An unexpected guest at Coldplay's concert
"So much love, so much music"
In my daily perusal of social media, I came across this video from Coldplay’s Youtube channel from June 29, 2024 performance in Gastonbury. It features a surprise guest appearing in the performance of “Fix you.” Chris Martin explains that this particular person had a lasting impression on him and was an inspiration behind Coldplay. The surprise guest is seen being wheeled out from backstage with a guitar in hand. This particular actor has made significant strides in investment of research to find cure and develop solutions to improve the lives of individuals living with Parkinson’s disease. If you are guessing, Michael J. Fox - then you are absolutely correct.
“Fix you” is one of my favorites from Coldplay. It starts out slow, but has this beautiful climax which turns into a highly energizing almost trance-like music which usually has me increasing the volume in the car. Many years ago I attended Coldplay’s concert in Philadelphia and listening to this video brought me back to me time in that stadium, listening to the same song, jumping up and down. It still amazes how music can bring us back to a time and place, makes us feel the same emotions we felt at that moment.
The most amazing part of the video with Michael is that you see him play his guitar along with the band, then in anticipation of that climax, kick his leg up in the air. Then, the camera cuts to the fireworks and the whole stadium erupts in applause!
A shorter version of the video appeared on Instagram. Michael responded in the comments section with the following beautiful quote:
“I thought everything in life that was going to happen to me had already happened…so much good stuff, so much love, so much music. Then this happened…what you’ve given me, can’t be measured.” I absolutely loved this quote, because it captures the everyday challenge in my own research: figuring out how to capture the impact of music. I am coming to a conclusion that sometime we cannot fully capture the impact of music using the tools at our disposal. This is what makes this line of research very exciting and worth pursuing!
I encourage you all to check out that video!
Until next time,
Darina