As if Kingston upon Hull did not have enough problems. Once a thriving fishing port, that industry is long gone; we were the most bomb-damaged place by area of the city in Britain during the Second World War; we are home to what is considered one of the largest and worst municipal housing estates in Europe, Bransholme; we have the third highest rate of teenage pregnancy in England and Wales; our football team, Hull City AFC, are in a race to the bottom of the Championship; dreadful Dame Diana Johnson is one of our most prominent MPs; we are likely to become part of a Net Zero obsessed devolved unitary Hull and East Yorkshire local authority which plans, among other things, to impose heat network zones; and the University of Hull is once again in a dire financial state, threatening job cuts and departmental closures.
On top of all that, Coldplay have announced two dates here in August next year at Craven Park, the home of rugby league team Hull Kingston Rovers. These are the band’s only dates outside of London and quite what we have done to deserve this is not clear. The words I would use to describe the music of Coldplay are probably unprintable – even in an open-minded publication like the Daily Sceptic – but ChatGPT came to the rescue, describing their music as “a blend of thoughtful introspection, anthemic energy and genre-crossing experimentation, designed to evoke both deep emotions and joyful communal experiences”. Despite that, they still seem to sell records and seats at their concerts.
Not content with inflicting their music on us, this tour is also a massive hyperinflated virtue signal regarding one of the band’s pet topics, the ‘climate emergency’. The band “first pledged to cut their carbon footprint in 2019” and told the BBC they would stop touring until they could tour “in a more sustainable way”. Sadly, they seem to have worked out how to do that and they are on the road again this year and next. It is either that or the “conscious uncoupling” of their frontman Chris Martin is proving more expensive than expected.
Coldplay are patrons of Client Earth, an environmental – with the emphasis on ‘mental’ – organisation which is at the “forefront of changing the way the planet’s resources are governed” and which claims: “Rising carbon emissions are accelerating climate change. Our forests are disappearing. The air we breathe and the oceans we depend on are polluted. Vulnerable plants and animals are under threat.” All palpable nonsense as readers of the Daily Sceptic will know.
The Wembley concerts, but not the Hull ones, will be powered entirely by solar, wind and kinetic energy and a satellite stage at each of the London shows will be powered fully “by the audience via kinetic flooring and power bikes”. Satellite stages, or B-stages, are used by several bands as a means for the band to perform out in the middle of the audience and are reached by catwalks. So, if you want to see Coldplay on the satellite stage not only do you have to pay for your ticket, but you must also work up a sweat for the privilege. This sounds like just the job for Ed Miliband and Sir Keir Starmer who, presumably, will be getting freebie tickets for the Coldplay gigs in any case. The band claim that their current tour has produced “59% less CO2 emissions than their previous stadium tour in 2016/17”. The proceeds from their current tour have also led to nine million trees being planted; it’s just a pity that they are working hard to reduce the very CO2 those trees will need to thrive.
Quite why Coldplay are coming to Hull is not clear. Frontman Chris Martin had expressed a desire to do something ‘up north’, had been given a range of options and chose Craven Park in Hull. We are not in the top 10 green cities in the U.K. (nor are we in the bottom 10). There are much bigger stadiums available even in Hull where the MKM stadium, home to both ailing Hull City AFC and our other rugby league team Hull FC, is twice the size of Craven Park.
We do have a reasonable musical history, being the home of two of David Bowie’s Spiders from Mars and producing the jangle pop band The Housemartins (later The Beautiful South). We have one of the most famous small musical venues on the U.K. at The Adelphi, capacity 200, where Oasis played in 1994 (tickets £4) and also bands such as Radiohead. Coldplay have pledged 10% of their takings on the U.K. leg of the tour to the charity Music Venue Trust, which supports small venues such as the Adelphi. Nevertheless, none of that is explicit.
However, a Facebook posting by BBC Humberside probably gets nearest to the truth. While claiming to speculate, the posting points out the proximity of Craven Park to the waterfront Siemens Gamesa factory, which manufactures wind turbines for offshore wind farms. The shafts of the turbines dominate their area of the waterfront and will be easily visible from the upper tiers at Craven Park. The turbines are destined for the Dogger Bank Wind Farm, the world’s largest offshore wind farm. Between Beverley and Hull, the Dogger Bank Wind Farm Converter Station – built to receive electricity from Dogger Bank B and pass it on the National Grid – is blotting the formerly bucolic landscape.
Readers of the Daily Sceptic will need no reminding that, in addition to being unsightly and environmentally deleterious, offshore wind turbines are a colossal waste of money. The Dogger Bank project alone costs £11 billion, wind turbines only generate electricity when the wind is blowing and, at best, wind contributes only 17% of the electricity we need here. To date it has not proved to be cost-effective, as demonstrated in 2023 when the Government failed to get any bids for new offshore wind projects (solar and tidal projects did get bids). Earlier this year BP froze its offshore wind endeavours due to lack of financial returns.
I imagine that none of this has gone unnoticed by Chris Martin and his bandmates, and I’ll eat my Oasis tickets if their visit to Hull is not aimed at giving the offshore wind project a shot in the arm. Who knows, Mr. Martin may even be asked to throw the switch that connects it all up to the grid – after all, this part of the project is due to go live in 2025. You heard it here first.
Dr. Roger Watson is Academic Dean of Nursing at Southwest Medical University, China. He has a PhD in biochemistry. He writes in a personal capacity.
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