thankyou for all the reviews and pics folks! :thumbsup: :D

OMG YES. This is exactly what it feels like when a lot of Coldplayers get together. :heart:

 

(Glad you had a nice time! :wacko:)

 

I was half expecting the boys to come and mingle with the crowd or something, it felt so casual. I didn't really even have the 'ohmygodit'safamousperson' jitters because they weren't acting like they were famous, if that makes any sense. I was just really happy and excited, but not hysterical. That's never happened before.

I think I was standing next to Danielle and Sophie from here (I heard you introduce yourself to one another, I'm not a stalker) in the queue outside. I heard you talking about Coldplaying :). I was the one with the Christmas hat on as was my friend with the blue shirt on..

I'm not sure who everyone I met was called :embarrassed:

I'm not sure who everyone I met was called :embarrassed:

doesn't matter you're still part of the coldplaying family :D

doesn't matter you're still part of the coldplaying family :D

Yay thanks :smug2:

OK, this is SUPER long, but for anyone who's interested...this is my review :nice:

 

 

 

My alarm went off at 4:30 this morning :freak:. I eventually got to London by ten and to the actual BBC Television Centre at 10:30, where Dan and Sam were saving a place for me in queue, where they'd been since 9. Thank God they did…otherwise who knows what would have happened to me later. It was cold, definitely. I'm good with cold, but because we were just queuing, rather than watching Coldplay shoot a video in front of us this time, I noticed it more than I did a few weeks ago, and my feet were cold despite warm boots and two pairs of socks.

 

They gave us our stickers around noon, and I ended up being #20 in line, which was 400 times better than what I was expecting myself to end up with as of the night before, where I got a bit worried about getting into the studio at all.

 

We were then ushered into the waiting area, which was nice and relaxed. I wish all gigs worked like this: the people that have been waiting the longest get stickers to prove their place in line, and then they get to relax. We all waited around in a nice heated area with tables and chairs. Unfortunately, the whole thing didn't kick off until about 40 minutes behind schedule, which made people antsy and cluster around the studio doors despite the fact we knew they'd call us by number anyway, but a bunch of us Coldplayers had lovely discussions about the band and the board and the boat to pass the time :wacky:. Phil had a print-out of the group photo from the boat as well, and we all signed it, even though we weren't optimistic about getting it to the band.

 

Eventually, we were called in in groups of 50s. Even though it wasn't a free-for-all like gigs are or anything, it was still pretty cutthroat, with lots of mild pushing and running disguised as speed-walking while following the lady to the studio. To my huge astonishment, all of us in our little Coldplaying group (Daniel, Sam, Kara, Phil, Laura, and me) got to be dead front row :stunned:. As of last night, I was paranoid I wouldn't even make it into the studio, let alone be able to see anything at all above a sea of heads, but it seems my Coldplay Karma is still running strong for unknown reasons. I was overjoyed, especially because unlike at proper gigs, there's pretty much no gap at all between the audience and the stage, besides maybe a two-foot wide gulf for camera men to duck in and out of. Short of meeting them face to face, this was going to be the closest I'd ever seen the boys perform :cheesy:.

 

The MC or whatever you want to call him got us amped up by getting us to sing along to music and practicing our applause and the oohs from "Christmas Lights" that I never fail to have a Pavlovian response to after the boat video shoot :P. I didn't really need to be any more amped up, but I totally played along. And then, all of a sudden, the guys in their suits were standing at the side of the stage, on the floor with us. Chris was drinking coffee out of a huge travel mug, and they were adjusting their suits and flowers and talking with the three Elvises (Simon Pegg was traded out for Matt McGinn!). The MC-guy played us the infernal Black Eyed Peas "Tonight's Gonna Be a Good Night" to get us excited even though it was 2 in the afternoon, and when he cut the music off, I heard Chris's unmistakable voice singing "Let's doo it, let's doo it" from the song three feet away from me in a pseudo-American voice :lol:.

 

And then they came on stage and I realized how amazing my positioning was. I was to the left of the stage, on Jonny's side, literally nose-to-nose with the new blue piano with rainbow keys. I could see every hair on Chris's arm and the finer details of his A and M tattoos, which was just awesome. This is my second TV taping event with Coldplay, and I've decided I love them just for the banter they do and how they interact with the audience, and being so close to them in their downtime to see them do little human-y things we don't get to see so much at shows or on TV. At one point, Will picked some confetti (ripped up newspaper, just like in the video) off his drum kit, examined the text on it, and then sniffed it. Chris did a lot of bromancy hands-on-shoulders with Jonny and Guy and was genuinely adorable--in a much better mood than the last time I saw him :P. I gave a huge smile to Will, which he returned (God, that man loves eye contact). Chris gave me a look as if to say "I know I've seen your face recently, but I can't place it," which is FINE with me given the hilarity of our last encounter :lol:. His eyes, though. When I met him two weeks ago, they actually scared me in person, and today was really no different, being that close to him again. He has inhuman eyes, like blue lasers. [/fangirl]

 

Chris seemed nervous, like he always does before TV shoots. This may be TMI, but his armpits were soaked through before he even got onstage. The poor guy. He cracked off a few self-effacing Chrisisms about how the only good part of the song is the part where we sing and he doesn't, and how he forgot all the words and it was a fucking good thing we knew them and how he couldn't remember the note to practice the "ohhs" with us from, and how he was sorry we had to hear the song three times in a row (like most of us hadn't been listening to it on repeat all week or anything). He had to get Jonny to play the note on the guitar, only to remember that the guitars were for show only and were completely out of tune. So he tried the piano, which also was just a mock up and didn't make a sound.

 

They did three takes over the course of an hour. I will undoubtedly be glaringly visible on BBC1 on Christmas Day, looking like a total loon singing along with all my heart and displaying my true lack of coordination even with simple things like hand-swaying and clapping. But whatever. Jonny seemed impressed, or at least giddy at the fact that everyone in the audience, 300 people or so, knew every note and every word to the song that they released only 7 days beforehand and did a lot of smiling down at us. Guy looked like his usual diva self, but he's a beautiful diva, at least. I wish I could remember more of the things they said. At one point, Sam shouted out "PLAY SHIVER!" next to me, when Chris good-naturedly rounded on him and said "oh don't you start THAT." The two hosts of the show that my Americanness prevents me from knowing asked Chris what he thought of X Factor, and he passed the question off to Guy, who is apparently an avid fan? That seems out of character to me, but whatever, he said he likes someone named Rebecca, I think? I don't know a thing about the show. A lot of people tried to shout things at them and begged for drumsticks and picks etc before they were even done, which I found a bit obnoxious, but they were good-humored about it. I did chime in when someone asked them if they were going to play another song for us and everyone started shouting song titles, but Chris just reached into his waistcoat pocket and pulled out his pocke****ch and said "hmm, we don't have time for that" in a mischievous way. Oh, he's so cute. Being that I was that close, part of me thought it was a shame I couldn't take pictures (and being at front, I couldn't have risked pictures with my mobile), but I was also grateful for the prohibition because it allowed me to completely focus on what was going on onstage--I never feel like I focus MORE on my camera than on the show I'm watching, but I do get rather intent on taking nice photos at gigs. It was nice to not be distracted by that this time.

 

Everything was mimed 100% besides Chris's vocals, which was no surprise to me, but I hope no one was going in expecting a live performance. Jonny and Guy's guitar and bass weren't even plugged in or in tune, and you could hear them just goofing off on the strings underneath the recording of the song. Chris's piano playing was completely mimed as well: he starts off playing the first few bars, but then moved to center stage while the piano intro was still playing. So much for hiding the mysteries of television. To me, this whole thing was about the opportunity and the experience rather than the music, which is the complete opposite of my first priority when I see them at gigs, but it was almost better for that reason, in some ways, or at least it allowed me to enjoy different things about them, in a fangirly way.

 

The whole thing seemed so short, and it was. It's impossible not to want more after something so great that was so short, but it's not like I expected it to be longer, so I was more than satisfied with what it was. I don't know if I've ever felt such a concentrated happiness and thrill in such a short span of time before. I was grinning like a complete idiot the entire time, laughing and cheering and everything. It was just about 400 times better than I imagined: I thought that at best, I'd get somewhere halfway back in the crowd and have to peer through heads to catch glimpses of anything, but I somehow managed to be closer to the band than you can ever get to be at gigs and be petrified by Chris's eyes again. The only possible thing that could have made it better is if Chris had handed me the flower pinned to his waistcoat when it was over rather than to the girl standing next to me, but I don't deserve to ask for anything in the Coldplay realm for the next 200 years.

 

But it gets better! They ushered us out after the hour was up, but somehow Phil managed to hand Jonny Buckland, of all people, the signed group photo from the Coldplaying boat trip! According to Kara he seemed a bit bewildered by it, but he took it! :dance: I hope it mends some of the bad board-band vibes. At least, I hope they don't just chuck it aside before opening the folder and saying "Aw, that was nice of them."

 

Anyway, that was long and fangirly, but there's a rough account of the day that was more glorious than I ever expected. What a wonderful way to kick off the Christmas season. I'm only sad that I'll be in America on Christmas and won't be able to watch the show on TV or the iPlayer due to international copyright restrictions, but I know someone will upload it here, and Phil kindly offered to make a DVD for me after it airs :wacky:.

 

 

So great to hear that everyone who's reported back so far got in and had an amazing time!! :)

I think I was standing next to Danielle and Sophie from here (I heard you introduce yourself to one another, I'm not a stalker) in the queue outside. I heard you talking about Coldplaying :). I was the one with the Christmas hat on as was my friend with the blue shirt on..

 

LOL. Yes, you were standing right in front of us. I must say, I was envious of your hat once my ears froze...

 

I'm not sure who everyone I met was called :embarrassed:

 

I'm Danielle...i.e. the short one with glasses and the Viva shirt. I think we were at the same table for a bit. What's your name? :smiley:

I think I was standing next to Danielle and Sophie from here (I heard you introduce yourself to one another, I'm not a stalker) in the queue outside. I heard you talking about Coldplaying :). I was the one with the Christmas hat on as was my friend with the blue shirt on..

 

LOL. Yes, you were standing right in front of us. I must say, I was envious of your hat once my ears froze...

 

I'm not sure who everyone I met was called :embarrassed:

 

I'm Danielle...i.e. the short one with glasses and the Viva shirt. I think we were at the same table for a bit. What's your name? :smiley:

For anyone interested, I've listened back to the recording and have put together a rough dialogue of what happened in the studio. It starts from when the bloke on stage (I'm gonna call him the warm-up guy, or WUG for short) is talking about the 'snow machine'...

 

 

 

WUG: So where's the snow machine? Ok... so we just need to keep our lovely audience away form the uh... SFX snow machine. Is that you *pointing*, is that your job there?

Snow Machine operator: Yeah

WUG: Yeah. Ok yeah that's it perfect. Now we're good. So when you're happy sir, at your word... seconds away, brilliant. Ok, thanks very much. So uh... yeah... you'll be fine you lot. Don't worry about it, you're all top of the pops virgins. I can't believe only one person's been to TOTP before and that's you 20 years ago *points*. Who was on?

Guy: OMD (?)

WUG: OMD?!

*Audience Laughs*

WUG: Bloody hell! My Mum used to like them! Um ok so... just seconds away ladies and gents, just waiting for the last couple of adjustments. Kev, are you happy on crane now sir? You good, yeah? Brilliant. And uh, as I said before ladies and gents we'll be doing a live link in and a live link out with Fearne and Reggie who I will introduce you to in a second. I think Fearne's on her way in a taxi-bike at the moment, she'll be here any second. Happy happy.

*silence*

WUG: So listen up ladies and gents, what we're going to do is.. a slight delay on Fearne and Reggie, but what we're gonna do is first.. pass... with uh... with Coldplay and I think we're just about ready to meet the guys. Ladies and genst please go absolutely (something)... it's Coldplay!

*About 1 min of clapping, whooping and the like!*

CM: How you doing? How you doing?

WUG: So audience, you cannot forget your bit on this, do not let me down, we've tested it with the track, without the track, you're better with the track obviously...

CM: *Inaudible - Asking JB about the pitch for the 'Whoooooaaa' bit at the end and then practices a little*

WUG: ...and big hands up in the chorus would be fantastic, well, right thr way through if you fancy it.

CM: Is that the right line? Whooaaa *practices then turns to crowd*. Hi everybody, thanks for coming. *More applause!*. I know uh, you alright if we do... cos the point of this song is it's sh*t until you all sing your bit, and that's what's going to send it all the way up to number 36 in the charts!

*Laughs*

CM: Which is, as you know, our favourite position! Can we try it one more time Jon... *tests pitch* Is that what it is? I'm not really the singer type...

*Laughs*

CM: I'm not going to bootcamp. *Sings 'Whoooaa' away from mic* If we try it together, is that alright? So you know, we've been in the studio a long time so we've gone all shy, we're a little gun(?) shy at the moment, so this is really going to make us feel good. We'll do it on three, ready? One. Two. Three.

*Audience sings with CM*

CM: That's f*cking lovely!

*Laughs, whoops and cheers*

CM: Tremendous. Where have you come from then? Where have you come from?

WUG: Lets hear it for Fearne and Reggie!

RY: Hello you lot, you alright? Feeling good? Happy Christmas and Happy New Year!

FC: I'm having a right polava of a day I am! I, up until about 30 seconds ago, didn't have any shoes or a bra! I'm ok now.

RY: So I leant her mine and now... everybody wins!

WUG: Just get that thought out of my head. Just get that thought out of my head. Just get that thought out of my head... Just get it back in. Just get it back in.

RY: *Practicing* And we're back at TOTP

WUG: Ok so they're just lining up the opening shot there ladies and gents. What we'll do again is start with a huge burst of applause, if you could dip it down a touch for Fearne and Reggie's link, then the announcement into Coldplay and uh... well I know what you're going to do, so do you! Ok, standby audience...

 

*Applause and CL first take. The a bit of banter between the audience and Fearne and Reggie about X-Factor and who might be Xmas number 1*

 

RY: *Asking Chris* Who do you think should win it?

CM: Ask Guy, he's the expert.

RY: Who do you think should win?

GB: Um... I think Rebecca should win.

RY: She's so hot!

CM: I thought Gamu. I'm not joking we thought she was the best. Does anyone... noone agrees with me. *silence*.. Huh... killed it with that comment! Alright then, One Direction, lets f*cking have them instead of Gamu. Honestly, the British public, I'll tell you a few things...

*Laughs*

CM: Shall I tell you what I really think. Your singing was brilliant for that. *Looking at member of audience* We're you in the video for that? Oh excellent. So the rest of you will have no idea what I'm talking about! We had a video, it was like a big orgy, loads of drugs... and some of the uh.. spice girls.

*Introducing Phil*

CM: This is Phil by the way who runs our band.

WUG: So ladies and gents, we will go one more time. you were great on that, (Could be better!).

CM: It's nice to be in front of people again. We've been in the studio for so long we forget that anybody exists.

*Looks to floor manager, pretending to be annoyed*

CM: Same song again? Ugh... Don't play...

WUG: Can we get some audiences to go behind our Elvis' if that's be ok? Just, peel a few of the audience off. That's be lovely, thanks very much. Just bear in mind that, all of you guys are in shot there and you're not doing much, with the greatest of respect, until we cut to Elvis. That'll be fine there, thanks for that. Ok, so once again will do the opening link and then we'll do a closer and well so you know what to do, fantastic. Ok, so if we can hold back on the photography, we're just about to start shooting, thank you very much indeed. Ok, stand by ladies and gents of the audience.

CM: *To a fan* Thank you, that was amazing. It was your fault we have to do it again. The singing was too good, made us look too confident(?).

 

*Applause and CL second take. Fearne does a link for the possible X-Factor number one and the audience boos so the link has to be reshot for "obvious reasons!". Everyone has a bit of a chuckle about it.*

 

FC: You can clap and boo in your head!

*Redoes link with clapping*

FC: You're all seething inside!

RY: You're a bunch of liars!

 

WUG: So audience, so now you've rehearsed it a few times you know what you're doing. A bit louder on the Whoa-whoa-whoas ok. Um... so... fine so what we're going to do, we're going to do it a third time, we're going to do it one more time with all of you doing your singing bits and we're going to be able to record that without the noise of pyrotechnics and stuff. Ok, good stuff, thanks very much.

 

Audience member: I love you (someone?!)!

 

WUG: So what we're going to do ladies and gents is no link at the top, we'll go from applause straight into Coldplay, if that's ok. But we will be doing a link at the end with an alternative link to number one. So if it's someone you equally hate, please cheer for gods sake! Just keep clapping all the way through! It's really weird when you just stop and start booing. I would have left it in, but that's why I'm doing this and not producing I guess! Just seconds away now, thanks for your patience everyone.

CM: Alot of people say this song is even better on the third listen! So if you think you're getting bored, your brain is tricking you!

 

*Applause and third take. Coldplay leave the stage and everyone goes home!*

 

 

 

I'll edit out the songs and up the file tomorrow morning for you all if you want a listen. :D

It was definitely more about the experience than the music. It was just great to see them having a laugh and chatting with the crowd and joking. I too saw Jonny's face when the photo was handed to him, he looked like he didn't know what to make of it but I'm sure they'll really appreciate it!

@Danielle - I remember! The wobbly table :P I'm Sam :)

 

Awesome review Chelsea (the presenters were Fearne Cotton and Reggie Yates just incase you wanted to know :P)!

OK, this is SUPER long, but for anyone who's interested...this is my review :nice:

 

 

 

My alarm went off at 4:30 this morning :freak:. I eventually got to London by ten and to the actual BBC Television Centre at 10:30, where Dan and Sam were saving a place for me in queue, where they'd been since 9. Thank God they did…otherwise who knows what would have happened to me later. It was cold, definitely. I'm good with cold, but because we were just queuing, rather than watching Coldplay shoot a video in front of us this time, I noticed it more than I did a few weeks ago, and my feet were cold despite warm boots and two pairs of socks.

 

They gave us our stickers around noon, and I ended up being #20 in line, which was 400 times better than what I was expecting myself to end up with as of the night before, where I got a bit worried about getting into the studio at all.

 

We were then ushered into the waiting area, which was nice and relaxed. I wish all gigs worked like this: the people that have been waiting the longest get stickers to prove their place in line, and then they get to relax. We all waited around in a nice heated area with tables and chairs. Unfortunately, the whole thing didn't kick off until about 40 minutes behind schedule, which made people antsy and cluster around the studio doors despite the fact we knew they'd call us by number anyway, but a bunch of us Coldplayers had lovely discussions about the band and the board and the boat to pass the time :wacky:. Phil had a print-out of the group photo from the boat as well, and we all signed it, even though we weren't optimistic about getting it to the band.

 

Eventually, we were called in in groups of 50s. Even though it wasn't a free-for-all like gigs are or anything, it was still pretty cutthroat, with lots of mild pushing and running disguised as speed-walking while following the lady to the studio. To my huge astonishment, all of us in our little Coldplaying group (Daniel, Sam, Kara, Phil, Laura, and me) got to be dead front row :stunned:. As of last night, I was paranoid I wouldn't even make it into the studio, let alone be able to see anything at all above a sea of heads, but it seems my Coldplay Karma is still running strong for unknown reasons. I was overjoyed, especially because unlike at proper gigs, there's pretty much no gap at all between the audience and the stage, besides maybe a two-foot wide gulf for camera men to duck in and out of. Short of meeting them face to face, this was going to be the closest I'd ever seen the boys perform :cheesy:.

 

The MC or whatever you want to call him got us amped up by getting us to sing along to music and practicing our applause and the oohs from "Christmas Lights" that I never fail to have a Pavlovian response to after the boat video shoot :P. I didn't really need to be any more amped up, but I totally played along. And then, all of a sudden, the guys in their suits were standing at the side of the stage, on the floor with us. Chris was drinking coffee out of a huge travel mug, and they were adjusting their suits and flowers and talking with the three Elvises (Simon Pegg was traded out for Matt McGinn!). The MC-guy played us the infernal Black Eyed Peas "Tonight's Gonna Be a Good Night" to get us excited even though it was 2 in the afternoon, and when he cut the music off, I heard Chris's unmistakable voice singing "Let's doo it, let's doo it" from the song three feet away from me in a pseudo-American voice :lol:.

 

And then they came on stage and I realized how amazing my positioning was. I was to the left of the stage, on Jonny's side, literally nose-to-nose with the new blue piano with rainbow keys. I could see every hair on Chris's arm and the finer details of his A and M tattoos, which was just awesome. This is my second TV taping event with Coldplay, and I've decided I love them just for the banter they do and how they interact with the audience, and being so close to them in their downtime to see them do little human-y things we don't get to see so much at shows or on TV. At one point, Will picked some confetti (ripped up newspaper, just like in the video) off his drum kit, examined the text on it, and then sniffed it. Chris did a lot of bromancy hands-on-shoulders with Jonny and Guy and was genuinely adorable--in a much better mood than the last time I saw him :P. I gave a huge smile to Will, which he returned (God, that man loves eye contact). Chris gave me a look as if to say "I know I've seen your face recently, but I can't place it," which is FINE with me given the hilarity of our last encounter :lol:. His eyes, though. When I met him two weeks ago, they actually scared me in person, and today was really no different, being that close to him again. He has inhuman eyes, like blue lasers. [/fangirl]

 

Chris seemed nervous, like he always does before TV shoots. This may be TMI, but his armpits were soaked through before he even got onstage. The poor guy. He cracked off a few self-effacing Chrisisms about how the only good part of the song is the part where we sing and he doesn't, and how he forgot all the words and it was a fucking good thing we knew them and how he couldn't remember the note to practice the "ohhs" with us from, and how he was sorry we had to hear the song three times in a row (like most of us hadn't been listening to it on repeat all week or anything). He had to get Jonny to play the note on the guitar, only to remember that the guitars were for show only and were completely out of tune. So he tried the piano, which also was just a mock up and didn't make a sound.

 

They did three takes over the course of an hour. I will undoubtedly be glaringly visible on BBC1 on Christmas Day, looking like a total loon singing along with all my heart and displaying my true lack of coordination even with simple things like hand-swaying and clapping. But whatever. Jonny seemed impressed, or at least giddy at the fact that everyone in the audience, 300 people or so, knew every note and every word to the song that they released only 7 days beforehand and did a lot of smiling down at us. Guy looked like his usual diva self, but he's a beautiful diva, at least. I wish I could remember more of the things they said. At one point, Sam shouted out "PLAY SHIVER!" next to me, when Chris good-naturedly rounded on him and said "oh don't you start THAT." The two hosts of the show that my Americanness prevents me from knowing asked Chris what he thought of X Factor, and he passed the question off to Guy, who is apparently an avid fan? That seems out of character to me, but whatever, he said he likes someone named Rebecca, I think? I don't know a thing about the show. A lot of people tried to shout things at them and begged for drumsticks and picks etc before they were even done, which I found a bit obnoxious, but they were good-humored about it. I did chime in when someone asked them if they were going to play another song for us and everyone started shouting song titles, but Chris just reached into his waistcoat pocket and pulled out his pocke****ch and said "hmm, we don't have time for that" in a mischievous way. Oh, he's so cute. Being that I was that close, part of me thought it was a shame I couldn't take pictures (and being at front, I couldn't have risked pictures with my mobile), but I was also grateful for the prohibition because it allowed me to completely focus on what was going on onstage--I never feel like I focus MORE on my camera than on the show I'm watching, but I do get rather intent on taking nice photos at gigs. It was nice to not be distracted by that this time.

 

Everything was mimed 100% besides Chris's vocals, which was no surprise to me, but I hope no one was going in expecting a live performance. Jonny and Guy's guitar and bass weren't even plugged in or in tune, and you could hear them just goofing off on the strings underneath the recording of the song. Chris's piano playing was completely mimed as well: he starts off playing the first few bars, but then moved to center stage while the piano intro was still playing. So much for hiding the mysteries of television. To me, this whole thing was about the opportunity and the experience rather than the music, which is the complete opposite of my first priority when I see them at gigs, but it was almost better for that reason, in some ways, or at least it allowed me to enjoy different things about them, in a fangirly way.

 

The whole thing seemed so short, and it was. It's impossible not to want more after something so great that was so short, but it's not like I expected it to be longer, so I was more than satisfied with what it was. I don't know if I've ever felt such a concentrated happiness and thrill in such a short span of time before. I was grinning like a complete idiot the entire time, laughing and cheering and everything. It was just about 400 times better than I imagined: I thought that at best, I'd get somewhere halfway back in the crowd and have to peer through heads to catch glimpses of anything, but I somehow managed to be closer to the band than you can ever get to be at gigs and be petrified by Chris's eyes again. The only possible thing that could have made it better is if Chris had handed me the flower pinned to his waistcoat when it was over rather than to the girl standing next to me, but I don't deserve to ask for anything in the Coldplay realm for the next 200 years.

 

But it gets better! They ushered us out after the hour was up, but somehow Phil managed to hand Jonny Buckland, of all people, the signed group photo from the Coldplaying boat trip! According to Kara he seemed a bit bewildered by it, but he took it! :dance: I hope it mends some of the bad board-band vibes. At least, I hope they don't just chuck it aside before opening the folder and saying "Aw, that was nice of them."

 

Anyway, that was long and fangirly, but there's a rough account of the day that was more glorious than I ever expected. What a wonderful way to kick off the Christmas season. I'm only sad that I'll be in America on Christmas and won't be able to watch the show on TV or the iPlayer due to international copyright restrictions, but I know someone will upload it here, and Phil kindly offered to make a DVD for me after it airs :wacky:.

 

 

Thanks for your review, I love it!

I was half expecting the boys to come and mingle with the crowd or something, it felt so casual. I didn't really even have the 'ohmygodit'safamousperson' jitters because they weren't acting like they were famous, if that makes any sense. I was just really happy and excited, but not hysterical. That's never happened before.

 

I think this is a huge part of the reason I've been so happy with the two (effing amazing) Coldplay experiences I've had in the past two weeks: I got to just kind of hang out in their presence, watching them do their thing and behave like real people rather than performers or people with cameras watching their every move. Just listening to and participating in the audience/band banter and hearing them talk to each other and watching them do little human-y things we all do is so cool :wacky:.

For anyone interested, I've listened back to the recording and have put together a rough dialogue of what happened in the studio. It starts from when the bloke on stage (I'm gonna call him the warm-up guy, or WUG for short) is talking about the 'snow machine'...

 

 

 

WUG: So where's the snow machine? Ok... so we just need to keep our lovely audience away form the uh... SFX snow machine. Is that you *pointing*, is that your job there?

Snow Machine operator: Yeah

WUG: Yeah. Ok yeah that's it perfect. Now we're good. So when you're happy sir, at your word... seconds away, brilliant. Ok, thanks very much. So uh... yeah... you'll be fine you lot. Don't worry about it, you're all top of the pops virgins. I can't believe only one person's been to TOTP before and that's you 20 years ago *points*. Who was on?

Guy: OMD (?)

WUG: OMD?!

*Audience Laughs*

WUG: Bloody hell! My Mum used to like them! Um ok so... just seconds away ladies and gents, just waiting for the last couple of adjustments. Kev, are you happy on crane now sir? You good, yeah? Brilliant. And uh, as I said before ladies and gents we'll be doing a live link in and a live link out with Fearne and Reggie who I will introduce you to in a second. I think Fearne's on her way in a taxi-bike at the moment, she'll be here any second. Happy happy.

*silence*

WUG: So listen up ladies and gents, what we're going to do is.. a slight delay on Fearne and Reggie, but what we're gonna do is first.. pass... with uh... with Coldplay and I think we're just about ready to meet the guys. Ladies and genst please go absolutely (something)... it's Coldplay!

*About 1 min of clapping, whooping and the like!*

CM: How you doing? How you doing?

WUG: So audience, you cannot forget your bit on this, do not let me down, we've tested it with the track, without the track, you're better with the track obviously...

CM: *Inaudible - Asking JB about the pitch for the 'Whoooooaaa' bit at the end and then practices a little*

WUG: ...and big hands up in the chorus would be fantastic, well, right thr way through if you fancy it.

CM: Is that the right line? Whooaaa *practices then turns to crowd*. Hi everybody, thanks for coming. *More applause!*. I know uh, you alright if we do... cos the point of this song is it's sh*t until you all sing your bit, and that's what's going to send it all the way up to number 36 in the charts!

*Laughs*

CM: Which is, as you know, our favourite position! Can we try it one more time Jon... *tests pitch* Is that what it is? I'm not really the singer type...

*Laughs*

CM: I'm not going to bootcamp. *Sings 'Whoooaa' away from mic* If we try it together, is that alright? So you know, we've been in the studio a long time so we've gone all shy, we're a little gun(?) shy at the moment, so this is really going to make us feel good. We'll do it on three, ready? One. Two. Three.

*Audience sings with CM*

CM: That's f*cking lovely!

*Laughs, whoops and cheers*

CM: Tremendous. Where have you come from then? Where have you come from?

WUG: Lets hear it for Fearne and Reggie!

RY: Hello you lot, you alright? Feeling good? Happy Christmas and Happy New Year!

FC: I'm having a right polava of a day I am! I, up until about 30 seconds ago, didn't have any shoes or a bra! I'm ok now.

RY: So I leant her mine and now... everybody wins!

WUG: Just get that thought out of my head. Just get that thought out of my head. Just get that thought out of my head... Just get it back in. Just get it back in.

RY: *Practicing* And we're back at TOTP

WUG: Ok so they're just lining up the opening shot there ladies and gents. What we'll do again is start with a huge burst of applause, if you could dip it down a touch for Fearne and Reggie's link, then the announcement into Coldplay and uh... well I know what you're going to do, so do you! Ok, standby audience...

 

*Applause and CL first take. The a bit of banter between the audience and Fearne and Reggie about X-Factor and who might be Xmas number 1*

 

RY: *Asking Chris* Who do you think should win it?

CM: Ask Guy, he's the expert.

RY: Who do you think should win?

GB: Um... I think Rebecca should win.

RY: She's so hot!

CM: I thought Gamu. I'm not joking we thought she was the best. Does anyone... noone agrees with me. *silence*.. Huh... killed it with that comment! Alright then, One Direction, lets f*cking have them instead of Gamu. Honestly, the British public, I'll tell you a few things...

*Laughs*

CM: Shall I tell you what I really think. Your singing was brilliant for that. *Looking at member of audience* We're you in the video for that? Oh excellent. So the rest of you will have no idea what I'm talking about! We had a video, it was like a big orgy, loads of drugs... and some of the uh.. spice girls.

*Introducing Phil*

CM: This is Phil by the way who runs our band.

WUG: So ladies and gents, we will go one more time. you were great on that, (Could be better!).

CM: It's nice to be in front of people again. We've been in the studio for so long we forget that anybody exists.

*Looks to floor manager, pretending to be annoyed*

CM: Same song again? Ugh... Don't play...

WUG: Can we get some audiences to go behind our Elvis' if that's be ok? Just, peel a few of the audience off. That's be lovely, thanks very much. Just bear in mind that, all of you guys are in shot there and you're not doing much, with the greatest of respect, until we cut to Elvis. That'll be fine there, thanks for that. Ok, so once again will do the opening link and then we'll do a closer and well so you know what to do, fantastic. Ok, so if we can hold back on the photography, we're just about to start shooting, thank you very much indeed. Ok, stand by ladies and gents of the audience.

CM: *To a fan* Thank you, that was amazing. It was your fault we have to do it again. The singing was too good, made us look too confident(?).

 

*Applause and CL second take. Fearne does a link for the possible X-Factor number one and the audience boos so the link has to be reshot for "obvious reasons!". Everyone has a bit of a chuckle about it.*

 

FC: You can clap and boo in your head!

*Redoes link with clapping*

FC: You're all seething inside!

RY: You're a bunch of liars!

 

WUG: So audience, so now you've rehearsed it a few times you know what you're doing. A bit louder on the Whoa-whoa-whoas ok. Um... so... fine so what we're going to do, we're going to do it a third time, we're going to do it one more time with all of you doing your singing bits and we're going to be able to record that without the noise of pyrotechnics and stuff. Ok, good stuff, thanks very much.

 

Audience member: I love you (someone?!)!

 

WUG: So what we're going to do ladies and gents is no link at the top, we'll go from applause straight into Coldplay, if that's ok. But we will be doing a link at the end with an alternative link to number one. So if it's someone you equally hate, please cheer for gods sake! Just keep clapping all the way through! It's really weird when you just stop and start booing. I would have left it in, but that's why I'm doing this and not producing I guess! Just seconds away now, thanks for your patience everyone.

CM: Alot of people say this song is even better on the third listen! So if you think you're getting bored, your brain is tricking you!

 

*Applause and third take. Coldplay leave the stage and everyone goes home!*

 

 

 

I'll edit out the songs and up the file tomorrow morning for you all if you want a listen. :D

 

:stunned:

 

I cannot express how awesome you are for recording and transcribing this. I was just thinking how I wished I could remember every little funny thing they said, and...ksjgksfjgkf this is so great :wacky:. Thank you!

 

It helped me remember some of the things that were inaudible as well, which is just awesome :dance:

LOL. Yes, you were standing right in front of us. I must say, I was envious of your hat once my ears froze...

 

Oh it was so cold wasn't it?! The hat didn't really help much :( We had a little running on the spot thing going on for a bit though haha.

For anyone interested, I've listened back to the recording and have put together a rough dialogue of what happened in the studio. It starts from when the bloke on stage (I'm gonna call him the warm-up guy, or WUG for short) is talking about the 'snow machine'...

 

 

 

WUG: So where's the snow machine? Ok... so we just need to keep our lovely audience away form the uh... SFX snow machine. Is that you *pointing*, is that your job there?

Snow Machine operator: Yeah

WUG: Yeah. Ok yeah that's it perfect. Now we're good. So when you're happy sir, at your word... seconds away, brilliant. Ok, thanks very much. So uh... yeah... you'll be fine you lot. Don't worry about it, you're all top of the pops virgins. I can't believe only one person's been to TOTP before and that's you 20 years ago *points*. Who was on?

Guy: OMD (?)

WUG: OMD?!

*Audience Laughs*

WUG: Bloody hell! My Mum used to like them! Um ok so... just seconds away ladies and gents, just waiting for the last couple of adjustments. Kev, are you happy on crane now sir? You good, yeah? Brilliant. And uh, as I said before ladies and gents we'll be doing a live link in and a live link out with Fearne and Reggie who I will introduce you to in a second. I think Fearne's on her way in a taxi-bike at the moment, she'll be here any second. Happy happy.

*silence*

WUG: So listen up ladies and gents, what we're going to do is.. a slight delay on Fearne and Reggie, but what we're gonna do is first.. pass... with uh... with Coldplay and I think we're just about ready to meet the guys. Ladies and genst please go absolutely (something)... it's Coldplay!

*About 1 min of clapping, whooping and the like!*

CM: How you doing? How you doing?

WUG: So audience, you cannot forget your bit on this, do not let me down, we've tested it with the track, without the track, you're better with the track obviously...

CM: *Inaudible - Asking JB about the pitch for the 'Whoooooaaa' bit at the end and then practices a little*

WUG: ...and big hands up in the chorus would be fantastic, well, right thr way through if you fancy it.

CM: Is that the right line? Whooaaa *practices then turns to crowd*. Hi everybody, thanks for coming. *More applause!*. I know uh, you alright if we do... cos the point of this song is it's sh*t until you all sing your bit, and that's what's going to send it all the way up to number 36 in the charts!

*Laughs*

CM: Which is, as you know, our favourite position! Can we try it one more time Jon... *tests pitch* Is that what it is? I'm not really the singer type...

*Laughs*

CM: I'm not going to bootcamp. *Sings 'Whoooaa' away from mic* If we try it together, is that alright? So you know, we've been in the studio a long time so we've gone all shy, we're a little gun(?) shy at the moment, so this is really going to make us feel good. We'll do it on three, ready? One. Two. Three.

*Audience sings with CM*

CM: That's f*cking lovely!

*Laughs, whoops and cheers*

CM: Tremendous. Where have you come from then? Where have you come from?

WUG: Lets hear it for Fearne and Reggie!

RY: Hello you lot, you alright? Feeling good? Happy Christmas and Happy New Year!

FC: I'm having a right polava of a day I am! I, up until about 30 seconds ago, didn't have any shoes or a bra! I'm ok now.

RY: So I leant her mine and now... everybody wins!

WUG: Just get that thought out of my head. Just get that thought out of my head. Just get that thought out of my head... Just get it back in. Just get it back in.

RY: *Practicing* And we're back at TOTP

WUG: Ok so they're just lining up the opening shot there ladies and gents. What we'll do again is start with a huge burst of applause, if you could dip it down a touch for Fearne and Reggie's link, then the announcement into Coldplay and uh... well I know what you're going to do, so do you! Ok, standby audience...

 

*Applause and CL first take. The a bit of banter between the audience and Fearne and Reggie about X-Factor and who might be Xmas number 1*

 

RY: *Asking Chris* Who do you think should win it?

CM: Ask Guy, he's the expert.

RY: Who do you think should win?

GB: Um... I think Rebecca should win.

RY: She's so hot!

CM: I thought Gamu. I'm not joking we thought she was the best. Does anyone... noone agrees with me. *silence*.. Huh... killed it with that comment! Alright then, One Direction, lets f*cking have them instead of Gamu. Honestly, the British public, I'll tell you a few things...

*Laughs*

CM: Shall I tell you what I really think. Your singing was brilliant for that. *Looking at member of audience* We're you in the video for that? Oh excellent. So the rest of you will have no idea what I'm talking about! We had a video, it was like a big orgy, loads of drugs... and some of the uh.. spice girls.

*Introducing Phil*

CM: This is Phil by the way who runs our band.

WUG: So ladies and gents, we will go one more time. you were great on that, (Could be better!).

CM: It's nice to be in front of people again. We've been in the studio for so long we forget that anybody exists.

*Looks to floor manager, pretending to be annoyed*

CM: Same song again? Ugh... Don't play...

WUG: Can we get some audiences to go behind our Elvis' if that's be ok? Just, peel a few of the audience off. That's be lovely, thanks very much. Just bear in mind that, all of you guys are in shot there and you're not doing much, with the greatest of respect, until we cut to Elvis. That'll be fine there, thanks for that. Ok, so once again will do the opening link and then we'll do a closer and well so you know what to do, fantastic. Ok, so if we can hold back on the photography, we're just about to start shooting, thank you very much indeed. Ok, stand by ladies and gents of the audience.

CM: *To a fan* Thank you, that was amazing. It was your fault we have to do it again. The singing was too good, made us look too confident(?).

 

*Applause and CL second take. Fearne does a link for the possible X-Factor number one and the audience boos so the link has to be reshot for "obvious reasons!". Everyone has a bit of a chuckle about it.*

 

FC: You can clap and boo in your head!

*Redoes link with clapping*

FC: You're all seething inside!

RY: You're a bunch of liars!

 

WUG: So audience, so now you've rehearsed it a few times you know what you're doing. A bit louder on the Whoa-whoa-whoas ok. Um... so... fine so what we're going to do, we're going to do it a third time, we're going to do it one more time with all of you doing your singing bits and we're going to be able to record that without the noise of pyrotechnics and stuff. Ok, good stuff, thanks very much.

 

Audience member: I love you (someone?!)!

 

WUG: So what we're going to do ladies and gents is no link at the top, we'll go from applause straight into Coldplay, if that's ok. But we will be doing a link at the end with an alternative link to number one. So if it's someone you equally hate, please cheer for gods sake! Just keep clapping all the way through! It's really weird when you just stop and start booing. I would have left it in, but that's why I'm doing this and not producing I guess! Just seconds away now, thanks for your patience everyone.

CM: Alot of people say this song is even better on the third listen! So if you think you're getting bored, your brain is tricking you!

 

*Applause and third take. Coldplay leave the stage and everyone goes home!*

 

 

 

I'll edit out the songs and up the file tomorrow morning for you all if you want a listen. :D

 

Gosh, thanks for this! I tried to get what I had written down but I forgot most of it, this is brilliant!

Phil, I forgot to give back your Christmas lights, sorry! :/

 

No worries - call it an early Christmas gift (and benefactor of my £3bn Property portfolio)- see my earlier comment re Question of Sport audience member's comment ;) )

when does the video will be aired?

 

svenky - where did u get that shot of Chris surfing?

amazing! :D thanks for the reviews guys :) and thanks for the warmup transcription :D

 

old-timers, you know the drill, but for the newbies, all reviews from this thread have been added to WikiColdplay.

 

http://www.wikicoldplay.com/8_December_2010:_Filming_for_Christmas_Top_of_the_Pops,_BBC_TV_Centre,_London,_UK

@Danielle - I remember! The wobbly table :P I'm Sam :)

 

Awesome review Chelsea (the presenters were Fearne Cotton and Reggie Yates just incase you wanted to know :P)!

 

Yeah, and there weren't enough chairs! :rolleyes: A load of people just sat on the floor, haha.

 

I think this is a huge part of the reason I've been so happy with the two (effing amazing) Coldplay experiences I've had in the past two weeks: I got to just kind of hang out in their presence, watching them do their thing and behave like real people rather than performers or people with cameras watching their every move. Just listening to and participating in the audience/band banter and hearing them talk to each other and watching them do little human-y things we all do is so cool :wacky:.

 

Exactly! It was really special, I think it's unlikely that we get another opportunity like this one. You hear all these rumours about Chris being a dick to fans but today I saw no trace of anything like that. It was like a concert minus the stress. They seemed so relaxed, it was so great to watch. :wacko:

 

Oh it was so cold wasn't it?! The hat didn't really help much :( We had a little running on the spot thing going on for a bit though haha.

 

My feet are still thawing. :lol: It got to the point where just walking to the bin was painful, my poor toes were so frozen...

Haha yeah! We should have started an aerobics session...jumping jacks, everyone!

Good effort there huds! Brings it all back hehe. The girl shouted "I love you Guy" btw.

No worries - call it an early Christmas gift (and benefactor of my £3bn Property portfolio)- see my earlier comment re Question of Sport audience member's comment ;) )

Haha yeah I read that :P Question of Sport was actually really good but the crowd was a bit... boring! I completely regretted not staying with the group though as soon as you all left the room.

Oh it was so cold wasn't it?! The hat didn't really help much :( We had a little running on the spot thing going on for a bit though haha.

 

Hey Dan did we meet today?