Matt Heath: Newstalk ZB Afternoons Host on last night's Coldplay concert

The first of Coldplay's three concerts at Eden Park is a night many concert-goers will never forget. 

Over 50 thousand people braved the bad weather last night, the rain unable to dampen the electric energy of the performance. 

Newstalk ZB's Matt Heath told Mike Hosking he arrived a critic and left a fan. 

He says he always found frontman Chris Martin to be a talented man, but one with a sort of punchable vibe around him – but after that concert, he’d follow him into battle. 

‘He’s one of the greatest men I’ve ever seen – he's up there with Freddie Mercury and Mick Jagger.” 

LISTEN ABOVE 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Night one of three for Coldplay. They claim over one
hundred and fifty thousand they're going to go through the
gates by the time it's over. Not dissimilar number to
the the protest over the Harbor Bridge. I was hearing
last night on the news they had everything from five
thousand to eight hundred and fifty thousand. Anyways, z'd be
afternoons as Matt Heath was there and he's with us.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
Matt morning, Good morning, Mike.

Speaker 1 (00:18):
Did you have any of the beads and the glasses?
Were you wearing your glasses the three days?

Speaker 2 (00:22):
I put the three D glasses on and it created
love hearts out of the lights. It was quite spectacular.
They also handed out a wrist band that flashed and
was GEO located, so that would make words in the
crowd like believe in love and such. It was pretty.
It was incredible. Actually, the tech was spectacular.

Speaker 1 (00:39):
Did you dance on the dance floor to generate the
power for the concert?

Speaker 2 (00:45):
I didn't generate any power on my carbon footprint of
the concert was huge, and yeah, I didn't help anything
at all. But there were fireworks as well, so hopefully
people were jumping up and down enough to offset those.

Speaker 1 (00:57):
Okay, let's get your credential sort of for a concert reviewer.
What is your concert experience? How many concerts you reckon?
You've been to?

Speaker 2 (01:03):
Roughly, I think I've been to thousands of concer all
over the world. I think more than most.

Speaker 1 (01:10):
Okay, so you've got good cred How many times have
you seen Coldplay?

Speaker 2 (01:14):
One times? Last night was the first time I stand?

Speaker 1 (01:17):
Yeah, Jason, you know Jason yep. He says he's seen
them six times.

Speaker 2 (01:22):
Six times all around the world or in New Zealand.
How many times they've been to New Zealand? I'm not sure.

Speaker 1 (01:28):
Good question as a concert Then from your thousands of
concerts you've gone to, where would you rank this one
having seen them for the first time?

Speaker 2 (01:35):
Look, before I went in there, you know, I knew
Coldplayer and I knew this songs, but I wasn't like
an album listener, go to stet Snower kind of thing.
And I always found Chris Martin slightly punishable, as you know,
a talented man, but there was sort of a punishable
vibe out of it around him. But after watching that concert,
I'd follow that guy out of battle. He's one of
the greatest funs men i've ever seen. He's up there

(01:56):
with Freddie Mercury and Mick Jagger and people will be
not believe me until they feed this concert.

Speaker 1 (02:02):
Right, Well, hold on when you say McJagger, because I've
not seen Freddy Murcury. Ra I've seen mc jagger. McJagger
is not well when you say front mate, I'm interested
in the bloke who talks to the audience. McJagger doesn't
talk to the audience, but he performs. He's a strutter,
So that's what you're referring to. In Martin's case.

Speaker 2 (02:17):
Yeah, well, yeah, I mean he's all dancing, all singing.
Just the presence is quite phenomenal. He owns the stadium.
You've got fifty thousand people there. But he owns a Coldplayer,
a band, and they write the songs together. But it
is all about it's all about Chris Martin. Yeah, yeah,
I mean great, the bass players, phenomenal, Guy Berriman. But yeah,

(02:39):
it's all about him. He owns the audience and part
of his hands. But also just as a purely put
together spectacle that the show is worth. Even if you
didn't like Coldplay's music, you could just go along and
marvel at the just how it's put together, how it's
run of the show, the visual feast of it.

Speaker 1 (02:59):
All brilliant, average age of the audience.

Speaker 2 (03:03):
It was. It was all all ages. It was a
four quadrant crowd. I'm very young to very old male female,
it was. It was, it was everyone. You know what
it was. It was a total feel good experience. I'm
a cynical guy at times, but I have just a
huge smile on my face and at one point even
a tear in my eye.

Speaker 1 (03:23):
Wow. Would you go again?

Speaker 2 (03:26):
I would definitely go again. I absolutely would.

Speaker 1 (03:29):
Okay, you probably got front of tickets. You probably got
you probably got free tickets. How much would you pay?

Speaker 2 (03:36):
I was thinking about that, and I was also standing
there thinking typical of me not to have paid, but
I think it would be worse. I don't know how
much the tickets are because I never paid for tickets,
but I would say it would be worth it would
be worth four hundred dollars.

Speaker 1 (03:51):
Wow. I don't think they were worth four hundred dollars,
but I never pay for tickets. He lives in a
different world from US folks. Teath with Coldplay for more
from the Mic Asking Breakfast Listen Live to News talks
at B from six am weekdays, or follow the podcast
on iHeartRadio