i'm almost positive those aren't the sparklers they've been using most recently...in hartford, they were like torches that they could turn off and on :thinking:. or maybe those are just holders with extinguishers and these regular sparklers are inside.

 

i love these blogs :nice:. and the video cracked me up!

"LET'S GO PENS!"

"What the FUCK are you talking about?"

 

:lol:

 

Lol, that cracked me up.

 

And I dont thinkg R42 realized that the Pens were a hockey team. He seemed to assoicate them with the superbowl or something. But I'm sure he knows who the Steelers are, so I don't know.

hahaha, that's true, they really have no idea :lol:. i live in a household steeped in hockey, so this is especially funny to me :P

 

(the penguins would be a hilarious name for a football team :P)

 

anyway, i love how confused chris was, for some reason.

hahaha, that's true, they really have no idea :lol:. i live in a household steeped in hockey, so this is especially funny to me :P

 

(the penguins would be a hilarious name for a football team :P)

 

anyway, i love how confused chris was, for some reason.

 

Yeah... we're big on hockey too. The Canucks are like my favorite thing ever along with Coldplay. :P

 

Hahah, I agree. First they were all whispering to each other trying ot figure out what the hell they were talking about... then "What the fuck are you talking about?" hahah.

yeah, my brother's two favorite things are coldplay and...i guess the rangers, but they never do well, so he loves the maple leafs too :P

 

offtopic, but have you seen the CBC TV ad for game 1? it's got the scientist in it :wideeyed:

 

EDIT: nevermind, i see you saw it in the random thoughts thread that i posted it in :dunce:

AWWWWW. I almost died of teh cuteness. "What the FUCK are you talking about?" Adorable.

 

It sounded like he was making up his rhymes as he went along, too. Obviously sooper talented XD

he cut will off :veryangry2:

Damn right! :angry:

 

:P

 

Awesome blog entry, as usual! :kiss:

I think he's saying Will is laying down on the back seat with his feet up against the window.

 

Also do we think that random picture of unlit sparklers is a reference to the events earlier in the week that lead to such "difficult shows?" :P

First Gwyneth stared in Running With Scissors.....Now Chris stars in Running With Sparklers. :P

Pete Yorn interview

June 2, 2009 5:37 pm

We caught up with Coldplay's current support act

 

With singer-songwriter Pete Yorn nearing the end of his string of support dates with Coldplay, we called him up to find out how he's been getting on.

 

Hello Pete, how are you?

Hey man, I'm good.

 

So, you've been on the road with Coldplay for a couple of weeks now, how's it been going?

It's been great. They've been taking very good care of us. They provide wonderful meals for us and the fans have been great. And I've been getting to hang out with Howling Bells: I'd never met them before and they're good people. It's been a good experience.

 

Presumably you've supported bands before?

Oh yeah.

 

Do you approach support slots differently?

Well, you have a shorter period of time to play, so you try to cram things into a tighter window - I don't really talk too much because I just want to play songs! And I try to be respectful. Coldplay has given us a good opportunity and gotten us out to all these shows and I just wanna go out and put on a great show, but at the same time knowing that they're coming up next and it's their house. But the fans are really cool. A lot of times you'll do these opening slots and the place is not that full yet, but these have been pretty filled in by the time we go on, which is great.

Do you think a support slot can genuinely help an artist?

Well it's all about timing and where you're at. For me, right now, I have a record that's coming out in the third week of June and I haven't really toured in two and a half years, so this is just an amazing way to get out and work the material up. And I feel like we're definitely getting some new fans too.

 

Have you toured with a band of Coldplay's size before?

Yeah, I've toured with some pretty big acts like REM, the Dixie Chicks, Dave Matthews and the Foo Fighters.

 

How does Coldplay's catering compare to those bands'?

Well, this catering is definitely up there, but Dave Matthews' took some beating. The chef he had was ridiculously good. But I certainly can't complain about Coldplay's. It's been great.

 

So, you've got one album out in a few weeks, then another in September.

That's right.

 

What's the difference between them?

Oh, they're very different! Back And Fourth comes out on June 24th, I made it in Omaha, Nebraska and it's got a nice, organic sound to it. I recorded it with a bunch of friends of mine, pretty much live in a room, with a lot of acoustic instruments on it. The other one is a duets record with Scarlett Johansson which comes out September 8th and has a completely different sound. It's just kind of a quirky, fun production. They're two very distinct projects.

What role does Scarlett take?

She sings. We made it about three years ago. I had this idea in my head that I wanted to make like a kind of male/female duets record and I had this idea in my head about Serge Gainsbourg and Brigitte Bardot: although more the dynamic than the sound. I thought maybe I could get Scarlett to do that and she agreed. I'd been sitting on it for a few years and all my friends were like, "Dude what are you doing with that, you gotta put it out?" So I found a home for it and it's coming out now.

 

Did you know Scarlett could sing?

I didn't actually. It was just a leap of faith, really. But then she came in and did all her parts in two afternoons and it sounded great.

What sort of voice has she got?

I think it's a kind of old time, smokey voice. She just naturally sounds like she's coming out of 1942 or something. I hadn't heard the record in a long time and when I first played it, I was like, "Did we put an effect on her voice?" But she just sounds like that naturally: like she's coming out of an old microphone.

It looks from your blog that you've been having some fun on this tour, including a ride on a roller coaster.

That's right! My bandmates went on a crazy roller coaster in Hershey Park in Hershey, Pennsylvania, but I wasn't going to do that. They were all complaining about neck pain afterwards. But I did go on three rides: the monorail, which was kind of a sightseeing thing; the choo choo train, which was just relaxing; and then I went on a Level 3 roller coaster which was very simple and just my speed. No loops, nothing crazy.

Do they really have official categories of roller coaster?

Yeah. Level 1 is the kiddie rides, then Level 2 is still really for kids, then Level 3 is the entry roller coaster. Then there's Level 4 which is the mild thrill rides then there's Level 5 which is the aggressive thrill rides. Fives are the really crazy ones.

 

But you're not prepared to go on a five?

You know, I might if the timing was right, but the timing was wrong in this particular instance.

 

What did you do with your unexpected day off after the show cancellation last week?

I checked back into the hotel that I'd checked out of the day before and I walked around Philly a lot just exploring. Then I ended up getting some of my favourite food from this Italian area in Philly: meatball sandwiches and all the other things that I rarely get to eat and I always love when I come through town. And then I hung out at my hotel and watched the basketball game - the Laker game vs the Denver Nuggets. It's play-off time.

 

Are you a Lakers fan?

No, I'm a New York Nicks fan. They're way out of it right now. I was actually rooting for Denver, but the Lakers won.

 

It looks like there's been a lot of rain on this tour.

Yeah, there were a few great nights with really nice weather, but then somewhere around Hershey Pennsylvania the downpours started. That was actually the first show without a covering and the stage was very slippery. I remember walking off hoping they dried it off or someone could've really hurt themselves - especially someone like Chris who moves around a lot. Then we had some nasty weather in Camden, New Jersey as well. But most of that venue was covered so it wasn't too bad.

Have you been watching Coldplay shows?

Yeah, I've seen them a number of times over the tour and I've been just blown away.

Is this the first time you've seen them?

I hadn't seen them in a long while. We did some shows years ago - we did one in LA early on together and then one in London at the Royal Festival Hall. But they sound amazing every night on this tour. They're a band I'm definitely enjoying being able to watch repeatedly.

 

Do you know how you came to be on this tour?

I don't know if this is true or not, but I heard that they were able to get my latest CD to Chris and Chris obliged and invited us on tour.

 

Finally, what's your favourite Coldplay song?

Speed Of Sound. They haven't been playing it, but I love it. I also like The Scientist a lot. And Fix You.

 

Why is Speed Of Sound your favourite?

At the time, when it came out, I was like, "Yeah, that's a cool song". But then right before the tour started I was driving in my car in California and it came on the radio and I was like, "Man! I love this tune!" And maybe now it's even more my favourite because I haven't heard them play it - y'know, I can't have it and I want it!

When you're on stage, are Coldplay's set lists already taped to the stage?

No.

 

Hmm. So you can't just scribble Speed Of Sound on there.

Sadly not. Maybe I'll have to put in a formal request for it before the tour ends.

For more information on Pete Yorn, head over to peteyorn.com.

after seeing pete yorn, he just seems like a really nice guy for some reason :nice:

nice friggin avi chelsea!

Pete Yorn brings up a good point, and one I wondered about at my show in Hershey. Why aren't they doing Speed of Sound on tour?

Pete Yorn brings up a good point, and one I wondered about at my show in Hershey. Why aren't they doing Speed of Sound on tour?

 

They had SoS on the setlist for much of the VLV tour in 2008 but moved it to the acoustic C-stage when touring Australia and then just got rid of it completely to make way for Glass of Water I think.

 

Speed of Sound was one of my favorites and I understand that they can't play EVERYTHING, though some Warning Sign or Amsterdam might be nice :P

Forget SOS, I want Yes, AROBTTH, SPIES, DONT PANIC, TROUBLE,EVERYTHING NOT LOST, basically every song they havent done!!!:P

^ Don't we all!

DEMAND A 3 HOUR SET!!!!!!!!!!

^I want it longer than that:P

Support acts added to live section

June 3, 2009 6:58 pm

One small step for Coldplay.com, one giant leap for, um...

Good evening. We've made a little change to the Coldplay.com shows and concerts section today, by adding a new "Support" field. So now, if you're coming along to a Coldplay show, you can see which other acts are playing and click on their name to check out their website. A small addition, but a handy one.

 

Anchorman

 

-------------

 

I think they got the support acts for the two festivals in July wrong, because Snow Patrol have a concert in Spain at that time.

 

(edit : merci Cha)

Roadie #42 - Blog #84

June 3, 2009 10:42 pm

#42 and the mighty roar of Detroit

 

 

 

The States gets a lot of stick for being overly homogenised and lacking in diversity. I don't really see it, though. Maybe I'm lucky in that the whole place is blurring past us at such speed, but it's such a buffet of flavours and mini-cultures, you can't help but love it. Plus, if you don't love it, a couple hundred miles up the road, you probably will.

 

We begin the morning in Manhattan. There's fewer places on the planet that can match it for sheer density of population. Folks are packed tightly in - above, below, beside and between each other. Then, as though the DVD has skipped, the next moment, the view from the van window here in Buffalo is of vast expanses of open space. Houses sit proud at the end of long driveways, with so much space surrounding them that many don't even bother with fences. You can just make out where properties end by the fact that mown lawns give way to wild grassland.

 

We wind our way into the gig and hear Howling Bells soundchecking. (We've reached the point in the tour now where Coldplay soundchecks are a pretty rare event). Their drummer sounds like he's giving In My Place a go (and a pretty good go at that). Before he stops, the whole band have chimed in and it sounds great. I like these folks a lot - but then, they are Ozzies and this serves only to re-enforce the truism that I've never met an Australian I didn't like.

 

I bury myself in my roadie world, fiddling with bits of my rig with sound-man Dan Green. One of the joys of a tour lasting this long is that you can dig into every aspect of what you do and find absolutely the best way to go about it. We are approaching the 12 months mark now and we're still finding ways to improve the show by a percent or two as we go. It's obviously a fine line between not fixing what ain't broke and taking advantage of the opportunity to learn every bit of kit inside out.

 

Arrival at Detroit finds Howling Bells in a covers mood once again. Today they give God Put A Smile a go. If they keep this up they'll have spanned the whole setlist before the end of the tour. Having an opening act that is not only great in their own right, but can act as fully capable understudies is sheer genius. I can't believe it's never been suggested before...

 

The C-stage section seems now to be regularly featuring a quick lyrical improvisation from Chris each night. For the whole time I've worked for the band, he's made up comedy songs on the spot during soundchecks (usually at the expense of various members of the crew). I've no idea whether this improv spot will become a permanent addition to the show, or whether it'll go as quickly as it came. What I do know though, is that when he fished for a reaction in Detroit, he got a pretty huge one!

 

 

 

They can indeed make a very loud noise. For reasons I won't go into, I was in the spotlight tower about thirty feet above the crowd as they were making this noise and it sounded utterly immense. I might wander out to the C-stage more often.

 

I'm now on my last day off in NYC for a while. I figure I should make the effort and get over to B&H. This is a huge department store entirely full of cameras, lenses, video gear and more gadgets than you can shake a USB cable at. Visiting New York without dropping a bit of cash there is like going to Egypt and not bothering with the pyramids. New toys for #42....

 

R#42

Roadie #42 - Blog #84

June 3, 2009 10:42 pm

#42 and the mighty roar of Detroit

America gets a lot of stick for being overly homogenised and lacking in diversity. I don't really see it, though. Maybe I'm lucky in that the whole place is blurring past us at such speed, but it's such a buffet of flavours and mini-cultures, you can't help but love it. Plus, if you don't love it, a couple hundred miles up the road, you probably will.

 

We begin the morning in Manhattan. There's fewer places on the planet that can match it for sheer density of population. Folks are packed tightly in - above, below, beside and between each other. Then, as though the DVD has skipped, the next moment, the view from the van window here in Buffalo is of vast expanses of open space. Houses sit proud at the end of long driveways, with so much space surrounding them that many don't even bother with fences. You can just make out where properties end by the fact that mown lawns give way to wild grassland.

 

We wind our way into the gig and hear Howling Bells soundchecking. (We've reached the point in the tour now where Coldplay soundchecks are a pretty rare event). Their drummer sounds like he's giving In My Place a go (and a pretty good go at that). Before he stops, the whole band have chimed in and it sounds great. I like these folks a lot - but then, they are Ozzies and this serves only to re-enforce the truism that I've never met an Australian I didn't like.

 

I bury myself in my roadie world, fiddling with bits of my rig with sound-man Dan Green. One of the joys of a tour lasting this long is that you can dig into every aspect of what you do and find absolutely the best way to go about it. We are approaching the 12 months mark now and we're still finding ways to improve the show by a percent or two as we go. It's obviously a fine line between not fixing what ain't broke and taking advantage of the opportunity to learn every bit of kit inside out.

 

Arrival at Detroit finds Howling Bells in a covers mood once again. Today they give God Put A Smile a go. If they keep this up they'll have spanned the whole setlist before the end of the tour. Having an opening act that are not only great in their own right, but are fully capable understudies is sheer genius. I can't believe it's never been suggested before...

 

The C-stage section seems now to be regularly featuring a quick lyrical improvisation from Chris each night. For the whole time I've worked for the band, he's made up comedy songs on the spot during soundchecks (usually at the expense of various members of the crew). I've no idea whether this improv spot will become a permanent addition to the show, or whether it'll go as quickly as it came. What I do know though, is that when he fished for a reaction in Detroit, he got a pretty huge one!

 

 

They can indeed make a very loud noise. For reasons I won't go into, I was in the spotlight tower about thirty feet above the crowd as they were making this noise and it sounded utterly immense. I might wander out to the C-stage more often.

 

I'm now on my last day off in NYC for a while. I figure I should make the effort and get over to B&H. This is a huge department store entirely full of cameras, lenses, video gear and more gadgets than you can shake a USB cable at. Visiting New York without dropping a bit of cash there is like going to Egypt and not bothering with the pyramids. New toys for #42....

 

R#42

posted at the same time :-D

Visiting New York without dropping a bit of cash there is like going to Egypt and not bothering with the pyramids.

:cheesy:

 

[Off topic]Obama will see the pyramids tomorrow![/Off topic]

Roadie #42 - Blog #84

June 3, 2009 10:42 pm

#42 and the mighty roar of Detroit

 

America gets a lot of stick for being overly homogenised and lacking in diversity. I don't really see it, though. Maybe I'm lucky in that the whole place is blurring past us at such speed, but it's such a buffet of flavours and mini-cultures, you can't help but love it. Plus, if you don't love it, a couple hundred miles up the road, you probably will.

 

We begin the morning in Manhattan. There's fewer places on the planet that can match it for sheer density of population. Folks are packed tightly in - above, below, beside and between each other. Then, as though the DVD has skipped, the next moment, the view from the van window here in Buffalo is of vast expanses of open space. Houses sit proud at the end of long driveways, with so much space surrounding them that many don't even bother with fences. You can just make out where properties end by the fact that mown lawns give way to wild grassland.

 

We wind our way into the gig and hear Howling Bells soundchecking. (We've reached the point in the tour now where Coldplay soundchecks are a pretty rare event). Their drummer sounds like he's giving In My Place a go (and a pretty good go at that). Before he stops, the whole band have chimed in and it sounds great. I like these folks a lot - but then, they are Ozzies and this serves only to re-enforce the truism that I've never met an Australian I didn't like.

 

I bury myself in my roadie world, fiddling with bits of my rig with sound-man Dan Green. One of the joys of a tour lasting this long is that you can dig into every aspect of what you do and find absolutely the best way to go about it. We are approaching the 12 months mark now and we're still finding ways to improve the show by a percent or two as we go. It's obviously a fine line between not fixing what ain't broke and taking advantage of the opportunity to learn every bit of kit inside out.

 

Arrival at Detroit finds Howling Bells in a covers mood once again. Today they give God Put A Smile a go. If they keep this up they'll have spanned the whole setlist before the end of the tour. Having an opening act that are not only great in their own right, but are fully capable understudies is sheer genius. I can't believe it's never been suggested before...

 

The C-stage section seems now to be regularly featuring a quick lyrical improvisation from Chris each night. For the whole time I've worked for the band, he's made up comedy songs on the spot during soundchecks (usually at the expense of various members of the crew). I've no idea whether this improv spot will become a permanent addition to the show, or whether it'll go as quickly as it came. What I do know though, is that when he fished for a reaction in Detroit, he got a pretty huge one!

 

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuAOososZuk]YouTube - Coldplay Roadie #42 - Blog #84 (Detroit!)[/ame]

 

They can indeed make a very loud noise. For reasons I won't go into, I was in the spotlight tower about thirty feet above the crowd as they were making this noise and it sounded utterly immense. I might wander out to the C-stage more often.

 

I'm now on my last day off in NYC for a while. I figure I should make the effort and get over to B&H. This is a huge department store entirely full of cameras, lenses, video gear and more gadgets than you can shake a USB cable at. Visiting New York without dropping a bit of cash there is like going to Egypt and not bothering with the pyramids. New toys for #42....

 

R#42

 

Link: http://www.coldplay.com/newsdetail.php?id=415

 

I'm now on my last day off in NYC for a while. I figure I should make the effort and get over to B&H. This is a huge department store entirely full of cameras, lenses, video gear and more gadgets than you can shake a USB cable at. Visiting New York without dropping a bit of cash there is like going to Egypt and not bothering with the pyramids. New toys for #42.

 

This makes Miller ten times cooler in my book. :wacky:

^ embedded it! :)

I like these folks a lot - but then, they are Ozzies and this serves only to re-enforce the truism that I've never met an Australian I didn't like.

 

Deux points for that. But I'm taking one point off for misspelling of Aussies. Tsk, tsk.

Greetings from Manhattan

June 5, 2009 10:25 am

Wish you were here

 

 

 

 

The Coldplay-shaped puppets on tour