A woman who was thrown out of a Coldplay gig for dancing half way through the set has slammed security. Andrea Nelson, from Moston, Manchester, said she had got up to boogie to the song Yellow which played at her mother-in-law’s funeral when she was confronted by 10 guards.
The ticket had cost almost £150 and she tried to reason with the security officers as they removed her from the Etihad - but claims they would not listen. Andrea, 50, claimed other people were dancing too, but because she was in a section where standing is not allowed she was ejected - even though she explained the significance of the song.
She told the Manchester Evening News : “They asked me to sit down, so I asked if we could be moved somewhere else, bearing in mind this was my mother-in-law’s funeral song. I told them this. They said I might fall over the barrier, which basically came up to my chest. I’m five foot. Next thing, about 10 security came and escorted me out.”
Coldplay's Music of the Spheres World Tour plays tonight and tomorrow (June 6 and 7) in Cardiff at the Principality Stadium before heading to Italy.
Accusing the guards of being ‘rude’ and ‘refusing to listen’, Andrea was thrown out - and footage of her removal was posted on TYiktok and seen tens of thousands of times. She explained: “About 10 men [arrived]. They said basically you need to leave. I told them I hadn’t done anything wrong, I’d not been abusive, I said this is my mother-in-law’s song, and this is why I got up.
“I didn’t realise the seats were restricted. If I had, we shouldn’t have been paying full price for them. I would not have paid that fee if I’d known you couldn’t stand up. Who goes to a concert where you can’t stand up?”
It was only half way through the gig, leaving fan Andrea very disappointed, but she admitted she wouldn’t sit down straight away. She said: “Other people were stood up on our row, but much further around into the row,” she went on. “Nothing was said to them, because they were more difficult to get to. It was just us who were targeted, because we were right next to security.
“They came and said, ‘you need to sit down’, I said ‘this is my mother-in-law’s song, I will sit down in a minute’. They were just rude, saying ‘we’re watching you’. And because I didn’t sit down straight away, they called security and a load of blokes came.
“The way it was handled was atrocious. I’m a five foot, 50-year-old woman, does it really need that many people to come and escort me out? I felt like a criminal. They said if you don’t leave with us, we can remove you by force. I’ve stood up and danced at a concert, what have I done wrong?”
The Manchester Evening News contacted the show’s promoters SJM, but a spokesperson said it was ‘unable to comment’ on the matter.
