Chris Martin says he no longer worries about the haters as he prepares for Australian tour

COLDPLAY frontman Chris Martin has stopped worrying about the haters so he can enjoy what could be the British supergroup’s last race around the world.

CHRIS Martin feels like he could take on Iron Man after every concert on Coldplay’s A Head Full Of Dreams world tour.

Like the Marvel superhero, Martin is an AC/DC fan and Thunderstruck has been his “warm down” soundtrack.

The 39-year-old musician says his younger brother Al is the “AC/DC obsessive” in the family and “by association I have become one too”.

“I found that after the stadium shows on this last leg of the tour I still had loads of adrenaline so I started warming down on the bike to Thunderstruck,” he says.

“It’s actually an extra fix of adrenaline. I feel so pumped I want to fight Iron Man.”

Coldplay singer Chris Martin is in a much better place these days.

By association, Martin could easily organise a “fight” with Iron Man.

His ex-wife Gwyneth Paltrow did star in the movies and Robert Downey Jr happens to live near his home in Los Angeles.

“The last thing this interview is going to be is the beginning of a beef with one of my neighbours,” he says, laughing.

The Coldplay singer, songwriter and primary interviewee sounds like he is in a much better place than he was when the band released their 2014 album Ghost Stories, as his marriage to Paltrow came to an end.

The band’s seventh studio record A Head Full Of Dreams, released late last year, was its happier, brighter, life-affirming bookend.

Martin talks about both albums in terms of colours, suggesting he has a synaesthesic view of his art. He hears sounds and sees colours.

Martin says he is enjoying these shows because of the support of fans. Picture: Streeter Lecka / Getty Images.

“It’s funny you say that. On the last album we made, Ghost Stories, we very deliberately didn’t tour that because that to me seemed like a silver and blue album, a night-time record for one or two people to listen to intimately,” he explains.

“A Head Full Of Dreams is so multicoloured in my head and just seems right to play in big shows because it’s really fun to play. Synaesthesia is definitely the word for it.”

He has already hinted in interviews that the seventh record might also be Coldplay’s last.

With many old major label contracts running their course after seven albums, it could just be that Coldplay want to move on from Parlophone, who released their debut record Parachutes in 2000 and their subsequent LPs, after 16 years.

Or maybe Martin wants to stretch his comedic talents.

In between legs of the AHFOD world tour, Martin has been chatting up a storm to promote the stadium concerts. And indulging in the brand of self-deprecating skits and patter that not only make rock stars far more endearing than actors, but throw a middle finger at the barrage of sledges which Coldplay have copped since their breakthrough single Yellow.

The British quintet, which includes Jonny Buckland, Guy Berryman and Will Champion on stage and in the photos and mystery fifth member Phil Harvey as a credited creative director, may be one of the most polarising bands on the planet.

But Martin loves comedians and they seem to love him too, with Simon Pegg and Ricky Gervais among his mates.

The singer was a guest on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, in which he created lyrics for the US talkshow’s theme tune.

Most of his comedy moments have mocked his celebrity or perceived earnestness from his Shaun Of The Dead cameo, through Extras, The Simpsons and Saturday Night Live.

He laughs when asked if comedy could be a future career move should the band call it quits.

“I do these things because I love people who can make me laugh, whether it’s Stephen (Colbert) or Simon Pegg. It’s just such a treat to sit in the room with them,” he says.

Martin’s greatest talent, augmented by his band mates’ musicality and Team Coldplay’s razzle dazzle production, is the ability to entertain a stadium full of people.

He always looks like he is having fun doing it. In 2016, he admits that is now the case. Even rock stars keep their insecurities close.

A video of a young autistic fan in Mexico crying with unbridled emotion during his favourite song Fix You affected the band as much as it did the millions of people who have watched it since the boy’s parents posted it in April.

“That’s crazy, isn’t it?” Martin says.

“I am so comfortable right now with the idea of music being like food. If you are lucky in this life, you can choose what to eat and choose what to listen to and that made me stop worrying about what people who don’t listen to us think.

“When I see a video like that, it reminds me some people really like this band so I stopped worrying about the external and sing from the heart.”

Those epic communal singalongs and chants Martin conducts with the crowd are indeed their own entertainment.

Lasers and confetti and those glowing wristbands — appropriated by Taylor Swift for her 1989 tour — help too.

Coldplay kicked off their world tour in South America in April. Picture: Supplied.

The confetti is the riskiest of their bells and whistles stadium strategy. Singers can choke if it goes down the windpipe and those pesky pieces of paper can find their way into the weirdest places.

“I don’t know if you watch Arrested Development but there’s a character who tries out for the Blue Man Group and complains there is blue everywhere. It’s very much the same thing with confetti. For days after a show, I will be finding confetti somewhere in my body,” Martin says.

By the time Coldplay are back in Australia in December for their AHFOD concerts on the east coast, they will be supremely match fit.

Martin may have moved on to Guns N’ Roses as his warm-down soundtrack, fans will help shake up the setlist with their requests and their tributes to David Bowie and Prince won’t have the same jolt of relevancy as they do now so close to their deaths.

But you can count on him smiling as he runs around their giant stage, seemingly enjoying the pleasure of the company of thousands of strangers.

SEE: Allianz Stadium, Sydney concert, December 13, general tickets are on sale from 2pm on May 30.

Etihad Stadium, Melbourne, December 9, general tickets on sale from 2pm on May 30.

Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane, December 6, general tickets are on sale from 3pm on May 30.

For complete ticketing details, coldplay.com or livenation.com.au

Originally published as Chris Martin says he no longer worries about the haters as he prepares for Australian tour