Coldplay dedicate song to woman who came to their first Manchester gig in 1998

Coldplay's Chris Martin has used the first of the band's string of four gigs in Manchester to say a special thank you to a woman who was at their first gig in the city 25 years ago.

The band performed at Manchester City's Etihad stadium in front of around 60,000 on Wednesday, 1 June.

It is a far cry from Coldplay's first gig in the city back in September 1998, when just three people were in the audience to see them as they played the Cuba Cafe.

The band revealed on social media one of those three people was a woman called 'Debs', who they said "put us on the right track and we never looked back.

The band, famous for tunes such as Sky Full of Stars and Yellow, thanked Debs and called her their "own busy bee."

The tweet, initialled W to show it had been tweeted by Will Champion, the band's drummer, also revealed his drum featured a Manchester worker bee.

During the concert at the Etihad Chris Martin also dedicated a song to Deb, saying: "Now we're going to play a song in the way that we used to play.

"The first time we ever came to Manchester was in 1998, we came to play a place called Cuba Cafe.

"Johnny forgot half of his equipment and nobody came to see us bar two or three people.

"One of them was called Debs from Manchester and she said 'Hey, you're going to be the best band in the world....'after Radiohead and all the others'".

Chris laughed as he continued: "Debs is here today, and we are so grateful to to be in Manchester with her and all the other fans who've followed us for years and you're still with us."

Debs herself tweeted a video of the magical moment, saying "Sorry for such a self indulgent post but this happened and it was very special".

The concert was the first of four back-to-back gigs at the football stadium before Coldplay move their tour to Cardiff for two nights, then on to Italy.

The gig at the Etihad saw them pay homage to Manchester band James with an acoustic version of the classic 'Sit Down', with Chris Martin admitting it had been one of his favourite songs since he first heard it in 1990.

It was rounded off with a spectacular firework display with many fans taking to social media to say it was the best gig they had ever been to.

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