stressful, which we hadn’t had before. We never really had a big financial crisis.
“This was the first time where there was a point where we couldn’t do the tour due to all the money stuff.
“But luckily we had some help and they saved the day and we did a few changes here and there.
“This tour was about trying new things and some of them work and some don’t. We are so lucky that we can survive and sustain losses and that’s OK.”