“Our next tour will be the best possible version of a tour like that environmentally. We would be disappointed it it’s not carbon neutral. We’ve done a lot of tours at this point. How do we turn it around so it’s not so much taking as giving?”
Preach about sustainability and the environment to the unwashed masses, then stage a massive rock concert in the middle of San Francisco, drawing enough electricity — generated by hydroelectric dams and fossil fuels, no doubt — to power a small moon: That was the unflattering picture the cartoon South Park painted of Bono and U2 in a typically acerbic episode a number of years back. San Francisco, South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone noted, is shrouded in an impenetrable cloud of “smug” that hangs over the city year-round and permeates every waking moment of every liberal being in that famously liberal city.
That’s not the reason Coldplay frontman Chris Martin recently confirmed that Coldplay will not tour in the coming year until they find a way to go completely green. Coldplay have the means and wherewithal to pass on a lucrative world tour — they have sold more 90 million records worldwide, after all — even though they have just released a new album, Everyday Life. Normally bands go on tour to publicize a new album. Record companies reap the lion’s share of profits from album sales; touring is often the only way a band can make money for themselves and themselves alone, despite the expense involved.
Coldplay, who have supported the NGO Oxfam for a number of years now, have vowed not to tour this time until they’ve figured out a way to make touring as environmentally friendly as possible — “actively beneficial” to the environment, as frontman Martin told BBC News late last week. In other words: carbon neutral.
One can imagine the South Park creators may be conceiving a sequel to their U2 episode as you read — they may call it, in an homage to Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit, “The Desolation of Smug” — but there’s every indication Coldplay mean what they say.
The band Funkasy.com dubbed “the biggest pop band of this era” have famously staged the biggest ight shows this side of Pink Floyd,
but that time has passed, Martin told BBC, and not just because of Greta Thunberg. Concert tours are often mounted on a scale that requires dozens of trucks, just to transport equipment.
Coldplay have already managed to grab headlines with an impromptu, unannounced unplugged concert in Amman, Jordan just days ago; a 28-minute video of the concert, filmed against a backdrop of one of the oldest, longest established cities in the history of humankind, has gone viral on YouTube, with 1.6 million view at last count.
They topped that off Monday with a one-off concert at London’s Natural History Museum, with all proceeds going to the environmental law charity ClientEarth.
Music critics are dismissive toward Coldplay as a band — unfairly, to my mind — but there’s no question Martin and his bandmates Jon Champion, and touch the popular nerve.
Just witness this comment by musician and self-confessed Coldplay fan Mo Sharkawi on YouTube:
This is not just an album release — this is a mark in the history of music.
First live full album launch.
Millions around (the world) were there.
State of the art live videography.
State of the art life sound quality.
First album launch for a major band from one of the most misrepresented regions on the planet — the beautiful, historic Middle East. Super grateful to witness this incredible moment.
Coldplay have talked the talk on climate justice and sustainability throughout the band’s 23-year history. They’ve talked the talk, but now they appear determined to put words into action.