Chris Martin surprises fans with impromptu pub gig in Calderdale

Children in their pyjamas and their parents lined up outside a small community pub in West Yorkshire last night after hearing that Chris Martin was performing an impromptu gig.

The Coldplay star showed up to the Puzzle Hall Inn in Calderdale for an hour-long set before chatting and taking pictures with fans and even giving out tickets to his Hull show on Monday.

One man said he woke up his two teenage daughters to tell them Martin was “down the road” and take them to the gig when he got a call to say the singer was at the pub.

Andy Varley told the BBC: “Imagine being 17 and you like Coldplay and your dad blunders in and asks do want to go and see Chris Martin right now…get dressed we’re going in five minutes.”

Mr Varley, from Halifax, added: “I just bundled them in the car and got there just as he was starting.

“People just turned up for a drink and saw Chris Martin unloading pianos – can you believe that?”

He said after the gig at the Sowerby Bridge venue, “loads of people” started arriving in cars including “kids in jim jams” to catch a glimpse of the band.

“Chris was really chatty and really engaged and even put a picture on his piano that one of the customers’ children had made for him.

“He made a big fuss of it and said he would ‘treasure it forever’.

“He just came across as a really nice guy and said thank you to everyone on the way out.”

There were only about 100 people in the audience and another fan said that after chatting to him about some local disadvantaged children, Martin gave them 10 tickets to his next show at Craven Park Stadium in Hull, the penultimate stop on his world tour.

Mr Varley, who is on the board of directors for the Puzzle Hall, said the venue did have an inkling Martin would be coming but most of the punters had no idea.

He added: “It would have had to be kept under wraps due to security otherwise thousands of people would have turned up.”

The Puzzle Hall Inn is a “real ale pub” in Sowerby Bridge that supports “local people, suppliers and independent business”, according to its website.