Everytime I see a new post in this thread I'm hoping for a new R42 blog, but it's always one of these panorama shoots. Oh, the disappointment.

THIS

 

 

SO MUCH THIS

:nod:

 

 

Though I love that new tradition :awesome:

^ Yes I do like them as well. I think they're awesome to keep if you went to the show.

But I see R42 is using this to get lazy...:sneaky:

Panorama: American Airlines Arena, Miami

30 June 2012 10:16 pm

Here's our latest panorama show from Coldplay's North American tour

 

Good evening. Here's Roadie #42's panorama shot taken before last night's show in Miami. Click the picture for the hi-res version.

 

 

Click here for more summer 2012 crowd panoramas.

 

Anchorman

Roadie #42 - Blog #174

2 July 2012 1:21 am

#42 and the curious tale of the disappearing guitar camera

 

So here’s a funny one.

 

I’ve been playing about with a bunch of new cameras lately. Even though it’s the cheapest of them, one of the most interesting is a tiny little video camera that was invented for sticking on skydivers heads. What better way to test it then, than to stick it to the end of the guitar that Chris throws into the air at the end of God Put A Smile?

 

Hoppy spends a lot of his working day repairing this guitar and nursing it through the tour. Understandably, he’s not entirely sure about the idea when I first explain it, but he’s game. I rig it up and show him how to press record, then pretty much forget all about it. During Princess of China after God Put A Smile is done, Hoppy’s voice comes over the comms system. “I’ve got no idea where your camera ended up, mate”. Oh bugger.

 

We have a quick scan around the stage while the band are on the B-stage and then wait until they take off for the two songs at the back of the arena. I’m down in the pit with a torch, searching on the floor when Darren from the video department informs me that he saw it fly off towards the confetti canon, stage right. Despite a pretty thorough hunt, no joy.

 

I head back to my bunker to be ready for Clocks and tweet a quick message from the Coldplay account asking if anyone that’s been to the show saw where it went. I don’t hold out much hope - I mean what are the odds? I’m thoroughly expecting to endure a few days of “I am Spartacus”-style wind up, as hundreds of folks who weren’t even at the show all turn up claiming they’ve got our camera. Hmmmmm.

 

Mainly though, I just want to see what’s on it!

 

When the show is done and we’re heading for the plane, I have a quick look on Twitter and I’m astonished by the explosion of retweets. A few folks quite helpfully tell me they saw it come off and in which direction it went, but nobody found it when it landed. Oh well, that’s that.

 

An hour or so later though, as we’re getting to the hotel in Miami, there’s a tweet saying “we have your camera!”. Really? Hmm, could this be the start of the hoaxes?

 

Shortly afterwards though, they post a photo of the camera. It clearly shows a sticker that I put on it just before the show.

 

 

My god! That’s it! After a bit of email back and forth, it turns out that they were in the front row after being “upgraded” from seats way up the back. The band have done this for ages now. It came about after struggling with shows where the seats closest to the stage were often full of just “the highest bidders” and not necessarily the most enthusiastic fans.

 

In European standing shows, the front rows are the kids who’ve been outside the venue since daybreak and who’ve sprinted in to get the pole position. Usually by the time the opening acts have finished they’re at fever pitch with excitement. The sight of Chris’s piano being wheeled into position can bring about a screaming cheer - explosive enough to make you think the show has already started.

 

In contrast, folks who’d paid astronomical sums for the tickets could often just sit with an arms folded sense of entitlement, emoting “come on then, entertain me, have you any idea how much I paid for this?”.

 

So the band don’t sell the tickets to the front few rows any more. Instead, various crew members are sent out to scan the highest, furthest seats to find folks who look genuinely excited and giddy to be seeing the band. They’re then given tickets to the front row (which quite often looks a very, very long way away from the “nosebleed” seats). Often, folks think it’s a scam and refuse to believe it. Often they go berserk and jump up and down screaming - until they have to calm down before they fall down.

 

Eventually, though, they end up down the front and the natural order of things is restored. For them, it’s a Willy Wonka golden ticket. For the band, it’s guaranteed energy from the folks closest to them. It genuinely does make the shows better. We’ve all said it many times. How good a show is, is largely to do with how good the audience are. It’s what fuels the whole thing.

 

 

So it seems, Andy, Brianna and Julia (above) had been upgraded. And a good thing too! When the guitar flew through the air and came crashing down onto the stage, my camera flew apart in all directions. The guts of it though, landed at their feet - and they very kindly mailed it back to me the next day. Twitter, it would seem, has more uses than telling folks what you had for lunch…

 

The camera got pretty comprehensively trashed upon its crash landing. The waterproof enclosure was shattered and gone, the back cover missing, the battery AWOL, but the body intact. With a little work though, I coaxed the footage from the poor frightened little bugger. So here we have it ladies and gents - I give you the final seconds of the 42cam’s maiden flight:

 

[ame]www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHcJZ_8F6Cc[/ame]

 

Never a dull moment…

 

R42

Thats the best live video ever!!!!!!!!!!!!

^have to agree, best footage ever!

Oh WOW.. oh wow.. that is SO so cool! what are the chances he got the camera back too... amazing!

 

I love that..

Oh WOW.. oh wow.. that is SO so cool! what are the chances he got the camera back too... amazing!

 

I love that..

 

SO much I posted twice apparently LOL

AMAZING video :awesome:

This better be on the DVD. :nod:

This better be on the DVD. :nod:

Hahah. I agree!

This better be on the DVD. :nod:

 

Yes! :awesome:

:lol: fantastic!

Panorama: Philips Arena, Atlanta

3 July 2012 5:05 pm

Roadie #42's pre-show photo of last night's crowd

 

Good evening. Here's our crowd panorama shot of last night's crowd at the Philips Arena in Atlanta. Click to see the hi-res version. You can upload your pictures from the show (and check out others) in our Live Archive.

 

 

Click here for more summer 2012 crowd panoramas.

 

Anchorman

Panorama: Time Warner Cable Arena, Charlotte

4 July 2012 5:08 pm

Here's Roadie #42's panorama shot from last night's show

 

Good evening. Here is Roadie #42's crowd panorama photo of last night's crowd at Charlotte's Time Warner Cable Arena. Click the picture to see the hi-res version. You can upload your pictures from the show (and check out others') in our Live Archive.

 

 

Click here for more summer 2012 crowd panoramas.

 

Anchorman

Panorama: Wells Fargo Center, Philadelphia

6 July 2012 7:01 pm

Our latest pre-show crowd panorama from the North American tour

 

Good evening. Here's Roadie #42's marvellous pre-show panorama shot from last night's show at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia. Click the picture to see the hi-res version. And you can upload your pictures from the show (and check out others') in our Live Archive.

 

 

Click here for more summer 2012 crowd panoramas.

 

Anchorman

Not a news piece from coldplay.com, but can't find the relevant thread - sorry! Has anyone seen the new-look recordings section? Go to it, click on lyrics for one of them, and enjoy! I like the redesign, quite efficient :)

^Yes I noticed that too a few weeks ago. It's ok (I'm not fond of it but I don't hate it either).

Panoramas: Wells Fargo Center, Philadelphia

7 July 2012 10:01 pm

Our pre-show crowd panorama shots from the two Philly shows

 

Good evening. Here are Roadie #42's marvellous pre-show panorama shots from the two shows at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia. Click the pictures to see the hi-res version. And you can upload your pictures from the shows (and check out others') in our Live Archive.

 

FRIDAY 6 JULY

 

 

THURSDAY 5 JULY

 

 

Click here for more summer 2012 crowd panoramas.

 

Anchorman

Panorama: Verizon Center, Washington DC

9 July 2012 5:58 pm

Here's #42's pre-show photo from the first night in DC

 

Good evening. Here is Roadie #42's lastest pre-show panorama photo, this time from Washington DC (who score at least 8 out of 10 for their noticing/waving skills). Click the photo to see the hi-res version. And click here to upload your photos from the show (and see others').

 

 

Click here for more summer 2012 crowd panoramas.

 

Anchorman

Interview: Mark Osborne on the Mylo Xyloto comic

10 July 2012 3:12 pm

The co-creator of the Mylo Xyloto tells us more about it

 

Click for full, hi-res image

 

With the news just revealed that the first issue of the six-part Mylo Xyloto comic is to be released at this week's Comic-con in San Diego, we asked the comic's co-creator - Academy Award-nominated writer and director Mark Osborne (Kung Fu Panda, MORE, The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie) - to tell us a bit more about it.

 

Hi Mark. How did the Mylo Xyloto comic come about?

Well, it's been a long and winding road, but the comic is the latest expression of a music-driven feature animated film that the band and I started developing several years ago. I had just finished making Kung Fu Panda and I was eagerly looking to develop several indie dream projects. I have always wanted to create a new kind of "Yellow Submarine" and when I saw a story on 60 Minutes about Chris and the band’s creative process I thought it might be something they’d be open to. So I "cold-called" Coldplay and it turned out it was perfect timing and Chris and I started collaborating in Los Angeles over the course of that summer. After much development and many iterations, it was clear that the animated feature film would be much longer in development than the album, so the band decided that the album would come first. Creating a companion comic book series became the best way to further explore the story and express the visual side of the equation. Honestly, I'm happy to finally talk about it all, it's been very hard to keep the secret this whole time!

 

How closely did you work with the band on it?

The whole band has been approving things all along, especially at the stage when I was developing the visual look of the universe and the "bible" for the project. The real serious story collaboration on the movie started with just me and Chris, with him at a piano sometimes (which was fucking crazy cool) and with both of us writing and sketching ideas out. Then after the first few months, Phil joined in and it really became something that the three of us developed together, weighing in on all story ideas, character designs, scripts, inked pages, etc. Phil ultimately became the "story editor" bringing great insight, ideas and objectivity to the process. It has really been a great collaboration every step of the way.

 

Did the comic inform the album or did the album inform the comic (or was it a bit of both)?

Well, I'd like to think the development of the story did affect the album, and the album certainly did affect the development of the comic, but it's all a bit mixed together for me. The first demo version of the album that Chris put together to inspire me way back in the beginning drove the writing process for the feature film ideas, but the album changed greatly from that first demo stage, as did the story. There were always key words and phrases from Chris that drove the story process, things like "glowing in the dark" and "dreaming of paradise" and so things like this were very inspiring to me as we went along. Also, the spirit of the band and the music library in its entirety really dictated the kinds of thmes and ideas I was exploring, just in a different medium. And of course elements like the Hypnofeed were pulled directly from Coldplay lore, mixed with the lore of the body of work from my universe (see my short film MORE on iTunes or check out www.happyproduct.com).

 

There was one point in the process when I had lunch with the whole band at the Bakery when it was clear that the movie was going to have to take a backseat in favor of the music and the comic, we decided to use grafitti and otherworldly street-artists as a visual metaphor for the creation of music, this was the moment when the whole thing was pushed in the direction it now follows. The idea that the rebels in this world create musical graffiti was the big breakthrough for the sake of the comics, to make it not just a story about music, but a story about the power of creativity and the power of having a creative voice, which has always been a strong theme for the band. This also was far more visual and made the comic series a reality.

 

Please could you give us a brief snapshot of the plot/scenario?

Well, all I will say is it is the story of Mylo Xyloto, a young Silencer on the front lines of a war against sound and color in the world of Silencia. Mylo discovers that the enemy he's been trained to hate his whole life might not be the enemy after all.

 

Tell us a bit about Mylo Xyloto himself?

Like many Silencers, he was raised in an orphanage and conditioned to be a Silencer from a very young age. Legions of Silencers were created after the Great War of Colors took many lives, including the lives of Mylo's parents Aiko and Lela. That war threatened the safety of the citizens and strict measures were put in place to ensure it would never happen again. At the start of our story, Mylo is not so sure that all the propaganda and strict measures are legitimate, but he keeps these concerns close to his vest since they are just vague feelings that even his best friend Rex can't quite support.

 

Are you pleased with how the whole thing turned out?

I am beyond thrilled. It has been a very long process with many artists weighing in on the movie development, but it wasn't until Alejandro Fuentes started developing artwork for the comic that the world snapped into sharp focus. Our initial inspiration for the comic was to do something in the vein of Moebius, and Alex's work reminded us so much of his work that he was hired to develop the world. Now looking at issue one, I think we've created something that is unique, but also a tribute to Metal Hurlant and I'd like to think Mylo is something that could have been published in the early days of that seminal compilation. The color by Steve Hamaker is also very exciting for me. He's fleshed out the tone of the world in such an amazing way and there are so many great subtle details and effects put into each panel. And to even have Nate Piekos of Blambot doing our lettering is super exciting since The Umbrella Academy was such a huge influence for me as we started developing this. As for issues 2-6, we are thrilled to be collaborating with writer Dylan Haggerty who is doing an amazing job of expanding the universe with us and I can't wait for everyone to see the future issues.

 

Do you think reading the comics will give people a different understanding of the album?

I hope so, but that is really up to the imagination of the fans. There will hopefully be many, many connections for them, including lots we didn't even intend I'm sure. I'm excited to see how people link the two and what develops after this. I always conceived of this story as being directly connected to the music, so it is strange to express the story in such a silent form to start out. Once all six issues are released it will be interesting to see if fans try to line up the whole series with the album, maybe in a "Dark Side of the Moon / Wizard of Oz" kind of way. I'm not saying this will work, but you never know...

 

Does Major Minus really have one eye watching us?

Let's just say that each Hypnofeed helmet only has one camera lens to show each wearer the world around them safely depicted in black and white. Those camera feeds aren't just directed inside the user's helmet...

 

-----

 

WIN A COPY OF THE VARIANT COVER ISSUE ONE OF MYLO XYLOTO! Enter your info below before 9am BST on Tuesday, 24 July. Five randomly-chosen winners will each receive a comic.

Mylo Xyloto comic - the story behind the album revealed!

10 July 2012 3:15 pm

Six-part comic series debuts at this week's Comic-Con

 

Click for full, hi-res image

 

hello everyone

3 years ago we had an idea with our friend mark osborne about a character called mylo xyloto ("xylo" as in xylophone, "to" as in toe).

gradually mylo's story and universe came together and this ended up providing the backdrop for the album and tour.

now we're proud to announce that early next year the story's going to come out as a 6-part comic.

and to kick things off mark's going to be holding a panel at comic con in san diego this week.

so if you're there you can ask him 'who's major minus?' and 'what the hell's the hypnofeed all about?'

we hope you like it. it was fun making it.

love coldplay

 

Click for Q&A with the comic's co-creator Mark Osborne

 

The first issue of Mylo Xyloto (published by Matt Groening's celebrated Bongo Comics) will be available, with an exclusive variant cover, at the 2012 San Diego Comic-Con International (12-15 July) at the San Diego Convention Center. On Friday, 13 July, the production team behind the comic will appear at a panel to discuss the series and afterwards will be available for autographs in the official signing area. A limited supply of the exclusive edition of issue one will also be made available via the Coldplay.com Shop.

 

The six-part comic will then be released monthly from February 2013. The series will be available to pre-order via the Coldplay.com Shop soon.

 

Click for hi-res cover

 

WIN A COPY OF THE VARIANT COVER ISSUE ONE OF MYLO XYLOTO!

Enter your info below before 9am BST on Tuesday, 24 July. Five randomly-chosen winners will each receive a comic.

Ack, sorry (how could I think our amazing Tash wouldn't notice something?) :D

 

It's getting really interesting. Though even now I'm not sure how I feel about this comic...

Yeah I'm wondering whether I'm going to like this or not. I'll give it a shot.