A Coldplay superfan has spent around £4,000 to travel thousands of miles across Europe to see his beloved band 13 times in just six weeks.
Linus Broström, 31, has sacrificed an entire year’s annual leave allowance to see Chris Martin and his bandmates perform in cities including Barcelona, Manchester, Gothenburg and Amsterdam over the next six weeks.
The music lover describes watching Coldplay from front-row seats as "the best feeling ever" but admits the "biggest mistake of his life" was going to see the rock band for the first time in 2009.
He quickly became hooked and has seen them 17 times since - this next couple of months will make it a total of 30 live performances across the world.
Speaking exclusively to Mirror, the hardware shop worker said: "Watching Coldplay live from the front row is the best feeling ever. Even though I've done it so many times before, it just keeps getting better.
"The way I look at it is that a two-week trip to the US will cost more than my four weeks here does, so in that way, it's absolutely worth it.
"And then all the new people you meet (while travelling and going to the concerts) from all over the world is just a massive bonus."
Linus' fiancée, 27-year-old Amelie, "gets a bit annoyed" about him having no time to go on other kinds of holidays "but she accepts it" and has joined him to the Manchester gig this week, which starts Linus' tour.
Linus, from Stockholm, Sweden, has spent £1,800 on tickets alone, and another £1,700 on travel and accommodation, which he admits has left him with “little savings”.
This is despite the cost of living crisis, and the fact the price of concert tickets continues to go up. A survey by YouGov in December found that half of the public have been priced out of attending live music events in recent years due to their costs.
The hardware worker first came across Coldplay more than a decade ago when he was given a compilation CD by a relative with Trouble on it.
Released in 2000, Trouble only came 10th in the UK charts. The tune, from Coldplay's debut album Parachutes, instantly became Linus "favourite song" despite it being unlike the usual heavier rock music he previously enjoyed.
Around three years later "the exact same thing happened with Clocks".
Clocks peaked at number nine in the UK charts in 2003, five years before the band's first number one Viva la Vida.
"I didn't realise at the time it was the same band," Linus, whose house is also adorned with Coldplay memorabilia, added.
"Then, at some point, music (by the band) started appearing online and I found more and more Coldplay songs.
"In 2009, I saw an advert that Coldplay was coming to Stockholm in a couple of months, so I made the biggest mistake of my life and went to see them.
"From that point on, my life was changed forever."
And despite loving the band and its music, he has "never been able to pinpoint the reason why I fell in love with either Trouble or Clocks as it's nothing like" the heavier rock music he typically liked as a youngster.
Regardless of how he felt as a teenager, Linus said every gig of the tour he has watched so far has been “amazing” and he’ll “go to a concert or two next year again” if he can.
Martin, 46, had said, a couple of years ago, that Coldplay will not release anymore music after 2025.
Their world tour is scheduled to continue this year until late November.
World problems, like environment issues and migration, influenced the 2019 album Everyday Life, father-of-two Martin said in a candid interview after its release.
Online marketplace Cheapo Ticketing, where tickets can be exchanged, commended Linus’ commitment to seeing Coldplay.
A spokesperson for the site - which specialises in selling cheap and discounted tickets - said that demand for concert tickets is constantly growing and urged fans to “shop around” before they buy.
