Coldplay preaching peace and love to Charlie Kirk is all well and good. But would it hurt artists to take a stand? | Elle Hunt

At Wembley, Chris Martin exhorted the crowd to ‘send love anywhere you wanna send it’. But half-hearted word salad won’t stop the rise of hate

I

don’t mind committing to record that I am a fan of Coldplay. A Rush of Blood to the Head, Parachutes and Viva La Vida … are legitimately good albums. And Fix You remains a tearjerker despite decades of overuse in medical dramas.

Yet, if your taste is better than mine, you may not know that they’re on tour. On my Instagram stories, at least, there has been a conspicuous absence of Coldplay posts, compared to the wall-to-wall coverage of the Oasis reunion shows (though I’m not convinced Oasis have more good songs in their catalogue).

When I attended last week, the stalls were packed with perhaps the most diverse and global crowd I’ve ever seen. Even the haters – not that there were any present – would have to admit Coldplay put on a dazzling show, with 3D special effects and guest performers, including Fela Kuti’s son Femi, Palestinian-Chilean singer Elyanna and an entire orchestra from Venezuela. In some ways it was a triumph of technology and globalisation, but as a platform, I couldn’t help feeling it was squandered.