Chris Martin’s emotional tribute to Shane Warne at Coldplay’s first Melbourne show
Chris Martin paid an emotional tribute to Shane Warne at Coldplay’s first Melbourne show, with the band forced to perform without a key member.
Coldplay superstar Chris Martin became emotional and feared he would “start to cry” during a tribute to spin king Shane Warne at Marvel Stadium on Wednesday night.
Martin reminisced about good times with his close mate Warne at Coldplay’s Docklands show.
He dedicated the song Sparks, with lyrics including “I promise you this, I’ll always look out for you,” to the late cricket legend.
“Let’s play this for Shane and his family,” Martin said during an acoustic set near the end of the show.
“Our brother, we miss you. Every time we come to Melbourne, it used to be fun to hang out with Shane and all the Warne family.”
Martin added: “I don’t want to talk about it too much or I’ll start to cry.”
Warne’s daughter, Brooke, said on Instagram, post-show: “Love you, Coldplay. Dad would have loved this.”
The song was a bittersweet moment in a difficult show for the British supergroup.
Before the concert even started, Martin appeared on stage, alone, to explain Coldplay would perform — for the first time ever — without bass player, Guy Berryman, who had fallen ill.
Martin also revealed the band had “an hour” to work out how to do the concert without Berryman.
“Our beautiful bass player Guy is very, very sick and will not for the first time ... be able to play today,” Martin said.
“We’ll have a slightly different show and we’ll do our best to make it amazing, and I know that it will be amazing because we’re in Melbourne with all you beautiful people.
“However, if you see some mistakes and some problems, it’s because we don’t have our bass player, and we only had an hour to figure it out.
“But we have figured it out, and we have a strange, alien, weird, friend character playing bass, or looking like he’s playing bass. You’ll hear Guy but you won’t see him because he’s (backstage) vomiting.
“Forget about seeing me. This is not the show yet,” Martin added.
“We would love to have all your energy to make it one big band, and it will feel like the best concert ever, without a great bass player.”
Bill Rahko, a co-producer and engineer, stood in for Berryman on Wednesday.
The show was the first of four sold-out concerts in Melbourne.
Understandably, Martin appeared vulnerable and unsettled during the show’s opening quarter, as the band found its groove without a key member in the line up.
Coldplay pushed on, Martin accepted the band’s predicament, and the spectacle kicked off.
The band’s latest tour, Music of the Spheres, includes certified stadium bangers like Yellow, Viva La Vida, Paradise, A Sky Full Of Stars, Fix You and The Scientist.
Music of the Spheres is divided into four acts — Planets, Moon, Stars and Home.
Martin has said the chapters depicted “a journey travelling outwards into the unknown to then come home having learned something new.”
The show elevated Coldplay’s more-is-more approach, with massive video screens, satellite stages, flashing LED wristbands, lasers, 3D images, confetti blasts, giant colourful balls, and a fireworks finale.
The Rolling Stones invented stadium rock, U2 refined it, and Taylor Swift finessed it.
But Coldplay are masters of the domain, equipped with signature songs, whiz-bang weaponry, and in Martin, a clever and charismatic frontman.
Earlier this week, at soundcheck, Martin marked his arrival in town by playing the theme song to the Melbourne-made soap, Neighbours.
On Wednesday night, as Coldplay braved the stage without Berryman, Martin called on 50,000 locals for “all” their “energy ... to make it a great concert.”
The crowd loudly and proudly obliged.
It’s the moment Martin turned his Melbourne neighbours into true blue friends.
Originally published as Chris Martin’s emotional tribute to Shane Warne at Coldplay’s first Melbourne show
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