Getty Images for SiriusXM

Coldplay’s Chris Martin Playfully Roasts Fan Who Requested ‘Fix It’ With Improvised Song: ‘If You Come Along, Don’t Get the Name of the Song Wrong’

by · Variety

Coldplay took a break from selling out stadiums across the world on the highest-grossing rock music tour in history to perform at the Music Hall of Williamsburg on Monday for just 600-or-so lucky fans.

One of those fans was Warner Bros. Discovery chief David Zaslav, who was escorted through the VIP line and asked for his T-shirt size. (Everyone was given free swag, including a lanyard and a concert poster — not just the CEOs.)

The concert, thrown by SiriusXM, began just after 5 p.m. and aired on Coldplay Radio and Alt Nation at 6:30 p.m. As frontman Chris Martin began to thank the crowd for showing up, he corrected himself. “Because it’s a Monday afternoon, I don’t feel like I have to thank you that much,” he quipped, noting that usually his audiences are sacrificing a Saturday night to sing along to “A Sky Full of Stars.”

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“So, uh, you’re welcome,” Martin joked. 

He added, “Getting the band Coldplay to perform before 9 p.m. is one of the most difficult things to do.” The reason for the early start time: the band did the “Today” show on Tuesday, which meant waking up just a few hours past midnight. 

Martin opened the SiriusXM show with “Moon Music,” from the band’s new album of the same name, before Coldplay threw it way back to 2002 with “God Put a Smile Upon Your Face,” as Jonny Buckland sent his guitar into overdrive.

The band brought out Elyanna and TINI to perform the new cut “We Pray,” and Martin was self-deprecating about playing songs the audience might not yet be familiar with. He acknowledged that while it can be “frustrating” for the audience to hear non-hits, every song — even the massive “Viva La Vida,” which had just sent the crowd into a frenzy — was once a new song. The ones people groan about become “worldwide super classic smashes” 10 years later, said Martin. He amended that some of them go on to become hits, while others remain “terrible.” 

Martin played the piano on the live debut of “The Karate Kid,” which name-drops Daniel LaRusso in the chorus, and he brought an audience member onstage to dance with him to “Something Just Like This,” which extended into an EDM jam. Martin engaged with fans throughout the hour-long performance, waving and gesturing to specific people and offering sincere thanks to those who have stuck with the band.

Before playing the 10-minute ballad “Coloratura,” from the band’s 2021 album “Music of the Spheres,” Martin gave people permission to go to the bathroom — this one was for the die-hard fans, even if it bored some casual listeners who snagged spots on the guest list. (Though he did promise they’d play “Yellow” next, as a treat.)

Chris Martin of Coldplay performs onstage at ‘SiriusXM presents Coldplay live in Brooklyn.’Getty Images for SiriusXM

To call this show an underplay is an incredible understatement. Coldplay, simply one of the biggest bands of all time, are used to filling soccer stadiums. Experiencing the vastness of songs like “Viva La Vida” and “Yellow” here, without the earth-shaking echo of half a million fans, was almost surreal. 

But the best part of the show came when some guy in the audience yelled out a request for “Fix It,” prompting Martin to say, “‘Fix It’ is another song by another band, brother.” After “Yellow,” Martin sat down at the piano to play another song, lamenting the fact that he had picked on an audience member for misnaming the band’s emotional opus.

However, instead of playing “Fix You,” Martin improvised another song.

“Here is a song called ‘Fix It’/ Specifically just for that guy,” Martin sang. “It’s OK if you come to a concert to call out the name of a song/ But I’d much prefer, if you’d come along, don’t get the name of the song wrong/ Oh ‘Fix It,’ let’s ‘Fix It,’ it was broken a long time ago/ Here’s ‘Fix It,’ a famous song called ‘Fix It,’ that before today even I didn’t know.”

It’s only a matter of time before that one, too, becomes a worldwide super classic smash.