You can't question that these instruments are integral to the unique sound of Coldplay right? But who on earth plays them!!?? For those of you that have seen Coldplay live, who plays the strings and the organs and the synths? Can anybody shine some light on this for me? [/glow]

i've always suspected that in the early days they've played them on backing tapes or straight off a sequencer coz will used to start nearly every song clicking his sticks or hats. these days though i think they have someone off stage playing bits and bobs for them.

I been wondering about this as well when I saw their performance from the "Top of the Pop" clip and the SNL clip. Maybe they use "backing tracks" to support the songs. Same thing applies to U2 when they play live.

I'm sure that they play backing tracks along with the songs. The band will have cue's in the earpieces. I remember hearing In my Place being played and the backing track started and Chris was like 'whoops'. Also, I remember in the tour diary seeing a synth on top of chris piano at the Hollywood Bowl. whether that had the backing tracks as presets, I don't know

probably triggered samples from a midi controller. doesn't guy play some live parts with his new minimoog?

I think thats there to look cool in shows like Top of the Pops and SNL. Maybe he does it on tour but I doubt it :)

who doesn't play synth these days? i've been looking around for one forever but i can't find one, i'm not about to sell my soul to an online music store either.