HOWZAT

If Neil Tennant had planned to unwind in relative anonymity after his big moment, any remaining chances of that happening were cast aside after Martin, like Flowers before him, spotted him on the balcony.

With a mixture of blithe playfulness and genuine excitement, Martin pointed at him in the middle of a spittle-flecked delivery of Viva La Vida and exclaimed, “Ladies and gentlemen! The Pet Shop Boys!”

Far from recoil, Tennant’s reaction was extraordinary and inspired. With the “woah-oahs” of the song resounding around the venue, Tennant raised his arms and imperiously started conducting the thousand-odd people staring back up at him.

That this impromptu spectacle was about to be eclipsed by something proper and planned was confirmed as a crowd of people, some with walkie-talkies, busily fussed at the side of the stage – and Martin declared, “Okay, you’re gonna like this a lot.”

As Jonny Buckland strummed the opening chords of Take That’s Back For Good – a song which Martin has been wont to interpolate at recent performances of Coldplay’s own The Scientist – Gary Barlow gingerly walked on stage and radiated precisely the unalloyed humility that has made Take That’s resurgence such a pleasure to behold.

Far from emanating the starry entitlement of a Brandon Flowers, Barlow seemed reticent to turn around and soak up the fact that, for four minutes, Coldplay were his backing band – complete with Martin living out a teenage dream and chipping in with “I want you back” backing vocals.

In terms of what followed however, this spectacle was but a mere hors d’oeuvres. One by one, The Killers returned to the stage and donned musical instruments. Not so much starting as slowly coalescing around a thrilling upswell of drums and feedback, the American quartet’s 2004 hit All These Things That I’ve Done took glorious shape.

As noise turned into rousing clarion call, “You know you gotta help me out,” it was at this point that a black-clad Bono chose to make his entrance, beckoning the crowd to him as Martin and Flowers stood alongside him.

What ensued seconds later was, in its way, possibly the most moving part of the evening. Realising that Barlow was nowhere to be seen, Martin – determined the Take That frontman should also be in on this – almost pushed the U2 singer over in his sudden compulsion to ran off in search of him.

Seconds later, all four singers stood in a perfect boy-band line just long enough for disbelieving onlookers to memorise what may go down as the most brilliantly surreal finale seen at this or any rock venue in several years. “I’ve got soul but I’m not a soldier”, they all bellowed.

This wasn’t the post-Brits lap of honour that Coldplay had hoped. It was much, much better than that – and a salient reminder of what, for bands like Coldplay and The Killers, the real prizes are. With friends like this who needs awards?

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