EXCLUSIVE: A northern English lawyer has revealed that his passion for rugby was his secret weapon in stealing Coldplay out from under the noses of the nation’s biggest stadiums and persuading the band to play at his local ground next summer.
A week ago, more than a quarter of a million fans queued up to buy tickets to see the most popular British band of the 21st century in their home nation. A few days previously, Coldplay had announced that in summer 2025, they would be bringing their Music of the Spheres world tour to the UK, where they had decided to perform in only two towns.
The setting of London’s Wembley Stadium came as no surprise. The other venue, however, stopped people in their tracks – Craven Park in Hull, north-east England, a weatherbeaten sports ground that, on normal weekends, plays host to a few thousand fans cheering on their local rugby club.
The club’s owner, local lawyer and businessman Neil Hudgell, revealed to Deadline how this surprising turn of events came about due to his 20-year friendship with Simon Moran, a rival rugby club owner, but also the promoter of some of the world’s top live artists, including Coldplay.
“Simon told me Coldplay wanted to play somewhere northern, homely, working-class, and were exploring a number of venues,” Hudgell recounts. “One of those was Craven Park. At the time I didn’t think it was more than a long-odds prospect, but we were in the conversation, and I kept nagging Simon to see how things were going, I tried to give him the soft sell.
“I’m not sure to what extent our friendship played a part in that decision, but we are where we are.”
Hudgell, a longtime fan of the band, is confident that Coldplay share his ethos of giving back to the community, something he has prioritized throughout his time at Hull Kingston Rovers. Chris Martin and his bandmates have pledged to donate 10% of all UK ticket sales to the Music Venue Trust, supporting local bands across the country, and a proportion of the Hull concert tickets have been allocated to those living within 50 miles of Craven Park.
“That came from the band,” says Hudgell. “We were obviously quite happy to go along with it. The club has always been very community focused so it all fits. More local people can get there, and I hear a lot of have managed that despite how quickly the tickets went.
Will Coldplay’s huge show be possible to bring to the relatively small confines of Craven Park? “I’m given to understand it’ll be the full Wembley experience,” reports Hudgell.
The lawyer and businessman was born and raised in Hull (full name Kingston-upon-Hull, hence his team’s name), departed briefly to attend university, but returned more than 30 years ago to the city, where he founded his own law firm. Since 2004, he has been the owner of Hull Kingston Rovers, the rugby club he attended for the very first time with his grandfather. “I was a ball boy in the 1970s and 80s, so it was in my blood from a very early age.”
Hull was named the UK’s City of Culture in 2017, and boasts an impressive roll-call of local musicians. Hudgell hopes Coldplay’s decision to eschew larger stadia will inspire other artists to do something similar: “I’m hoping that we’ll be able to put on other music events that week, and it’s a blueprint that can be replicated in future years. It’s bringing music to the community. There is a tension between commercialism of it all and giving something back to as many people as possible.”
Coldplay will come to Hull on August 18 and 19 next year, to perform to a sell-out crowd of 10,000. Hudgell says, usually, the attendees make up in enthusiasm what they lack in numbers:
“It’s a homely little place, probably needs a bit of investment. It’s not one of these new sanitized stadiums. It was built 35 years ago and it’s showing signs of age. It’s not the complete package but it’s recognized for having a great atmosphere.”
Despite needing a lick of paint which will surely come before Coldplay play their opening chords, Craven Park has previously hosted other big musical names including Rod Stewart and Tom Jones. And now this.
Simon Moran is also the promoter of the much-hyped 2025 Oasis reunion. This will see reconciled brothers Liam and Noel Gallagher perform together on stage for the first time in 15 years, and the prospect caused a similar stampede for tickets as Coldplay – but also anger over Ticketmaster’s use of “dynamic pricing”, which saw fans paying more for tickets than originally listed, as demand surged. Coldplay elected not to pull that lever, meaning fans weren’t charged more, but there was still raging on sales day, as the queues got longer and tickets for re-sale began appearing on social media.
Fortunately for Hudgell, his seat is guaranteed. “I’ll be there both nights, hopefully.” Favourite Coldplay song? “Everyone has an emotional affinity to Fix You, but I also like a lot of the early stuff, like Spies. There aren’t many I don’t like.”
