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Chris Martin fell in a trap door in Melbourne, Australia over the weekend while performing with Coldplay during their Music of the Spheres world tour. This comes on the uprooted heels of Olivia Rodrigo falling in a trap door at the Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne, Australia, during a stop for her GUTS world tour just last month. What is happening with the onstage trap doors in Melbourne, Australia?! One incident is a crazy accident, but two in the same city within the span of a month, and I’m ready to start talking conspiracy theories. But I suppose it’d be proper to first get a hold of the facts before I start spinning wild perfectly plausible scenarios:
Coldplay frontman Chris Martin took a dramatic tumble during a show in Australia before emerging apparently unhurt from a hole in the stage.
Video of the incident posted to social media showed Martin addressing the crowd at the Marvel Stadium in Melbourne on Sunday as he walked around during a break between songs, before suddenly disappearing from view.
His fall appears to be broken by someone standing below the stage, and Martin soon returns to a standing position.
“That’s uh, not planned. Thank you for catching me, so much. Thank you, guys,” said Martin.
“Holy sh*t, that was nearly a YouTube moment,” he added.
Martin then continued with the show, which was the fourth and final gig in Melbourne as part of Coldplay’s Music of the Spheres world tour.
The first show in the city was also marked by an unwelcome development, as bassist Guy Berryman was absent due to illness.
“Tonight was the first time in our band’s history that we’ve played a show without all four members onstage,” Coldplay said in a post on Instagram.
“Guy was taken ill unexpectedly just before the show. Thank you for carrying us through it.”
The band will play four dates in Sydney next before moving on to Auckland in New Zealand.
The tour will end with 10 shows at Wembley Stadium in London starting August 22 next year.
Martin’s mishap comes after a similar incident involving singer Olivia Rodrigo at a recent show at the Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne.
The US pop star was running around the stage lit only by a spotlight when she suddenly plunged into a hole, appearing to catch herself using her arms.
All right, Melbourne, what do you have to say for yourself? Why are you systematically trying to take out global touring artists via arena stage trap doors? My guesses, in no particular order: the ghost of an 19th century Australian singer is haunting the venues of Melbourne in retaliation for being upstaged by a foreign performer the night of what was supposed to be their big debut. Or, kangaroos have unionized and taken over stage management duties and simply don’t understand how humans can’t make a decent jump. Or, there’s no ill-will and these really have been accidents, it’s just that the US-based acts keep forgetting that trap doors are on the other side of the road Down Under. All very viable options!!
I do hope Chris Martin followed in Olivia Rodrigo’s other footsteps, and went to the hospital post-show to rule out a concussion. While Olivia ran forward towards her hole, Chris walked backward into his and, yeah, it wasn’t pretty. It certainly looked like he got a rush of blood to the head. (Thank you, thank you, yes that was well done.)
The moment Chris Martin fell through a trapdoor right in front of me at the #Coldplay concert tonight. pic.twitter.com/qIdzMEGG0s
— Greg Briggs (@greg__briggs) November 3, 2024
Photos credit: Mike Gray/Justin Ng/Avalon, Getty