[NEW] Details from a Coldplay performance: post your observations!

[Gideon_Mx]

This is an idea that came to my mind spontaneously. I thought it might be fun to start a new topic with this as subject: details from a Coldplay performance, share you observations!

I wanted to start a a topic where people can share their observations and (even the smallest things) things they noticed anywhere at a performance of a certain song, performance for a show or live TV, or a full Coldplay gig (perhaps were you there?). Even the smallest thing you like to share and talk about are welcome!!! Maybe if more people find your post interesting enough, there will be some kind of discussion about!

You can share anything about any detail you have ever noticed and want to talk about or discuss with others here! I'm waiting!

Let's talk about some interesting things (new and old) you might have noticed at a certain song performance, television performance, a full Coldplay gig, anything!

Edited September 1, 2020 by Gideon_Mx

[Gideon_Mx]

I'll start

 

I found this HQ video of their performance of The Scientist from earlier this year at the Hollywood Palladium.

As we all know (hopefully), during this song live Jonny always changes guitars for the big outro guitar riff, this happens at 3:32 (where the video starts!) but when Jonny starts playing the electric guitar I noticed somebody else backstage picks it up and continues to play the chords on the same acoustic guitar for the outro but we don't get to see it.

I know this isn't the first performance of The Scientist where this happens but I decided to share it now because I finally found high quality footage where you can actually hear the acoustic really well! If you find it difficult to hear the acoustic guitar, go to: 4:15 and close your eyes for a few seconds and I'm sure you'll be able to hear it!

That person who goes on is backstage but I've been wondering who it could be..... Do you think it's Matt McGinn, or Phil?

 

 

Edited August 30, 2020 by Gideon_Mx

[Xyloband_99]

It can be a pre-record

[Gideon_Mx]

22 minutes ago, Xyloband_99 said:

It can be a pre-record

I get what you mean but I think it's played live 

[dvntpxnic]

Wow great idea! This is actually the reasoning why I've thus became so obsessive with heavily collecting their performances. I've only been into the band since 2015 with just listening to their songs from their main albums which went into getting to know their B-Sides/Demos/Unreleased etc. Finally, I must've came across a particular live performance that wow'ed me to the point where I wanted to grab hold of them since I liked how a song was played. In result, the last 2 years I've set a mission to quite literally collect every single performance of theirs... yes, all of them... every single performance since they've first formed lol. I've spent so much time in these 2 years with digging and logging information of what I have so far or what I seek and I swear I'm not even remotely close to even being 5% of the way.
If I make the time I think you might see me make quite a few posts here in this thread sharing what I thought was remarkable, even in the slightest of ways. I'll start off my share of likings with a performance of Fix You!
-
What I loved here was how he says "...and I will try to fix you" shortly after the timestamp 3:10. I'm sure there's an actual term for what this is called but I don't know it so my best explanation is that Chris sings those words in a chest voice yet executing it powerfully as opposed to how he normally sings this song. Usually he sings it in the same way as in the album or in this chest voice but not as powerful as he does here.

Fix You (Live at Air Canada Centre, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, 2006)
July 10, 2006

 

[GamingForeverAUS]

37 minutes ago, dvntpxnic said:

Wow great idea! This is actually the reasoning why I've thus became so obsessive with heavily collecting their performances. I've only been into the band since 2015 with just listening to their songs from their main albums which went into getting to know their B-Sides/Demos/Unreleased etc. Finally, I must've came across a particular live performance that wow'ed me to the point where I wanted to grab hold of them since I liked how a song was played. In result, the last 2 years I've set a mission to quite literally collect every single performance of theirs... yes, all of them... every single performance since they've first formed lol. I've spent so much time in these 2 years with digging and logging information of what I have so far or what I seek and I swear I'm not even remotely close to even being 5% of the way.
If I make the time I think you might see me make quite a few posts here in this thread sharing what I thought was remarkable, even in the slightest of ways. I'll start off my share of likings with a performance of Fix You!
-
What I loved here was how he says "...and I will try to fix you" shortly after the timestamp 3:10. I'm sure there's an actual term for what this is called but I don't know it so my best explanation is that Chris sings those words in a chest voice yet executing it powerfully as opposed to how he normally sings this song. Usually he sings it in the same way as in the album or in this chest voice but not as powerful as he does here.

Fix You (Live at Air Canada Centre, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, 2006)
July 10, 2006

 

here's the center vocal mix of Fix You from that gig. They also turned up Will in the choruses. Still one of my fav performances of the song especially on the choruses but maybe it's just the vocal processing...

center fix you canada 2006.mp3

[Gideon_Mx]

16 minutes ago, GamingForeverAUS said:

here's the center vocal mix of Fix You from that gig. They also turned up Will in the choruses. Still one of my fav performances of the song especially on the choruses but maybe it's just the vocal processing...

center fix you canada 2006.mp3 10.14 MB · 1 download

How do you get things like this!?!?

Also, I have always loved Will's backing vocals!

[GamingForeverAUS]

6 minutes ago, Gideon_Mx said:

How do you get things like this!?!?

Also, I have always loved Will's backing vocals!

its really simple but I can only do it with 5.1 sources. Good thing is that whoever mixes CP live tends to put the vocals on the centre channel! Strange that not many people are analysing their 5.1 rips cuz theres lots of stuff in there to learn.

Edited August 30, 2020 by GamingForeverAUS

[Gideon_Mx]

57 minutes ago, dvntpxnic said:

Wow great idea! This is actually the reasoning why I've thus became so obsessive with heavily collecting their performances. I've only been into the band since 2015 with just listening to their songs from their main albums which went into getting to know their B-Sides/Demos/Unreleased etc. Finally, I must've came across a particular live performance that wow'ed me to the point where I wanted to grab hold of them since I liked how a song was played. In result, the last 2 years I've set a mission to quite literally collect every single performance of theirs... yes, all of them... every single performance since they've first formed lol. I've spent so much time in these 2 years with digging and logging information of what I have so far or what I seek and I swear I'm not even remotely close to even being 5% of the way.
If I make the time I think you might see me make quite a few posts here in this thread sharing what I thought was remarkable, even in the slightest of ways. I'll start off my share of likings with a performance of Fix You!
-
What I loved here was how he says "...and I will try to fix you" shortly after the timestamp 3:10. I'm sure there's an actual term for what this is called but I don't know it so my best explanation is that Chris sings those words in a chest voice yet executing it powerfully as opposed to how he normally sings this song. Usually he sings it in the same way as in the album or in this chest voice but not as powerful as he does here.

Fix You (Live at Air Canada Centre, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, 2006)
July 10, 2006

 

You're absolutely right about this, it is remarkable!

Thanks for sharing it with us

[Nikolette]

On 8/30/2020 at 6:44 PM, Gideon_Mx said:

I'll start

 

I found this HQ video of their performance of The Scientist from earlier this year at the Hollywood Palladium.

As we all know (hopefully), during this song live Jonny always changes guitars for the big outro guitar riff, this happens at 3:32 (where the video starts!) but when Jonny starts playing the electric guitar I noticed somebody else backstage picks it up and continues to play the chords on the same acoustic guitar for the outro but we don't get to see it.

I know this isn't the first performance of The Scientist where this happens but I decided to share it now because I finally found high quality footage where you can actually hear the acoustic really well! If you find it difficult to hear the acoustic guitar, go to: 4:15 and close your eyes for a few seconds and I'm sure you'll be able to hear it!

That person who goes on is backstage but I've been wondering who it could be..... Do you think it's Matt McGinn, or Phil?

 

 

That's a good observation and, think, I've seen it like that since MX era for sure, just the thing is I took a very long breather from watching/listening big songs like that (it's a bit overplayed, even though I love it)  You know, in my opinion it's fully safe to assume that's Matt who plays that part bearing in mind how he always ready to back his boss up anyway, as he admitted himself in the book. I always had an impression that Jon uses a loop pedal here, so didn't quite pay much attention to this, but here I see that it's not like that!

[I ran away]

Wow @GamingForeverAUS, could you possibly share the 5.1.  mix of the entire Toronto 2006 gig with us if you have it? THat would be amazing ?

[GamingForeverAUS]

Some more isolated live vocal mixes. thanks to the wonderful @dvntpxnic who got hold of the 2011 Today show gigs and forwarded it to me. @I ran away Will get the Canada 2006 5.1 asap.

VLV (NY2011} Vox.mp3 CB {NY2011} Vox.mp3 Fix You {NY2011} Instrumental.mp3 Fix You {NY2011} Vox.mp3 Paradise (NY2011) Vox.mp3

Edited September 7, 2020 by GamingForeverAUS

[Koleybolen]

Are the individual recorded instruments available as well..?

[GamingForeverAUS]

On 9/8/2020 at 6:03 AM, Koleybolen said:

Are the individual recorded instruments available as well..?

no they are not

[Gideon_Mx]

On 9/9/2020 at 4:18 AM, GamingForeverAUS said:

no they are not

?

[Gideon_Mx]

On 9/9/2020 at 4:18 AM, GamingForeverAUS said:

no they are not

=(

[MosesTheMarshmallow]

On 8/30/2020 at 11:44 AM, Gideon_Mx said:

I'll start

 

I found this HQ video of their performance of The Scientist from earlier this year at the Hollywood Palladium.

As we all know (hopefully), during this song live Jonny always changes guitars for the big outro guitar riff, this happens at 3:32 (where the video starts!) but when Jonny starts playing the electric guitar I noticed somebody else backstage picks it up and continues to play the chords on the same acoustic guitar for the outro but we don't get to see it.

I know this isn't the first performance of The Scientist where this happens but I decided to share it now because I finally found high quality footage where you can actually hear the acoustic really well! If you find it difficult to hear the acoustic guitar, go to: 4:15 and close your eyes for a few seconds and I'm sure you'll be able to hear it!

That person who goes on is backstage but I've been wondering who it could be..... Do you think it's Matt McGinn, or Phil?

 

 

Cool observation! I imagine this has to do with the fact that a lot of performances for Everyday Life had the live string section - so maybe they decided to do the live strings AND live acoustic guitar through the end? 

Here's my tiny contribution (but I love the idea of this thread and have many things to add)...

In this new performance of Trouble in Town, you can see that Jonny is playing slide guitar in the bridge just before his big solo, essentially doubling the string line with a much darker/haunting quality (he does NOT do this in 2019 performances). This is similar to what he does in live performances of Oceans where Jonny plays the string line with an ebow and slide. 

 

[lennyrott1]

^ LOVE THESE LIVE VERSIONS. Their studio masters tend to be pretty clean sounding by toning down lead instruments like guitar and strings. I am dying for them to release these versions of these tracks because they get the emotion across so much more. LIJ live is so blissful and lovely and Trouble in Town live feels much harsher and intense.

[MosesTheMarshmallow]

On 10/21/2020 at 2:19 PM, lennyrott1 said:

^ LOVE THESE LIVE VERSIONS. Their studio masters tend to be pretty clean sounding by toning down lead instruments like guitar and strings. I am dying for them to release these versions of these tracks because they get the emotion across so much more. LIJ live is so blissful and lovely and Trouble in Town live feels much harsher and intense.

This is so true, and if you listen to this live version of Army of One you'll probably hear all the electric guitar lines you never know were there, including in the album version!!

Another fun thing about their handful of Army of One performances - Guy plays a sample pad (like Will), and I think he's using it to trigger the bass noise but possibly also some of the synths. Will is playing drums and some of Chris's vocal samples. You can see Will adding some extra vocal layers at the quiet bit of the bridge at 2:50. 

 

[GamingForeverAUS]

Here is a new 5.1 breakdown i made. This one is from a portion of Magic from the SNL 2014 gigs. Really worth a listen even though it may sound novel. Sounds pretty good especially when the acoustic guitar kicks in. Something to note is that the vocal reverb track playing in the background isn't the same as what Chris actually sung and is some sort of pre-recorded backing vocals. We don't have stems for the song and I think it sounds pretty good!

magic5.1.mp3

 

Edited November 2, 2020 by GamingForeverAUS

[I ran away]

34 minutes ago, GamingForeverAUS said:

Here is a new 5.1 breakdown i made. This one is from a portion of Magic from the SNL 2014 gigs. Really worth a listen even though it may sound novel. Sounds pretty good especially when the acoustic guitar kicks in. Something to note is that the vocal reverb track playing in the background isn't the same as what Chris actually sung and is some sort of pre-recorded backing vocals. We don't have stems for the song and I think it sounds pretty good!

magic5.1.mp3 1.72 MB · 1 download

 

Fascinating. I love how you always dig up stuff like that, keep going ?

[MosesTheMarshmallow]

5 hours ago, GamingForeverAUS said:

Here is a new 5.1 breakdown i made. This one is from a portion of Magic from the SNL 2014 gigs. Really worth a listen even though it may sound novel. Sounds pretty good especially when the acoustic guitar kicks in. Something to note is that the vocal reverb track playing in the background isn't the same as what Chris actually sung and is some sort of pre-recorded backing vocals. We don't have stems for the song and I think it sounds pretty good!

magic5.1.mp3 1.72 MB · 5 downloads

 

Cool! There are indeed pre-recorded backing vocals that are a 3rd ABOVE what Chris sings live. There's a small handful of songs where instead of Will (or Jonny/Guy) singing in addition, there's some pre-recorded Chris. Lost is an example of this if you listen to the 2nd verse...

...and another funny minute detail - this is one of very few Lost performances where Chris sits the whole time to play the organ / piano parts (minus a handful of acoustic performances) where in most performances he's standing and dancing. 

 

 

[Gideon_Mx]

There's one thing I've been wanting to post for a long time but never did so here it is. Most of us know Will does the backing vocals in nearly every Coldplay song (that has backing vocals). But it's just so hard to hear Will's voice many times, talking about live performances. I found one performance where Will's voice can be heard really well, it happened to be in performance of Orphans!

 

In the second verse Will's voice can be heard quite well during the lines ''he would know just when and what to sow''. Especially the 2nd part of this line (''...just when and what to sow''). Listen from 1:22 to 1:27

 

In this performance , only a few months later, you can hear his voice very well maybe even louder as any other instrument for a brief moment. Funnily enough, it has the exact same effect like the previous performance. During that line. Just listen to how loud Will's voice is! Especially in ''...just when and what to sow''. Listen from 3:12 to 3:18

 

 

I noticed that for some reason Will's voice sounds definitely heavier or lower in (this particular part of) Orphans compared to other songs. Simply maybe because his mic was turned up a lot. And it made me realize that his voice isn't as light as I always thought!

Edited March 24, 2021 by Gideon_Mx

[Gideon_Mx]

By the way, why does my post ^^ need to be approved my a moderator? @I ran away @stephen

[I ran away]

6 hours ago, Gideon_Mx said:

By the way, why does my post ^^ need to be approved my a moderator? @I ran away @stephen

I have no idea, it unfortunately happens sometimes to innocent posts like yours. These days we have a lot of spam thrown at us though - most of it you'll never see because the filter catches most of the spam posts and hides them until approval, but sometimes it seems to also catch the wrong posts.

Anyway, I approved your post. About Will's backing vocals sounding the same - they are in all likelihood prerecorded. Doesn't mean Will can't sing, but in the masterclass he once gave he explained that as a drummer it sounds better if he pre-records because otherwise the loud drum sounds interfere with the vocal sounds.

 

P.S. I see we now have links to our Twitter profiles! That's awesome