Coldplay treated concert goers to one of their most loved songs, after declining from singing the hit in nearly a decade.
The British band was in Texas on June 14, performing to a huge crowd while on their North American leg of their 2025 Music of the Spheres tour.
Towards the end of their concert, frontman Chris Martin announced to the crowd that they were going to attempt to sing a hit song from their 2005 album X&Y, Speed of Sound.
‘To finish a good time here in El Paso, why don’t we try and reclaim the song Speed of Sound?’ which was met with an eruption of cheers from the crowd.
He then promised that the band would at some point release a cleaner version of the song, admitting that he wanted to improve the tune.
‘At some point, we’ll do a proper edit of the song. Just do a remix, I’d like to make it a little bit quicker, a little bit shorter, a little bit tighter, maybe mix the drums slightly.
‘You understand? And it’ll just be a much better song, Will! I’m so sorry I messed it up when I was a young man,’ he said, speaking to the band piano player Will Champion.
He then said to the crowd: ‘For those of you who were not born in 2005, here’s Speed of Sound, it’s not that good, but we’re going to try and play it anyway!’
The song was met with cheers from the crowd, who appeared to be delighted with this change in the set list and applauded the band.
The Music of Spheres tour kicked off in 2022 and is scheduled to end at London’s Wembley Stadium on September 8, 2025.
Coldplay Music of Spheres UK dates
August 18 – Craven Park, Kingston upon Hull
August 19- Craven Park, Kingston upon Hull
August 22 – Wembley Stadium, London
August 23- Wembley Stadium, London
August 26- Wembley Stadium, London
August 27- Wembley Stadium, London
August 30- Wembley Stadium, London
August 31- Wembley Stadium, London
September 3- Wembley Stadium, London
September 4- Wembley Stadium, London
September 7- Wembley Stadium, London
September 8- Wembley Stadium, London
The song was the lead single for the 2005 album that Chris wrote for her daughter, Apple, in 2004.
It charted in the UK singles chart at number two and debuted in the US at number eight on the Billboard Hot 100. This was a milestone for the band at the time as their first top 10 hit.
The hit was even nominated for two Grammy Awards and won an MTV Europe Music Award for Best Song.
It was the band’s highest ever peaking song until Viva La Vida in 2008.
Despite the song’s success, the band and Chris have been open about their dislike of the song.
‘We never got it right,’ Chris told Howard Stern in a 2011 interview. ‘It pains me.
‘We don’t play it. Like I said, an audience can pick up real fast if you’re not convinced by something.’
The band last performed the song live in 2016, when they were on their seventh concert tour, A Head Full of Dreams Tour.
The tour was in support of their seventh studio album of the same name, which featured hits including: Hymn for the Weekend, Adventure of a Lifetime, Up&Up, and Birds.
While Speed of Sound wasn’t on their set list, they performed the tune in Sao Paulo as a surprise song when they asked concert goers to send in requests for an extra tune on the set list.
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