Coldplay axes tour plans over pollution fears

Lead singer Chris Martin explained the band was trying to find a 'sustainable' way of touring

FILE PHOTO: Coldplay lead singer Chris Martin performs during the iHeartRadio Music Festival at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada U.S. September 22, 2017. REUTERS/Steve Marcus/File Photo
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Coldplay will not go on tour to promote their new album because of concerns about the environmental impact of concerts.

Everyday Life is released today but the band will perform only two gigs, both in Amman. The concerts will be broadcast free on YouTube. They will play at sunrise and sunset to mirror the two sides of the new album.

Lead singer Chris Martin explained that they had chosen the Middle Eastern country because it was "in the middle of the world" and in a region they "normally don't get to play".

"We're taking time over the next year or two, to work out how our tour can not only be sustainable [but] how can it be actively beneficial," Martin told BBC News.

Coldplay played 122 shows around the world across eight legs as part of the tour for their last album, A Head Full of Dreams.

Martin said if the band do eventually hit the road for the new release, their eighth studio album, they hope the tour could be entirely carbon neutral. "The hardest thing is the flying side of things," he said. "But, for example, our dream is to have a show with no single use plastic, to have it largely solar powered."

Our next tour will be the best possible version of a tour like that environmentally," Martin added. "We would be disappointed if it's not carbon neutral.

"We've done a lot of big tours at this point. How do we turn it around so it's no so much taking as giving?"

The band drew attention last month to its launch by revealing the tracks in the classified adverts section of a local newspaper in Wales.

Meanwhile it is set to perform another one-off concert next Monday at London's Natural History Museum, with the proceeds donated to an environmental charity.