Online Reporter
IN yesterday’s issue of H-Metro we reported that there is a real possibility British super group Coldplay will play in Zimbabwe when they embark on another marathon World Tour in about one-and-half years’ time.
Coldplay front man Chris Martin gave a hint that their next marathon World Tour will start “somewhere in Southern Africa.”
It’s likely to start in 2027 when Coldplay, who are now considered to be the world’s biggest musical group, will be marking the 30th anniversary of the year the band was established.
It will also be a dream tour for Chris who spent a part of his adolescence in Zimbabwe, visiting his mum, Allison Martin, a school teacher who is from this country.
“My mum comes from Zimbabwe, so I spent a lot of time there,” he said. “I used to work in (Shed Studios) where people played (Afrobeat).”
He said he was 10, and living in Zimbabwe, when he first heard Paul Simon’s smash hit ‘Graceland.’
“I was 10 years old and I was living in Zimbabwe, which is where half of my family is from, when this record was playing.
“I was trying to get the attention of another 10-year-old girl. There was no texting in those days but she was doing the eighties equivalent of not texting me back and I remember this song playing and thinking ‘at least the music is awesome.’
Chris has described Zimbabwe as a ‘small paradise on earth’ and claimed the country’s natural beauty was something out of the ‘The Lord Of Rings.’
Against that background, it will be only natural that Chris and his supergroup play in Zimbabwe when their next World Tour resumes.
He said they plan to have 138 more shows around the world when the tour resumes in two years’ time.
Chris has shown his commitment to help Zimbabwean artists in a way which no other music superstar has done.
On the Music of the Spheres tour, which rumbled for three years across the Americas, Asia, Australia and Europe, he gave Zimbabwean artists – Adrian Dzvuke and Shone – a chance to perform before huge crowds.
Adrian was one of the backing artists when Coldplay toured Australia.
Shone joined the tour in the Gulf and played before massive crowds in India and at Wembley in the UK.
This is empowerment and we should all thank Chris for his love for Zimbabwean artists and his drive to give them a stage to show the world that they are talented.
We can only imagine what will happen if he decides, as is likely, that one or two of his shows when the world tour resumes, will be in Zimbabwe.
It will be a trip back memory lane and hopefully he will also get the chance to visit Shed Studios.
What isn’t in doubt is that, should he come ‘home’, he will give a lot of our local artists a chance to shine on the big stage just like what he did to Adrian and Shone.
For us, this is more important than just watching him live in Harare and Bulawayo.
