S Poddar
Coldplay’s Chris Martin has taken an unplanned dive through a hole in the stage during the last night of the band’s concerts in Melbourne. It surprised both the band and the audience when it happened on the fourth and last night of Coldplay’s Melbourne leg of the Music of the Spheres tour at Marvel Stadium.
As Martin was speaking to the rapt audience, he fell backward into an enormous open area on the thrust stage. Videos taken by stadium-goers reveal he is reading and gesturing toward banners held up by people in the audience mere moments before the fall. Providentially, a person inside the hole managed to grab Martin, which seemingly assisted in breaking his fall.
The audience gasped in unison as Martin recovered quickly, saying, “That’s uh, not planned, thank you for catching me, so much. Thank you guys, holy shit.” Gratefully visible, Martin acknowledged the person who cushioned his fall and humorously admitted to feeling “the jitters” after the unexpected slip.
After a short check by a staff member, Martin confirmed, “Yeah I’m OK, thank you,” and went on with the performance to the relief and applause of the crowd.
Martin’s is the latest in a spate of recent stage mishaps: just three weeks ago, pop star Olivia Rodrigo tumbled through a hole during a performance at Melbourne’s Rod Laver Arena. On the last night of her shows in Melbourne on the Guts tour, Rodrigo, too was interacting with the audience and running across the stage when she unwittingly stepped into a hole.
Footage of that night, which circulated widely on social media, shows Rodrigo springing right back up after her fall. Unfazed, she told the audience, exclaiming, “Oh my God, that was fun!” before adding, “I’m okay. Woah. Sometimes there’s just a hole in the stage.” She then continued cheerfully, asking, “Where was I?”
Although both instances took everyone by surprise, it did not seem either artist was hurt, thus neither of them stopped doing his job. Being among Melbourne’s two top destinations for performances, Marvel Stadium and Rod Laver Arena always accommodate a wide variety of artists from around the globe; the stage plans typically get altered to make the event as attractive as it may be. However, both the recent incidents alerted one and all to these less conspicuous risks that the mega-structures carry within.
While these gaffes have entertained and even provided some comic moments, they underscore the point of careful awareness on the stages that often contain such hidden platforms or trapdoors for visual effects.
