Coldplay Bring Tour To England With Kiss Cam Disclaimer, Oasis Tributes, And A Deep Cut They Hadn’t Played In 14 Years

Not that long ago, a Coldplay song debuted at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. Remember that? "My Universe," with BTS? No? It was just four years ago! Nevertheless, it feels like the kiss cam video is Coldplay's biggest hit in years upon years. That was a perfect viral moment, a whole drama playing out in just a few seconds. Everything worked: The couple instantly backing away from each other, as if to theatrically demonstrate the fact that they were cheating with each other? The camera lingering just a few seconds too long, letting the couple soak in the awkwardness? Chris Martin's reaction? The aftermath, where it turned out that they were tech executives who lost their jobs and whose marriages broke up? The Phillies mascots reenacting the video? Amazing. I would probably go to a Coldplay show just to see something like that happen.

After the North American leg of Coldplay's Music Of The Spheres tour proved to be unexpectedly eventful, the band brought that show to their UK homeland. Last fall, Chris Martin announced that 10% of the proceeds from Coldplay's UK shows will go to Music Venue Trust, an organization to support grassroots venues. On August 14, a few nights before the UK tour kickoff, Chris Martin played a secret acoustic set at a Yorkshire pub, the Puzzle Hall Inn in Sowerby Bridge. It included Martin's covers of Whitney Houston's "I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me)" and Elton John's "Rocket Man."

When the UK portion of the tour kicked off in Kingston Upon Hull on August 18, Coldplay brought the kiss cam back. Before the people in the audience started appearing onscreen, Martin said, "We've been doing this a long time, and it's only recently that it became, uh -- yeah. So. But life throws you lemons, and you've got to make lemonade. So we're going to keep doing it because we want to meet some of you!" He then freestyled a couple of verses about random people in the crowd, none of whom were making out with one another.

At the second show the following night, a faux-exasperated Martin announced, "This is not, never will be, and never was a kiss cam! It drives me fuckin' bananas! It's not a kiss cam! We put one couple, and now you're branded a kiss cam for the rest of your life! It's unbelievable! This is called a JumboTron, and we've done this for a long, long time, and we pick people out to say hello. Sometimes, they, yeah, turn out to be an internationally massive scandal, sure! But most of the time, we're just trying to say hello to some fucking people! That's all!" A second later, he admitted, "We're gonna do our fucking kiss cam!"

In the wake of the kiss cam incident, Oasis' Liam Gallagher, someone who has performed with Coldplay before, made fun of the whole thing, telling one crowd, "If we got any lovebirds in the house, don’t worry, we ain’t got any of that Coldplay snidey fucking camera shit." Last week, Coldplay began a long run of shows at London's Wembley Stadium, and Chris Martin, possibly in response and possibly in tribute to their '90s UK stadium act peers, sang a couple of lines from a couple of Oasis songs. On opening night, August 22, it was "Roll With It."

On Wednesday night, Coldplay performed their Viva La Vida track "Cemeteries Of London" for the first time since 2011.

Coldplay's run of Wembley shows continues on Saturday night.