To date, it’s still not entirely clear why Coldplay are coming to Craven Park. There was a certain bemusement last month when one of the world’s biggest and most unashamedly commercial bands announced that they were complementing their London residency next summer with two nights at the modest 20,000-capacity Sewell Group Craven Park, home of Hull Kingston Rovers. These, along with six nights at Wembley, are the only European shows Coldplay will play next summer. Even the city council described the news as “absolutely bonkers”.
Why Hull? Well for one thing, this is a city with a rich musical heritage in its own right, from the Housemartins to Everything But The Girl to Mick Ronson. And according to Neil Hudgell in a recent interview with The Times, the message came through that Coldplay wanted to play somewhere “northern and gritty”: authentic, out of the way, a little bit quirky. Hudgell is the owner of Rovers, and the man responsible for securing what we now have to describe as the second-hottest ticket in town.
