Watch Coldplay play gig without Guy Berryman “for the first time in band’s history” after bassist taken ill

31 October, 2024

Coldplay live at Glastonbury 2024. Credit: Andy Ford for NME

Coldplay played a “historic” first show without all four original members this week after bassist Guy Berryman was taken ill – watch the footage below.

The Chris Martin-fronted band took to the stage in Melbourne last night (October 30) for the first of four gigs at the city’s Marvel Stadium. They are currently on the Australia and New Zealand leg of their ongoing ‘Music Of The Spheres’ world tour.

Footage has since emerged of Martin explaining that Berryman was “very, very sick” and would “not be able to play” the concert. “So we’ll have a slightly different show,” he continued.

“We’ll do our best to make it amazing – and I know that it will be amazing, because we’re in Melbourne with all of you beautiful people.”

Martin added: “If you see some mistakes, and some problems, it’s because we don’t have our bass player. And we only had about 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. So you’ll hear Guy, but you just won’t see him. Because he’s vomiting.”

The singer said it was a “shame”, but promised fans “the best concert ever without a great bass player”.

In an Instagram post after the performance, Coldplay wrote: “Thank you Melbourne. Tonight was the first time in our band’s history that we’ve played a show without all four members onstage.

“Guy was taken ill unexpectedly just before the show. Thank you for carrying us through it.”

Martin had revealed earlier that the band’s co-producer and engineer, Bill Rahko, would be stepping in to replace Berryman. He disguised himself by donning one of the space helmets that are part of Coldplay’s current stage production.

Berryman returned for today’s show (October 31), with Martin joking: “We would like to welcome you to the first concert since our band reformed today with our original [line-up].”

He went on to suggest the bassist had been suffering from some form of food poisoning yesterday.

“Don’t eat bacon and eggs if the eggs aren’t quite cooked,” he warned the audience, before adding: “There is no Coldplay without Guy, me, Will [Champion, drummer] and Jonny [Buckland, guitarist]. And thank you to Bill for yesterday who was just amazing.”

You can watch a clip of that speech below, along with a selection of fan-shot footage from the previous gig without Berryman:

Coldplay released their 10th and latest studio album, ‘Moon Music’, at the start of this month. It has since become the fastest-selling record by a UK act in 2024 so far. Additionally, the LP earned the biggest week for a British act on the UK’s Official Albums Chart since Adele‘s ’30’.

Next year, Coldplay will take their ‘Music Of The Spheres’ world tour to North America before returning to the UK for performances in London and Hull. They’ll play a historic 10-night run at Wembley Stadium in the capital – beating a previous venue record set by Taylor Swift and Take That.

This summer saw Coldplay’s ‘Music Of The Spheres’ tour officially become the highest-grossing rock tour ever.

Ahead of ‘Moon Music’, Chris Martin spoke to NME exclusively in his only written interview for the album. The wide-ranging conversation saw the frontman reveal the topics that had inspired the record and how the band were coming to the end of writing new music.

Coldplay
Coldplay, 2024. CREDIT: Anna Lee

As for whether the group were still planning on concluding their recorded catalogue after 12 albums, Martin told NME: “The 12 album thing is very real, and it’s a nice feeling. It doesn’t mean we won’t tour or finish some compilation things or outtakes or whatever. It just means that the main story is told. That’s just what feels really right. Just knowing that’s happening supercharges all the work we’re doing now.”

Elsewhere, Martin said this deadline had led to the members having “more hunger” in their creative approach, and determined to make sure they don’t “dilute” anything they put out. He reassured fans that by the time their 12th album is complete, “everything will make sense” in terms of Coldplay’s story.

Read NME’s exclusive interview with Martin in full here, where he also talked about the likes of Fontaines D.C., IDLES, Chappell Roan, Coldplay’s history-making set at Glastonbury 2024 and the band’s vow to help support grassroots venues across the UK.

In other news, Martin recently sat down for an impromptu interview with a young journalist in a New York park.

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