[27-Oct-2011] BBC Radio 1's Student Tour, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK

[Mimixxx]

:heart:

[ApproximatelyInfinite]

OMG THIS THREAD IS 100 PAGES, I WILL NEVER CATCH UP :bigcry:

 

And can I just say I miss Mich, Anna, Jo, and Laura more than I feel like I've ever missed people in my life?

[Mimixxx]

I like you siggy :wacky:

 

Moi? Merci fellow elephant :wacky:

 

OMG THIS THREAD IS 100 PAGES, I WILL NEVER CATCH UP :bigcry:

 

And can I just say I miss Mich, Anna, Jo, and Laura more than I feel like I've ever missed people in my life?

 

:heart:

 

Dittoooooooooooooooo. :bigcry: :hug: We must scheme :sneaky:

[ApproximatelyInfinite]

OMG I forgot about AM! HOW WAS IT?

 

And seriously, guys, I'll write about it in my review, but beyond all the Coldplay stuffs, I feel like I learned something about friendship this week. I'm not exactly rolling in the friends department lately, nor am I around people who understand my interests and choices a lot, so this week...meant a lot to me :heart:

 

[/sappy]

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Joooooo :heart:

 

I love this picture. I don't even remember you taking it!

 

 

The penguin picture too! :lol:

 

:lol: Oh man, I look a bit off, but whatevs, it's cute :wacky:

 

The penguin picture wins, though :P

[ApproximatelyInfinite]

Oh, and THIS is the Facebook album with the best of my photos! Some of them are pretty OK and others are meh, but I had to capture as much as I could of this gig.

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^That passion and interaction translated right through our speakers! I've heard all the streams and this and Oxegen are the two best, imo. I'm so happy for you to get to be there!!

 

*raises a toast to the Elephant Girls* :D

 

You really think? :surprised:

 

I have to re-listen to this one this time from the perspective of not being there, but I was at both this and Oxegen this year, and it makes my heart explode with love and gratefulness to think that those might have been two of the best shows they've done this year :bigcry:

[AnnaElisabeth]

OMG I forgot about AM! HOW WAS IT?

 

And seriously, guys, I'll write about it in my review, but beyond all the Coldplay stuffs, I feel like I learned something about friendship this week. I'm not exactly rolling in the friends department lately, nor am I around people who understand my interests and choices a lot, so this week...meant a lot to me :heart:

 

[/sappy]

 

Well, this certainly made me cry [/overemotional]

 

I love you so much, Chelsea and I'm so overjoyed you could make it :heart: It wouldn't have been the same without you (or any of the elephant girls for that matter)

 

Can we please go back to Norwich last Thursday? :hug:

[**Laura**]

 

And seriously, guys, I'll write about it in my review, but beyond all the Coldplay stuffs, I feel like I learned something about friendship this week. I'm not exactly rolling in the friends department lately, nor am I around people who understand my interests and choices a lot, so this week...meant a lot to me :heart:

 

[/sappy]

 

Come back Chelsea!!! I'm telling you,your place is here in London with us.:kiss:

(We'll need an elephant girl reunion soon)

 

 

 

Can we please go back to Norwich last Thursday? :hug:

 

There must be a way,right?:inquisitive:

[AnnaElisabeth]

Late as always but here's my review :wacky:

 

 

 

It all sort of started for me on the Tuesday when Mich and I called my sis Josie (johkujii) at around 4pm to let her know she had a ticket for the gig two days later. The sobbing (happy sobbing) from her over the phone made me so freaking excited for what was to come. I was going to see my favourite band with my favourite people in a super small venue - how could I not be excited?!

 

Anyway, the next day had us getting up quite early and going into town to try and find the surprise elephant costumes as thought of by miss Mich :awesome:. It was so difficult to find some (especially with such short notice and limited budget :P) but we did succeed in the end. Josie got her phone stolen which put a damper on all our moods for a bit :( Stupid people.

 

We went to Victoria coach station, said goodbye to my brother (who had been visiting in the midst of all the Coldplay excitement, poor brother) and waited anxiously for Josie (who had gone to buy a camera after we found the elephant costumes).

 

I rarely get stressed apart from when there's a vehicle waiting that's going to leave without you if you don't get on it in time. Needless to say, with five minutes to go before departure, Mich and I started to get a bit fidgety when Josie wasn't there yet.

 

We were just about to get on the bus and beg the driver to actually wait a few more minutes when an out of breath Josie came sprinting up to us (she had run all the way from Victoria railway station - good girl!)

 

We could now calmly get on the bus and start making our way to Norwich :wacky:

 

Relatively uneventful busride, won't bore you with details of our silliness.

 

Chris and Jonny sweets that are in love.

 

(that's the level of conversation that took place on the bus :P)

 

Heehee, my lil' sis was sleepy :wacky:

 

We arrived to Norwich and went inside the waiting room to wait for a jetlagged Chelsea. We put on our elephant hats for shits and giggles - it worked!! I'll never forget the face she made when she saw us through the window, haha! It was soooo nice to see Chelsea again!! I hadn't seen her since the Crisis gig in Liverpool (and even then it was very brief) so lots of hugging :hug:

 

We used Chelsea as our tour guide and was expertly led to the bus stop that would take us to our hotel. Josie tried to steal a homeless man's blanket. Very nice of her :P

 

Dumped our stuff in the hotel and went to the UEA. IT WAS SO SMALL. Oh, goodness. I was a bit surprised at the lack of queue (especially after the craziness that took place when tickets were being released) but that gave us a chance to thoroughly take a look around, which was very nice indeed!

 

After a very nice dinner with the girls (:heart:) that made us go to sleep a bit too late (I wouldn't trade spending time with them for sleep anyway so whatever :P) and a few hours sleep it was time to get up. COLDPLAY DAY!

 

It was the ungodly hour of 4am. Three girls stood outside of a weird, receptionless hotel. Their taxi didn't show up so they called another one.

 

The taxi driver played indian music. Nice way to start ones... Night/morning/whatever :P

 

We went up to the area we thought we were queuing up in and sat down like a handful of losers :P No one was there, not even security! After a few minutes a janitor showed up and asked what we were doing.

 

TBC (I have to go to work, sorry!) Please have these pics as consolation while you wait.

 

 

 

 

[ApproximatelyInfinite]

Ok, so by now this is probably old news, but I didn't bring my computer to England with me (half a good choice, half annoying as hell), so this is the first chance I'm getting to post anything (also due to 11 INCHES OF SNOW AT HOME ON THE DAY I FLEW BACK TO THE US and ensuing power outages etc). I'm going to start at the very beginning, way pre-concert, because the whole trip was special to me, not just the show.

 

And if you don't feel like diving into the characteristically-long spoiler (and this is going to be a looooong one), this is what it says in a nutshell: this was the best I've ever seen them, my 15th time, and I highly doubt that any other gig they or any other artist do will ever mean more to me than this one, having to do with venue, company, circumstance, as well as band performance. I'm walking around in awe that any of this even happened, and that it went better than I could have ever hoped for.

 

PRE-GIG

 

 

 

So, to make the beginning of this short: the lovely Mich, my British Coldplay fairy godmother, offered me a ticket to the UEA show after getting one via Coldplay.com because I attended and graduated from UEA. It was a painful decision for me to decide to go, as I moved back to the US from Norwich only a few months ago and I'm an unemployed recent graduate, but in the end, I knew I simply couldn't pass up my favorite band EVER playing MY university. It was too good of a coincidence, and the girls I would be going with were too lovely to turn down. So I emptied my savings account two days before I was due to fly to England for this thing, when I thought I wouldn't see Norwich again for years.

 

I met Mich, Anna, and Jo at the Norwich bus station after my coach got in from Heathrow. I saw three loons through the window wearing absolutely fabulous elephant hats and I immediately knew I made the right decision to come. I'm not big on dressing up for things, or really trying to be noticed at gigs, but this was perfect, and I was completely on board. It was so amazing to see them all again, and I immediately was filled with this warm feeling of being understood--too many of my friends have admonished my decision to spend tons of money on a last-minute international flight for a BAND, a SINGLE SHOW at that, but these girls not only understood that, they would have done the same, probably. Even if Coldplay had sucked or we'd gotten shit places to watch from or something, the whole trip would have been worth it just to hang out with them. I'm not rolling in the good friends department these days, at least among ones I can see often, and even among my great friends that I've had all my life, none of them understand the things I'm interested in. To be able to be with ones that DO understand and moreover that feel the same way is invaluable, no matter the price tag.

 

We dropped off our stuff at our hotel (quite literally on the corner of the street my former house was on and next to my local Tesco, which was very Twilight-Zoney) and went to UEA to check out the scene. I figured there would be nothing to see, and I was right, but we'd have wondered if we didn't make sure there wasn't already a queue or something. So we just scoped out entrances and the actual venue itself (the LCR, which was being set up for a Diwali party thrown by the Asian Club...low-key Diwali party one night, balls-rocking set from one of the biggest acts in the world the next). The LCR itself is very, very small, for almost any artist that has any vaguely recognizable name, so to even imagine seeing COLDPLAY in a square box that looked like it could hold maybe 300 people (really it holds 1500, I don't know how) was just mindblowing. Even more mindblowing for me was that I knew this room like the back of my hand--I'd never seen a gig there myself because all the acts I wanted to see always sold out months and months in advance and it's more about getting drunk more than the music, but I'd walked through that room hundreds of times, hung out at the tables in there while making phonecalls and killing time between class, just...done mundane things in the room I'd eventually experience my favorite band giving the best show of my life in. Very strange.

 

We went to Nando's for dinner because it's my favorite and we don't have it in the US. I was an absolute zombie, up for about 34 hours or something at that point, but we still stayed at the restaurant for hours beyond the time it took us to finish our meals. We talked about everything: the band, the music, the new record, the board, the people we've met through this band. It's so wonderful to really sit down and reflect about how much impact this band, via this fan board, has had on my life. If I never got interested in Coldplay and therefore never joined Coldplaying, I honestly have no idea where I'd be right now. I think it's safe to say I might not have moved to England as I did, I wouldn't know hundreds of wonderful people I now know and crave spending time with, I wouldn't know as much about computers and the internet, and I wouldn't listen to half of the bands I was introduced to in the WoM section. I owe so much of my life as I now know it to this board and this band.

 

Anyway, we went to the hotel and tried to sleep. It was a kind of rough night for all of us (4 in a hotel room designed for two anyway, haha) since we were nervous about the next day and what it would bring. Even jet-lagged me had a horrible time trying to sleep--it didn't help that Jo whispered "OH SHIT" in her sleep right in my ear either! :P It was agreed that the other three would go to uni to queue around 4AM and would graciously allow me to join them later after I slept off the worst of the jetlag. I eventually fell asleep around 4:30-5 after they left and slept til 8:30, when I got up and got ready to join them.

 

 

 

 

GIG DAY

 

 

 

So I left the hotel at like 9:45 and walked down the street I walked down every morning to the bus stop I waited at every morning and took the bus to uni like I did every morning...but this time, it was for a Coldplay gig. It probably seems like I'm making a big deal out of all that, but it was so wonderfully weird, I can't get over it. It was also advantageous, as I already knew exactly how to get where we needed to go and where the toilets were and where the food was. It would be weird to do this for any other band as well, to go to a gig of someone I liked and was a fan of at such a venue, but to do it for COLDPLAY was just incredible.

 

The mood was tense in queue, which was right outside the LCR and right next to Congregation Hall, where I graduated four months previously, so I tried to have something of a calming influence. Laura had arrived as well, and it was lovely to see her again. Jo and I asked at the box office about how wristbands would be given out at noon, and they told us they'd do it right in queue, which was a huge relief to us, because it meant we wouldn't have to queue twice at two different locations and potentially sacrifice our first-in-line position. When I arrived, there were maybe about 20 people behind us, which I was somewhat surprised by--I did think the craze was mostly for getting tickets rather than for positioning once in the LCR, but I thought more than 25 people would have been there for noon when it was wristband time.

 

I'm not sure what time it was when the band showed up in blacked-out people carriers, but I glimpsed them all walking into the LCR (COLDPLAY JUST WALKING AROUND ON MY CAMPUS LIKE IT'S NO BIG DEAL). Of course, everyone in queue screamed when they saw Chris, so he came over, which he didn't need to do. The first thing he asked us was if we were queuing for that evening, which I found endearing--he didn't seem to believe that we could possibly be there that early for him and his band. But besides that, he...didn't look great, and told us why. Even though it's on the board in other places, it's not my place to say what he told us, as it's very personal, but I'm including it in my story because I feel like it's an important part of the course of the day. He told us they'd be playing a shorter set due to the circumstances, and even though that kind of made me wince because of all it took to get me there for this show, I completely and wholly understood why that needed to be the case. Needless to say, the five of us felt terrible for him, and our worries about the day were immediately thrown into stark perspective. We backed off and didn't pester him for pictures or autographs, both because of the circumstances and because most of us had gotten our moments with the band at other times and didn't feel like we needed to do it all again so desperately. What really perturbed me, though, was that most of the other fans in queue didn't seem to even acknowledge what he said and simply begged for more pictures and autographs. I understand excitement about being around someone you admire and someone that's famous, but when they tell you something very personal and sad like Chris did, how can your first reaction be to just badger him more for photos and signatures? I'll never understand what went on in the minds of a lot of the people there at that moment.

 

So we were in sad moods for the next bit of queuing, but decided that we needed to buck up and still give it our all as fans for the band's sake. The LCR security/venue guys came over and told us that unfortunately, because load-in was taking longer than they thought, they wouldn't be giving us our wristbands in queue, but had to move the whole thing to the LCR cloakroom. Because they knew we'd been there since 4AM, they made sure our little group was at the very front of the new queue. All of us besides Jo (who got her fancy ass on the guest list :P) got our wristbands, which really cheered me up. They not only were the nice plasticky kind, not just paper that disintegrates, they said "COLDPLAY MX" in the bubble font, as well as "Norwich UEA, 27 Oct 2011." Having both the band name and the venue and date on the wristband meant a lot to me, as dorky as it sounds. I STILL don't believe my favorite band played my uni, and every time I look down at the wristband and see my uni's name with my favorite band's name, I go into a bit of a spaz attack.

 

Queuing, queuing, queuing. I would have loved to see the band at Live Lounge (WHICH WAS IN MY PUB, OK), but it was crowded and I was more concerned about staying in line to ensure good places for that evening, as well as staying with the other girls. After Live Lounge, the guys were going to leave and go back to their hotel for a bit before coming back later that evening for soundcheck. As they were leaving, Jonny decided to come over to the queue to have a chat with us! Again, none of us really badgered him for autographs or photos because the other fans around us were having at it enough for all of us, but Jo got a photo, and Mich and Anna showed him their tattoos. Jonny said they were cool, and Mich then said "are they really?" which I just found hilarious (and still do), and so did Jonny. Mich asked if he knew what songs the symbols referred to, and he originally said "no" and laughed really hard. Then he said something like "nah, of course I know" and walked away before we could test that knowledge.

 

Will and Phil also came over a few minutes later, which really thrilled me because Will was my favorite of all of them when I met them last year. Once again, we didn't pester him for photos or autographs, but at one point I did let my fangirlyness come out in one big gush and I touched his arm and said "thank you SO MUCH for coming, this is my uni!" Obviously that's a really ineloquent, obvious thing to say, especially because I was wearing a UEA hoodie, but because I was excited I didn't really word what I wanted to say properly. What I meant was that most of the other people in queue weren't actual UEA students and I was (or formerly was), so it just meant a lot to me to be able to see them HERE, but I couldn't really get those words out with everyone else begging for his attention. At least the last time I met him I had an OK conversation!

 

Chris also came over a moment after Will did, and looked to be in much better spirits than earlier with lots of smiles, which was a huge relief. He was being very cute with Will, putting his arms around him and rubbing his back and stuff, and I just loved it. I didn't really talk to him much personally this time besides thanking him for coming over, and actually my best memory is of how new and clean his trainers were, which is weird. Also that his kung-fu/karate shirt had seen a few too many trips through the tumble dryer, because the picture was all cracked and faded when you saw it up close. At least I didn't tell him how badly I had to pee this time.

 

The rest of the queuing process was routine--nervousness, tiredness, coldness, chatting to others. It was obvious that we were the most diehard fans there that we could see: getting there at 4AM says a lot, anyway, and the people around us were impressed with how many times we've all seen them (I think over like 50 times between all of us) and how far we'd travelled for things like this. The fact that I came from New York impressed several people, I think. I really didn't want that to become a "wow, look at me, I came from NYC for this!" type of thing at all, but I feel like it kind of became that, unfortunately. Actually, once we were inside and in our places, I mentioned it once to one girl next us, and she kind of spread it to a bunch of people around us, which kind of embarrassed me, especially because I hate when people turn being a fan of something into a competition. Being a fangirl becomes with this weird mixture of pride and mortification.

 

The hour before the doors open is always the worst. By now we had our elephant gear on, and one of the LCR workers we made friends with held up an old ticket for Cage The Elephant up against the window to show us to make us laugh, which was hilarious. We also creepily gaped at Miller as he bought a soda from a vending machine on the other side of the glass, hedging bets about what he'd buy (he went with Lucozade). Coldplay came back from their hotel, and people went APESHIT, absolutely SPRINTING from their places in queue to the barrier to see them, fanboys climbing over each others' shoulders and getting on piggyback. It was kind of astonishing, actually, and also ridiculous to think that a lot of people thought they could simply get back to their old places in queue once they left them. We heard the real soundcheck with the band, and THEY DID GLASS OF WATER, which got me super excited as it's one of my all-time favorites. We were also very excited by the liveblog, which we followed as best we could via Anna's BlackBerry, and squeed our brains out when we found out we were on there in our elephant costumes.

 

Moments before the doors opened, there was a scare for Anna and me--the LCR put up signs saying NO PHOTOGRAPHY, and Anna and I both had SLR cameras. They were going to make us put them at coat check, sacrificing our places in line, but one of the LCR workers we befriended offered to take them off our hands for us, which was wonderful. Once they opened the doors, I think I might have been the first one in--leave it to the pushy American to be the first through the doors. We all got front row easily, on Jonny's side, and were finally able to completely relax. There was a great hand-painted backdrop on the stage, glowing in the blacklight, and Zane Lowe's mixing desk was set up right in front of us. A normal gig has you waiting around for ages before the opening act and then again before the band, but because this was a broadcast with a tight schedule, Zane came on right at 7 and the band came on right at 8. Zane was actually great fun (I love him anyway) and it was somehow ten times more exciting to be on radio, but I got a bit too excited for the first 10 minutes or so of his set and used up a lot of my fragile energy. Let me just say that being jetlagged and then queuing all day is very different from just simply queuing all day, even if it's at a festival where you're standing at one stage and can't leave to use the toilet or get food even once. I was absolutely exhausted by 7:15 and decided to cool it on the having-fun part of things until Coldplay came on. I lived up to that promise until Zane played "A-Punk," "Sex On Fire," and "Still Life" all in a row right before Coldplay came on, because I love all of those songs. I also screamed a lot when Zane mentioned our elephant costumes, and when everyone started doing the UEA cheer: "OH U-E-A IS WON-DER-FUL, OH UEA IS WONDERFULLLLL..." Oh, and when I saw how fricking adorable Greg James is in person. Good lord, I will be listening to his show.

 

And then they were on. I absolutely lost it, seeing them THERE, first of all so close (but as haughty as it sounds to say, I've seen them close before), but really because here we were at MY uni in MY city, seeing the loves of my life. I'm not a crier, but I thought I would cry at this. It turns out I didn't, but I did a lot more girly screaming than I normally do--usually I just whoop a few times and sing along to every word, but I was a little more fangirly that night, especially every time Chris said "UEA" or "Norwich," and I think I freaked Mich out a bit :P. "MX/Hurts Like Heaven" is my absolute favorite from this era, so to have that first almost made me wish I had brought diapers. The band also loved our elephant costumes--even GUY smiled at them, and when "Paradise" was starting, Will gave us the BIGGEST grin and head-nod. Despite everything, Chris was a maniac as usual, his usual self until the end, when I thought he looked much more exhausted than usual, completely wiped to the point of looking like he was just going to pass out. He was also SWEATIER than I've ever seen him--I obviously know he sweats a lot, but this time it literally looked like he took a shower in his clothes, or peed his pants or something. He flicked a huge spray of sweat on Mich, Anna, and me at one point, which was actually rather disgusting. He and Jonny were more bromantic than I've ever seen them as well, which was lovely to see. I think the other guys really helped Chris get through what he was dealing with earlier in the day--you could just see it between them all, I think, and Jonny really seemed to watch out for him. Another reason I will always love and admire this band: their tangible love and support for each other, when shit is great and when shit sucks. They really act like brothers, and it's so nice to really be able to sense it between them, even as a far-removed outsider.

 

I took a lot of photos with my small point-and-shoot, some of which came out pretty decently. I usually try to take fewer pictures than I did, and strike a balance between really living the gig and creating something to look back on, but this time I went crazy with the photos because I couldn't believe they were there, and I wanted as many photos as possible of them playing my uni. I also videoed "GPASYUF" (in which Chris still threw the guitar despite being on a small stage--I thought the thing was going to land ON us at one point) and "Green Eyes" because holy hell, I never thought I'd see that live. I'm really kicking myself for not recording "Shiver," though, both because it's my favorite song and because of the kiss Jonny gave Chris during it (and because they did "Parachutes" right before it!)

 

Every time I've seen them in 2010 and 2011, I've said that they're the best I've ever seen them. I don't think that's me becoming easier to impress--if anything, I think I'm much HARDER to impress than I ever have been, in terms of quality of live performances. I honestly just believe Coldplay are on the absolute top of their live show game. I'm trying not to conflate the significance of the venue and the loveliness of the company of this gig with the actual performance, but I really do believe that it was just as good as Oxegen was this year, which is the best they've ever sounded to me. I have to download the set now and re-listen, but I think they just rocked everyone's balls off. And the crowd was fantastic as well--when most everyone that's in the room literally had to sleep outside just to get tickets, you know everyone's there because they really want to be, not because their girlfriend dragged them or they got free tickets from work that they feel like they had to use to say that they saw one of the biggest bands in the world. That's another reason why this gig was special and different. And the group of fans directly behind me knew every word to even the new songs, which is so nice to hear.

 

They played for an hour and ended with ETIAW (which I LOVE still, but I see a lot of people saying that was a disappointing performance of it--I have to re-listen). I honestly believed that was it, both because that was pretty much a full set for a radio performance and because of what Chris had told us earlier in the day (and because they always end with ETIAW), but...they came back out. Chris said that because of his bad news, they only had time...for THREE more songs. I couldn't believe it--if I had somewhere I needed to be more, I wouldn't do even a single song in encore, let alone THREE. That boy is too nice for his own good. The first thing Chris asked us to do was collectively swear as loud as we could now that we were off-air, so the whole crowd screamed "FUCK!" and then "C-WORD!" (which I hate :P) at his urging, and then he said that they usually don't even have to ask for people to say that to them. And then they started up "Green Eyes," which I'd never ever heard before live, and it killed me. Next, after a bit of "Parachutes" (WHAT? I COULDN'T BELIEVE IT) and the most adorable kiss from Jonny to Chris, was "Shiver," which is MY FAVORITE, and they ended the whole thing on "Us Against The World."

 

I will never, ever get over this gig: the location, the company, the performance, and how everything worked out better than expected despite it all. I've gotten a lot of flak from people I know for buying a plane ticket to another country two days before I was set to fly...for a BAND. But the bottom line is, no one besides people I know via this board will ever understand what this band means to me, and therefore how much it meant for me to have them play my uni. I actually hated university every single moment I was there, not because I hated UEA, but for a whole bunch of reasons that are too long to go into here. In this sense, it seems to be a bit silly for me to pile so much significance on a gig at a place I didn't really enjoy myself at, but I kind of see it as the opposite--this gig was a perfect kind of closure to an experience that was less than fantastic. But regardless of how much I did or didn't like uni, to be able to see and experience something that means so much to me at a place I once lived and learned and have a connection to in any sort of way is something that I feel so, so lucky to have had the opportunity to attend, especially when so many didn't have that chance when they so wanted it.

 

We all had to take an early coach from Norwich to London the next morning on Friday and had breakfast in Victoria Station together before saying goodbye. I saw Jo and Laura again that night for dinner in London, which was again lovely, but so hard to say goodbye the second time. I've never had post-gig depression like this. It's weird, because it's the START of a tour, and the chances to see them again are just going to get more plentiful, but I think the things that are really making me sad are that a) I don't know if any other gig will ever match the significance of this one for me, and b) more importantly, I had to fly back the US on my own and leave the other four behind. It sounds so dorky and stupid to say, but I was reminded just how lovely it is to have real live friends on this trip, ones that you don't have to hide your interests from and who you can actually talk about these things to without censorship. All I really want right now is to be able to hang out with Jo and Laura and Mich and Anna in London forever. And, you know. See Coldplay over and over again too.

 

 

 

I'll post my few favorite photos later today, but the link to the Facebook album is in the last post on page 100 :D

[Mimixxx]

Ah Chel-why-are-you-swallowed-in-the-sea? (ocean :wacky:) :heart: :kiss:

 

You best only be applying for jobs on this side o' the Atlantic :angry:

 

Oh if only it were last Tuesday... :(

[ApproximatelyInfinite]

:bigcry:

 

PS: I love how the date of the gig in your sig is white while the others are grey :wacky:

[lndnsky]

Ok, so by now this is probably old news, but I didn't bring my computer to England with me (half a good choice, half annoying as hell), so this is the first chance I'm getting to post anything (also due to 11 INCHES OF SNOW AT HOME ON THE DAY I FLEW BACK TO THE US and ensuing power outages etc). I'm going to start at the very beginning, way pre-concert, because the whole trip was special to me, not just the show.

 

And if you don't feel like diving into the characteristically-long spoiler (and this is going to be a looooong one), this is what it says in a nutshell: this was the best I've ever seen them, my 15th time, and I highly doubt that any other gig they or any other artist do will ever mean more to me than this one, having to do with venue, company, circumstance, as well as band performance. I'm walking around in awe that any of this even happened, and that it went better than I could have ever hoped for.

 

PRE-GIG

 

 

 

So, to make the beginning of this short: the lovely Mich, my British Coldplay fairy godmother, offered me a ticket to the UEA show after getting one via Coldplay.com because I attended and graduated from UEA. It was a painful decision for me to decide to go, as I moved back to the US from Norwich only a few months ago and I'm an unemployed recent graduate, but in the end, I knew I simply couldn't pass up my favorite band EVER playing MY university. It was too good of a coincidence, and the girls I would be going with were too lovely to turn down. So I emptied my savings account two days before I was due to fly to England for this thing, when I thought I wouldn't see Norwich again for years.

 

I met Mich, Anna, and Jo at the Norwich bus station after my coach got in from Heathrow. I saw three loons through the window wearing absolutely fabulous elephant hats and I immediately knew I made the right decision to come. I'm not big on dressing up for things, or really trying to be noticed at gigs, but this was perfect, and I was completely on board. It was so amazing to see them all again, and I immediately was filled with this warm feeling of being understood--too many of my friends have admonished my decision to spend tons of money on a last-minute international flight for a BAND, a SINGLE SHOW at that, but these girls not only understood that, they would have done the same, probably. Even if Coldplay had sucked or we'd gotten shit places to watch from or something, the whole trip would have been worth it just to hang out with them. I'm not rolling in the good friends department these days, at least among ones I can see often, and even among my great friends that I've had all my life, none of them understand the things I'm interested in. To be able to be with ones that DO understand and moreover that feel the same way is invaluable, no matter the price tag.

 

We dropped off our stuff at our hotel (quite literally on the corner of the street my former house was on and next to my local Tesco, which was very Twilight-Zoney) and went to UEA to check out the scene. I figured there would be nothing to see, and I was right, but we'd have wondered if we didn't make sure there wasn't already a queue or something. So we just scoped out entrances and the actual venue itself (the LCR, which was being set up for a Diwali party thrown by the Asian Club...low-key Diwali party one night, balls-rocking set from one of the biggest acts in the world the next). The LCR itself is very, very small, for almost any artist that has any vaguely recognizable name, so to even imagine seeing COLDPLAY in a square box that looked like it could hold maybe 300 people (really it holds 1500, I don't know how) was just mindblowing. Even more mindblowing for me was that I knew this room like the back of my hand--I'd never seen a gig there myself because all the acts I wanted to see always sold out months and months in advance and it's more about getting drunk more than the music, but I'd walked through that room hundreds of times, hung out at the tables in there while making phonecalls and killing time between class, just...done mundane things in the room I'd eventually experience my favorite band giving the best show of my life in. Very strange.

 

We went to Nando's for dinner because it's my favorite and we don't have it in the US. I was an absolute zombie, up for about 34 hours or something at that point, but we still stayed at the restaurant for hours beyond the time it took us to finish our meals. We talked about everything: the band, the music, the new record, the board, the people we've met through this band. It's so wonderful to really sit down and reflect about how much impact this band, via this fan board, has had on my life. If I never got interested in Coldplay and therefore never joined Coldplaying, I honestly have no idea where I'd be right now. I think it's safe to say I might not have moved to England as I did, I wouldn't know hundreds of wonderful people I now know and crave spending time with, I wouldn't know as much about computers and the internet, and I wouldn't listen to half of the bands I was introduced to in the WoM section. I owe so much of my life as I now know it to this board and this band.

 

Anyway, we went to the hotel and tried to sleep. It was a kind of rough night for all of us (4 in a hotel room designed for two anyway, haha) since we were nervous about the next day and what it would bring. Even jet-lagged me had a horrible time trying to sleep--it didn't help that Jo whispered "OH SHIT" in her sleep right in my ear either! :P It was agreed that the other three would go to uni to queue around 4AM and would graciously allow me to join them later after I slept off the worst of the jetlag. I eventually fell asleep around 4:30-5 after they left and slept til 8:30, when I got up and got ready to join them.

 

 

 

 

GIG DAY

 

 

 

So I left the hotel at like 9:45 and walked down the street I walked down every morning to the bus stop I waited at every morning and took the bus to uni like I did every morning...but this time, it was for a Coldplay gig. It probably seems like I'm making a big deal out of all that, but it was so wonderfully weird, I can't get over it. It was also advantageous, as I already knew exactly how to get where we needed to go and where the toilets were and where the food was. It would be weird to do this for any other band as well, to go to a gig of someone I liked and was a fan of at such a venue, but to do it for COLDPLAY was just incredible.

 

The mood was tense in queue, which was right outside the LCR and right next to Congregation Hall, where I graduated four months previously, so I tried to have something of a calming influence. Laura had arrived as well, and it was lovely to see her again. Jo and I asked at the box office about how wristbands would be given out at noon, and they told us they'd do it right in queue, which was a huge relief to us, because it meant we wouldn't have to queue twice at two different locations and potentially sacrifice our first-in-line position. When I arrived, there were maybe about 20 people behind us, which I was somewhat surprised by--I did think the craze was mostly for getting tickets rather than for positioning once in the LCR, but I thought more than 25 people would have been there for noon when it was wristband time.

 

I'm not sure what time it was when the band showed up in blacked-out people carriers, but I glimpsed them all walking into the LCR (COLDPLAY JUST WALKING AROUND ON MY CAMPUS LIKE IT'S NO BIG DEAL). Of course, everyone in queue screamed when they saw Chris, so he came over, which he didn't need to do. The first thing he asked us was if we were queuing for that evening, which I found endearing--he didn't seem to believe that we could possibly be there that early for him and his band. But besides that, he...didn't look great, and told us why. Even though it's on the board in other places, it's not my place to say what he told us, as it's very personal, but I'm including it in my story because I feel like it's an important part of the course of the day. He told us they'd be playing a shorter set due to the circumstances, and even though that kind of made me wince because of all it took to get me there for this show, I completely and wholly understood why that needed to be the case. Needless to say, the five of us felt terrible for him, and our worries about the day were immediately thrown into stark perspective. We backed off and didn't pester him for pictures or autographs, both because of the circumstances and because most of us had gotten our moments with the band at other times and didn't feel like we needed to do it all again so desperately. What really perturbed me, though, was that most of the other fans in queue didn't seem to even acknowledge what he said and simply begged for more pictures and autographs. I understand excitement about being around someone you admire and someone that's famous, but when they tell you something very personal and sad like Chris did, how can your first reaction be to just badger him more for photos and signatures? I'll never understand what went on in the minds of a lot of the people there at that moment.

 

So we were in sad moods for the next bit of queuing, but decided that we needed to buck up and still give it our all as fans for the band's sake. The LCR security/venue guys came over and told us that unfortunately, because load-in was taking longer than they thought, they wouldn't be giving us our wristbands in queue, but had to move the whole thing to the LCR cloakroom. Because they knew we'd been there since 4AM, they made sure our little group was at the very front of the new queue. All of us besides Jo (who got her fancy ass on the guest list :P) got our wristbands, which really cheered me up. They not only were the nice plasticky kind, not just paper that disintegrates, they said "COLDPLAY MX" in the bubble font, as well as "Norwich UEA, 27 Oct 2011." Having both the band name and the venue and date on the wristband meant a lot to me, as dorky as it sounds. I STILL don't believe my favorite band played my uni, and every time I look down at the wristband and see my uni's name with my favorite band's name, I go into a bit of a spaz attack.

 

Queuing, queuing, queuing. I would have loved to see the band at Live Lounge (WHICH WAS IN MY PUB, OK), but it was crowded and I was more concerned about staying in line to ensure good places for that evening, as well as staying with the other girls. After Live Lounge, the guys were going to leave and go back to their hotel for a bit before coming back later that evening for soundcheck. As they were leaving, Jonny decided to come over to the queue to have a chat with us! Again, none of us really badgered him for autographs or photos because the other fans around us were having at it enough for all of us, but Jo got a photo, and Mich and Anna showed him their tattoos. Jonny said they were cool, and Mich then said "are they really?" which I just found hilarious (and still do), and so did Jonny. Mich asked if he knew what songs the symbols referred to, and he originally said "no" and laughed really hard. Then he said something like "nah, of course I know" and walked away before we could test that knowledge.

 

Will and Phil also came over a few minutes later, which really thrilled me because Will was my favorite of all of them when I met them last year. Once again, we didn't pester him for photos or autographs, but at one point I did let my fangirlyness come out in one big gush and I touched his arm and said "thank you SO MUCH for coming, this is my uni!" Obviously that's a really ineloquent, obvious thing to say, especially because I was wearing a UEA hoodie, but because I was excited I didn't really word what I wanted to say properly. What I meant was that most of the other people in queue weren't actual UEA students and I was (or formerly was), so it just meant a lot to me to be able to see them HERE, but I couldn't really get those words out with everyone else begging for his attention. At least the last time I met him I had an OK conversation!

 

Chris also came over a moment after Will did, and looked to be in much better spirits than earlier with lots of smiles, which was a huge relief. He was being very cute with Will, putting his arms around him and rubbing his back and stuff, and I just loved it. I didn't really talk to him much personally this time besides thanking him for coming over, and actually my best memory is of how new and clean his trainers were, which is weird. Also that his kung-fu/karate shirt had seen a few too many trips through the tumble dryer, because the picture was all cracked and faded when you saw it up close. At least I didn't tell him how badly I had to pee this time.

 

The rest of the queuing process was routine--nervousness, tiredness, coldness, chatting to others. It was obvious that we were the most diehard fans there that we could see: getting there at 4AM says a lot, anyway, and the people around us were impressed with how many times we've all seen them (I think over like 50 times between all of us) and how far we'd travelled for things like this. The fact that I came from New York impressed several people, I think. I really didn't want that to become a "wow, look at me, I came from NYC for this!" type of thing at all, but I feel like it kind of became that, unfortunately. Actually, once we were inside and in our places, I mentioned it once to one girl next us, and she kind of spread it to a bunch of people around us, which kind of embarrassed me, especially because I hate when people turn being a fan of something into a competition. Being a fangirl becomes with this weird mixture of pride and mortification.

 

The hour before the doors open is always the worst. By now we had our elephant gear on, and one of the LCR workers we made friends with held up an old ticket for Cage The Elephant up against the window to show us to make us laugh, which was hilarious. We also creepily gaped at Miller as he bought a soda from a vending machine on the other side of the glass, hedging bets about what he'd buy (he went with Lucozade). Coldplay came back from their hotel, and people went APESHIT, absolutely SPRINTING from their places in queue to the barrier to see them, fanboys climbing over each others' shoulders and getting on piggyback. It was kind of astonishing, actually, and also ridiculous to think that a lot of people thought they could simply get back to their old places in queue once they left them. We heard the real soundcheck with the band, and THEY DID GLASS OF WATER, which got me super excited as it's one of my all-time favorites. We were also very excited by the liveblog, which we followed as best we could via Anna's BlackBerry, and squeed our brains out when we found out we were on there in our elephant costumes.

 

Moments before the doors opened, there was a scare for Anna and me--the LCR put up signs saying NO PHOTOGRAPHY, and Anna and I both had SLR cameras. They were going to make us put them at coat check, sacrificing our places in line, but one of the LCR workers we befriended offered to take them off our hands for us, which was wonderful. Once they opened the doors, I think I might have been the first one in--leave it to the pushy American to be the first through the doors. We all got front row easily, on Jonny's side, and were finally able to completely relax. There was a great hand-painted backdrop on the stage, glowing in the blacklight, and Zane Lowe's mixing desk was set up right in front of us. A normal gig has you waiting around for ages before the opening act and then again before the band, but because this was a broadcast with a tight schedule, Zane came on right at 7 and the band came on right at 8. Zane was actually great fun (I love him anyway) and it was somehow ten times more exciting to be on radio, but I got a bit too excited for the first 10 minutes or so of his set and used up a lot of my fragile energy. Let me just say that being jetlagged and then queuing all day is very different from just simply queuing all day, even if it's at a festival where you're standing at one stage and can't leave to use the toilet or get food even once. I was absolutely exhausted by 7:15 and decided to cool it on the having-fun part of things until Coldplay came on. I lived up to that promise until Zane played "A-Punk," "Sex On Fire," and "Still Life" all in a row right before Coldplay came on, because I love all of those songs. I also screamed a lot when Zane mentioned our elephant costumes, and when everyone started doing the UEA cheer: "OH U-E-A IS WON-DER-FUL, OH UEA IS WONDERFULLLLL..." Oh, and when I saw how fricking adorable Greg James is in person. Good lord, I will be listening to his show.

 

And then they were on. I absolutely lost it, seeing them THERE, first of all so close (but as haughty as it sounds to say, I've seen them close before), but really because here we were at MY uni in MY city, seeing the loves of my life. I'm not a crier, but I thought I would cry at this. It turns out I didn't, but I did a lot more girly screaming than I normally do--usually I just whoop a few times and sing along to every word, but I was a little more fangirly that night, especially every time Chris said "UEA" or "Norwich," and I think I freaked Mich out a bit :P. "MX/Hurts Like Heaven" is my absolute favorite from this era, so to have that first almost made me wish I had brought diapers. The band also loved our elephant costumes--even GUY smiled at them, and when "Paradise" was starting, Will gave us the BIGGEST grin and head-nod. Despite everything, Chris was a maniac as usual, his usual self until the end, when I thought he looked much more exhausted than usual, completely wiped to the point of looking like he was just going to pass out. He was also SWEATIER than I've ever seen him--I obviously know he sweats a lot, but this time it literally looked like he took a shower in his clothes, or peed his pants or something. He flicked a huge spray of sweat on Mich, Anna, and me at one point, which was actually rather disgusting. He and Jonny were more bromantic than I've ever seen them as well, which was lovely to see. I think the other guys really helped Chris get through what he was dealing with earlier in the day--you could just see it between them all, I think, and Jonny really seemed to watch out for him. Another reason I will always love and admire this band: their tangible love and support for each other, when shit is great and when shit sucks. They really act like brothers, and it's so nice to really be able to sense it between them, even as a far-removed outsider.

 

I took a lot of photos with my small point-and-shoot, some of which came out pretty decently. I usually try to take fewer pictures than I did, and strike a balance between really living the gig and creating something to look back on, but this time I went crazy with the photos because I couldn't believe they were there, and I wanted as many photos as possible of them playing my uni. I also videoed "GPASYUF" (in which Chris still threw the guitar despite being on a small stage--I thought the thing was going to land ON us at one point) and "Green Eyes" because holy hell, I never thought I'd see that live. I'm really kicking myself for not recording "Shiver," though, both because it's my favorite song and because of the kiss Jonny gave Chris during it (and because they did "Parachutes" right before it!)

 

Every time I've seen them in 2010 and 2011, I've said that they're the best I've ever seen them. I don't think that's me becoming easier to impress--if anything, I think I'm much HARDER to impress than I ever have been, in terms of quality of live performances. I honestly just believe Coldplay are on the absolute top of their live show game. I'm trying not to conflate the significance of the venue and the loveliness of the company of this gig with the actual performance, but I really do believe that it was just as good as Oxegen was this year, which is the best they've ever sounded to me. I have to download the set now and re-listen, but I think they just rocked everyone's balls off. And the crowd was fantastic as well--when most everyone that's in the room literally had to sleep outside just to get tickets, you know everyone's there because they really want to be, not because their girlfriend dragged them or they got free tickets from work that they feel like they had to use to say that they saw one of the biggest bands in the world. That's another reason why this gig was special and different. And the group of fans directly behind me knew every word to even the new songs, which is so nice to hear.

 

They played for an hour and ended with ETIAW (which I LOVE still, but I see a lot of people saying that was a disappointing performance of it--I have to re-listen). I honestly believed that was it, both because that was pretty much a full set for a radio performance and because of what Chris had told us earlier in the day (and because they always end with ETIAW), but...they came back out. Chris said that because of his bad news, they only had time...for THREE more songs. I couldn't believe it--if I had somewhere I needed to be more, I wouldn't do even a single song in encore, let alone THREE. That boy is too nice for his own good. The first thing Chris asked us to do was collectively swear as loud as we could now that we were off-air, so the whole crowd screamed "FUCK!" and then "C-WORD!" (which I hate :P) at his urging, and then he said that they usually don't even have to ask for people to say that to them. And then they started up "Green Eyes," which I'd never ever heard before live, and it killed me. Next, after a bit of "Parachutes" (WHAT? I COULDN'T BELIEVE IT) and the most adorable kiss from Jonny to Chris, was "Shiver," which is MY FAVORITE, and they ended the whole thing on "Us Against The World."

 

I will never, ever get over this gig: the location, the company, the performance, and how everything worked out better than expected despite it all. I've gotten a lot of flak from people I know for buying a plane ticket to another country two days before I was set to fly...for a BAND. But the bottom line is, no one besides people I know via this board will ever understand what this band means to me, and therefore how much it meant for me to have them play my uni. I actually hated university every single moment I was there, not because I hated UEA, but for a whole bunch of reasons that are too long to go into here. In this sense, it seems to be a bit silly for me to pile so much significance on a gig at a place I didn't really enjoy myself at, but I kind of see it as the opposite--this gig was a perfect kind of closure to an experience that was less than fantastic. But regardless of how much I did or didn't like uni, to be able to see and experience something that means so much to me at a place I once lived and learned and have a connection to in any sort of way is something that I feel so, so lucky to have had the opportunity to attend, especially when so many didn't have that chance when they so wanted it.

 

We all had to take an early coach from Norwich to London the next morning on Friday and had breakfast in Victoria Station together before saying goodbye. I saw Jo and Laura again that night for dinner in London, which was again lovely, but so hard to say goodbye the second time. I've never had post-gig depression like this. It's weird, because it's the START of a tour, and the chances to see them again are just going to get more plentiful, but I think the things that are really making me sad are that a) I don't know if any other gig will ever match the significance of this one for me, and b) more importantly, I had to fly back the US on my own and leave the other four behind. It sounds so dorky and stupid to say, but I was reminded just how lovely it is to have real live friends on this trip, ones that you don't have to hide your interests from and who you can actually talk about these things to without censorship. All I really want right now is to be able to hang out with Jo and Laura and Mich and Anna in London forever. And, you know. See Coldplay over and over again too.

 

 

 

I'll post my few favorite photos later today, but the link to the Facebook album is in the last post on page 100 :D

This is an amazing review. It made me tear up! :cry:

[ApproximatelyInfinite]

Thank you! :kiss:

 

I wish I didn't write so much, though :lol:. I'll never be able to express myself in anything less than an essay.

[axabrega]

Thank you! :kiss:

 

I wish I didn't write so much, though :lol:. I'll never be able to express myself in anything less than an essay.

 

No need of it. I love the way you explain everything that happens to you, it's almost like I'd been there too. Really happy for the five of you!! :)

[Blue Nails]

Thank you! :kiss:

 

I wish I didn't write so much, though :lol:. I'll never be able to express myself in anything less than an essay.

 

Wow Chelsea I'm halfway through your review, I love reading it (all of the reviews are amazing, btw). I can't even imagine what it's like to have them play at your uni! :stunned: Must be so weird and amazing, and... I'm having images of Coldplay walking around at mine, just NO WAY. :laugh3:

 

I'm gonna take a break and have dinner now. ;)

[ApproximatelyInfinite]

OK, here's a photo spam of my favorites :wacky:. I watermarked them because they're also going on my blog, sorry about that, but for once I kind of like them :P

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Blue Nails]

^ Thanks!

I just read the second half, which was great too. I teared up at all these reviews.

Lovely to see the five of you are such good friends. :wacky:

 

Good luck with your post gig depression. (I've had one BIG one, no fun.) :hug:

 

I'm impressed with the way you girls respect Chris' privacy, btw, thanks for that.

[NumbersGirl]

Chelsea, I was going to ask what that symbol thingy was in your pictures and then I was like "ooohhhhhhhhhhhhhh I get it". :lol: NICE.

[ApproximatelyInfinite]

Chelsea, I was going to ask what that symbol thingy was in your pictures and then I was like "ooohhhhhhhhhhhhhh I get it". :lol: NICE.

 

Smart, eh? :wink3: :P

 

I watermarked one of my photos from the Today Show with my actual username/blog name, but it's so long that it looked silly. Yay for graphical representation!

 

PS: I'm finally listening back to the gig now and it's tearing my heart out :bigcry:

[cold fan]

i'm very grateful for you all guys .. it's like i was there..

thank you <3

[yuls]

i loved your reviews and pics and videos and everything, girls!well done, I almost got emotional while reading! =P

[kspillers2]

I could read these reviews all day... I love 'em.

[ApproximatelyInfinite]

:hug: s to everyone for all the nice comments :nice: