KUALA LUMPUR – Complying with local rules, British rock band Coldplay showed that it could put on an extraordinary performance without having to tread on local sensitivities and values.
Thanking the government for “letting us play here”, lead singer and frontman Chris Martin promised to return.
“We took 27 years to come here, I hope we can come here again,” he said, also thanking the police for managing security and traffic.
This is the first concert where the ‘kill switch’ was on standby, where the organiser could literally pull the plug on the act in case the artist misbehaves or flouts the rules in any way.
It was imposed on concert organisers in August after The 1975’s Matty Healy appeared drunk and disorderly at the Good Vibes Festival on July 25, where he proceeded to insult the country’s LGBTQ laws, before kissing male bandmate Ross McDonald.
While the multi-Grammy-award winning band performed its LGBTQ anthem ‘People of the Pride,’ Martin did not wave the rainbow flag as he had done in previous concerts.
Instead, similar to the Jakarta show on November 15, he waved a white flag with “love” written on it.
Kuala Lumpur is the last stop for the band in 2023, as part of the Music of the Spheres World Tour which kicked off in Costa Rica on March 18, 2022.
Coldplay has a gruelling tour schedule with the Bukit Jalil Stadium gig being their 121st show.
The tour resumes on January 19 in Manila, and is expected to continue till the end of the year. – November 23, 2023