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🌙 COLDPLAY ANNOUNCE MOON MUSIC OUT OCTOBER 4TH 🎵

12-Sep-2009: Manchester, LCCC, UK - Tickets, Previews, Meetups, Reviews/Photos


Jenjie

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Ian, the full NME article:

 

http://www.nme.com/reviews/coldplay/10828

 

:dozey:

 

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(added by Ian)...

 

Remember this?

 

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AG93RViRyJc]YouTube - Coldplay - NME 'On' Piece (2nd January 1999)[/ame]

 

AS posted by mimixxx earlier today...

 

NME berate Coldplay Manchester concert performances in shocking online review

 

Recessions make people act out of character; party animals won’t socialise at all while board game enthusiasts spend nights eternally pub-crawling. Others, like the fifty-something woman stood in front of NME tonight, will spend £50 on a ticket and then indecently expose themselves by urinating in a pint glass in public. The ‘camouflage’ bit of her camouflage jacket isn’t doing what it should, and we don’t know what to think. Not a typical Coldplay fan, right? Right. But this isn’t a typical Coldplay gig; one of hip-hop’s strongest contenders is tonight supporting Britain’s most confusingly popular rock band.

 

Of course, Noel Gallagher insisted Jay-Z and guitar music couldn’t grace the same stage or ignite the same audience. Yet, just over a year later, the rapper is playing to a sell-out Coldplay crowd in the Oasis departee’s hometown – and what’s more, he’s winning with ease. While Coldplay insist on dressing like toy soldiers, Jay-Z strides onstage like a rock star, sporting shades and studded leather jacket. Sure, his confident Brooklyn drawl, as ever, suggests he could afford more gold toilets than we could Wispa Golds, but that doesn’t stop all 50,000 of us feeling like a collective of superstars when the thud of bass-heavy ‘99 Problems’ kicks in.

 

It’s a happy reception, but this crowd aren’t easy to work out, as exemplified by Madame Public Urination as she proceeds to drink her own freshly brewed export. Yep, really. As security drag her out by the arms, we wonder how the excitement of American hip-hop could summon up such English madness. We also feel obliged to point the OAP holding binoculars in the direction of the opera but, alas, his feet are tapping as the words “Rap critics that say he’s ‘Money Cash Hoes’/I’m from the hood, stupid, what type of facts are those?” blast out at mighty volume. Superfans wearing replica Coldplay army get-up, who you might have thought only knew Jigga from collaborations ‘Lost’ and ‘Beach Chair’, are in fact singing his back catalogue word for word. Iconic images of Muhammad Ali, JFK and Nirvana set the scene for ‘U Don’t Know’ and the soulful ‘Heart Of The City (Ain’t No Love)’. Rihanna’s vocals introduce ‘Run This Town’ and the crowd divide for group vocals on ‘Jigga What, Jigga Who’. But it’s ‘Encore’ which allows the rapper to be on top of his game tonight – even to a wall of guitar-loving Mancunians who apparently consider Chris Martin a stadium god.

 

And away he goes… sprinting from corner to corner like a hyperactive child, Martin and co have blown budgets on fireworks and giant yellow balloons which, in predictably cheesy fashion, float out during the soppiness of ‘Yellow’, which is then turned into a comedy X Factor skit. Fair enough, Coldplay do take the piss out of themselves, but Simon Cowell’s pink, smug face on a half a dozen TV screens cancels out any empathy. Mass singalongs are encouraged for ‘Clocks’, ‘Fix You’ and ‘Trouble’ and if said hits weren’t so debilitating to the soul, maybe we wouldn’t feel as hollow as a Songs Of Praise special for atheists. ‘Violet Hill’, ‘Viva La Vida’, the piano stirrings of ‘Politik’ and a (rubbish) acoustic ‘Billie Jean’ don’t muster up anything near the adrenaline caused by Jigga. Before he bursts into the rom-com-perfected ‘The Scientist’, Martin declares, “I think this is the only time we’ve ever had to play after someone who’s had about 10 more Number Ones than us!”

 

And with that, a line-up born out of mutual respect for different genres has no doubt opened up new sounds to die-hard fans. If, even in the credit crunch, the average listener clearly still values live music as an essential pleasure, no matter what the support, well, we can all take comfort in that – even if we have to sit through Coldplay to do so.

 

http://www.nme.com/reviews/coldplay/10828

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To be fair, the reviewer that wrote the article looks like a complete idiot.

 

kelweb2.jpg

 

Yeah, this dumb bitch looks like she wouldn't know a great concert if it was right in front of her drinking its own piss

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Jay-Z is probably one of the last remaining hip-hop pop stars, someone respected in hip hop circles and still able to make records that can crossover and be appreciated by pop music fans of all generations. Recently I caught his gig at the Old Trafford Cricket ground in Manchester – Well, I say his gig; he was actually supporting Coldplay!? This point highlights exactly what I’m saying about his crossover appeal. Jay’s performance went down well with all the middle aged mums and dads waiting to see Coldplay but something about him warming up for Coldplay got under my skin a little bit. I don’t care for all the Jay-Z and Chris Martin arse licking – probably stemming from my dislike for Coldplay’s music. Although I have to admit that Coldplay do put on a rather special live show. They don’t skimp on costs, it’s more of a specatacle than a music gig – the music seems to be secondary to the lighting, smoke, fireworks, confetti, balloons, stage changes, crowd roaming and other outlandish showman tactics. That’s all good, but I’m about the music so it was nice when Chris Martin declared it was the first time they had ever played after someone bigger than them.

 

http://www.audiobounty.com/reviews/album-reviews/jay-z-the-blueprint-3

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On Saturday night I had the geat pleasure of spending an evening in the presence of the fabulous British rock troubadours Coldplay! No, they didn’t come ’round my gaff for a cuppa and a chat – rather me, my wife and about 55,000 other people crowded into Lancashire County Cricket Ground (Manchester, England) yesterday for a concert which has to rank as one of the best I can remember!

 

While the main focus of the concert was Coldplay there were also two supporting acts who were each excellent in their own right. Kicking off the festivities were the excellent White Lies, who are currently enjoying a fair bit of playtime on BBC Radio 1. These guys look set for great things, and older music fans will notice elements in their tracks reminiscent of several great 80’s bands (most notably Duran Duran). Given the current popularity and resurgence of all things 80’s that can be no bad thing. They managed to warm up the crowd nicely and were good enough that I went out and bought their album yesterday!

 

Second up (and probably unaccustomed to not headlining) was Jay Z! While he put on a good show it felt a little out of place sandwiched between the two indie acts. We were seated towards the rear of the stadium (my wife is pregnant and we didn’t want to risk the heaving of the crowd) but it looked like everybody down at the front enjoyed the set. From where I was sitting it all came across a bit muddled, but I’m sure there’s thousands of people who were there that would argue differently. Maybe I’m just getting old…

 

Finally, after sunset, Coldplay took the stage. I’ve been an “appreciater” of their music for some time, but never would have dubbed myself a “fan” until last night. Even while I was there I was trying to think how I could describe the mixture of atmosphere, music and lightshow, and to be honest I don’t think I could ever do it justice.

 

The set list was a mixture of new material from Coldplays latest album “Viva la Vida” and old favourites that had 55,000 people singing in unison. It’s been about five years since I last went to a large scale concert (it was actually The Cure at the same venue) but I was amazed at how much more sophisticated the accompanying visuals and lightshow were that anything I’ve ever seen before! Each song had it’s own visual theme and I couldn’t even attempt to describe the entire gig, but there are a couple of standout moments that are most vivid in my memory. The first of these are the confetti butterflys spewed forth from cannons into the crowd and over the stage during “Lovers in Japan” – for the duration of the song the air was filled with thousands upon thousands of multicoloured flutterings. Secondly, and perhaps my favourite, were the giant balloons that magically appeared throughout the crowd during a brief moment of darkness just before a moving rendition of “Yellow” during which all 55,000 people sang out the chorus!

 

All in all it was a truly breathtaking experience and I will be awaiting Coldplays next tour in anticipation!

 

http://www.mytraveldirectory.net/blog/viva-la-vida-viva-la-coldplay/

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