Coldplay Play First-Ever Show Without Guy Berryman After Bassist ‘Taken Ill Unexpectedly’ Before Melbourne Gig
It was the first time in 25 years that all four members of the group performed without one of their founding members.
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Coldplay have notched a lot of firsts on their current Music of the Spheres world tour. But on Wednesday night (Oct. 30) in Melbourne, Australia the group did something they’ve never done in their entire quarter century run together: they played a show without one of their four founding members.
In an Instagram post that went up after the gig at Marvel Stadium, the band announced that bassist Guy Berryman was forced to sit out the gig, noting, “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.”
So, instead, singer Chris Martin, guitarist Jonny Buckland and drummer Will Champion carried on, with Martin telling the crowd before the gig properly began, “I have to say, thank you so much for coming to our show today. It’s a shame but we waited for the last minute to tell you that our beautiful bass player Guy is very, very sick. And will not be (playing) for the first time. I’m sorry for you guys down here who are waiting to see Guy. He’s not going to be able to play today. 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 of you beautiful people.”
He added, however, that if the crowd noticed 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. And we have figured it out. 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.”
Instead, Martin revealed that the band’s co-producer and engineer, Bill Rahko, would be subbing in while wearing on the signature space helmets that are part of the eye-popping spectacle that has criss-crossed the globe for nearly three years to date, grossing more than $1 billion.
Coldplay recently celebrated their first Billboard top 200 No. 1 album in 10 years. After wrapping their four-night stand at Marvel Stadium, Coldplay will move on to four nights at Accor Stadium in Sydney and three nights at Eden Park in Auckland, N.Z. before taking time off and re-booting the tour in January with gigs in the United Arab Emirates and India on their way to wrapping up the outing with a 10-night stand at Wembley Stadium in London.
Check out fan footage of Rahko on stage in Melbourne.
