Coldplay last night played Liverpool in the first of two intimate 'hidden gigs' that they are performing over Christmas to raise money for homeless charity Crisis and highlight the plight of homeless people especially at Christmas. The second gig will be in Newcastle tonight!
No new songs were played (except for Christmas Lights) - you can see the setlist below. Gary Barlow (Take That) and Peter Kay joined Coldplay on the stage for a rendition of Back For Good. Some sets of excellent photos of the show can be found courtesy of Filippo L'Astorina and also at Flickr.
Coldplay's website blogged throughout the day and you can read all the photoblog discussions including your views on the latest pictures, interviews, videos and updates at the Coldplay forum (warning: nearly 200 pages and counting!). More live discussion on this show is at the Coldplay Live forum. Thanks to everyone who has contributed on the forums, wiki and twitters, we'll have more on this show over the next few hours/days!
Setlist:
In My Place
Glass Of Water
Yellow
Lost!
God Put A Smile Upon Your Face
Cemeteries Of London
Trouble
Till Kingdom Come
Shiver
Death and All His Friends
Clocks
Viva La Vida
Fix You
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Politik
The Scientist
Back For Good
Christmas Lights
So I got there initially at 10am, some of the Italian guys were there axe, etc. But it seemed quiet so I went shopping for a bit (well attempted to....since when do shops not open until 11 on a Sunday?!) anyway trusty Primarni was open so I was able to get a blanket and some extra socks. I was browsing Twitter in the queue in Primarni and saw that Chelsea (who had been umming and ahhhing about attending the Newcastle gig since her flight home got cancelled due to the snow) had mentioned that there were 200 extra ticketsgoing on sale at both venues but you had to go there in person to get them, so I offered to get her one and at first she was like "noooo way, is too short notice" then it was "oh let me just look at the train prices" and then "omg they're cheap let me just look at hotels"...Whilst this was going on I had wandered back towards the queue where Craig, Roos and Wisna had joined. Craig was meant to be buying my seated tickets from me but had a standing ticket and just needed another - it turns out I knew someone with a standing ticket so my two seated tickets became available, I immediately told Chelsea who very excited decided she was going to come...
So anyway we stood around chatting for a while, more people joined us Als, Anna it was unbearably cold, we were all taking it in turns to get inside for a while. It seems to really drag in the afternoon, it was so cold and I think we were all trying to over compensate for the fact that we were miserable. It was in fact just as Alison went inside for coffees that the boys turned up at the venue.
Jonny was first, he had a big smile as he went in, everyone else stuck their hand out, which he shook, but I was too shy and didn't Was annoyed with myself afterwards. Next was Will with one of his daughters and his wife, he just walked in quickly with a smile since he was with family. Then it was Phil he chatted a bit before going in (sorry I don't have any pictures of this - we all sort of ran over there and I was unprepared )
Once they were all in, we wandered back over to our queuing spot and sort of loitered for a bit hoping Chris would show up (we saw Vicki and Debs having a cigarette outside too) the others guys had arrived in big blacked out silver cars so it was obvious they were coming, but we looked over and suddenly there was a huge swarm of people around Chris who had seemingly appeared from nowhere! I think he must have walked. I only got a chance to take his picture before he went inside.
We made our way back to the queue and were talking about how few people were in the queue and how it was quite possibly the most pointless all day queue ever when what should happen? The secuirty guy on the door pops his head outside and tells us to all make our way into the foyer he had something tell us! We did, grateful to be out of the horrible cold, I must admit I had a sneaking suspicion it was going to be something good and I wasn't wrong! Chris had heard how long we had been queuing in the cold (did someone in our group tell him?) and had invited us to watch the soundcheck!!! I let out an almight squeee I must admit
So we all get AC/DC at Wembly wristband (because why wouldn't we?! ) and make our way in. Jonny and Guy are on stage noodling, Jonny sort of shyly waves at us and we all very enthusiasticly start waving back People are shouting out song requests to play that night, which he declines very politely...although when someone asks for High Speed Jonny starts playing the riff
Chris bounds on stage not long afterwards in an absolutely fantastic mood and immidiately comes over to chat to us Says hi, thanks us for waiting for so long and then he says "is anyone English?" those of us who are raise our hands and he asks "okay do you think we should play on the X Factor?" and I, at the very horror of that actually occuring, am like "NO!!!!" haha So he turns to me and ask why not. Now there are a million and one reasons why Coldplay should not play the X Factor but could I form a coheriant reason as to they shouldn't? No. And he's looking at me waiting for an answer! I babbed something about how Matt Cardle could actually have a career of worth if it wasn't for the X Factor and how instead he's going to be screwed by Cowell and how that's not what music is about. He seems to accept that as a good reason and says "yeah, yeah that's what a few people think", although argues that we all watch it to which I reply "yes because it's good Saturday night entertainment if you're not going out, not because we believe in it" he chats for a bit longer about the gig and stuff but as he turns to walk back on stage he thanks me for my advice
Although Alison says I didn't so much advise him as order him not to. So they run through a few songs, GoW was first if I'm not mistaken, Chris isn't really singing properly as he's saving his voice but it sounds good, afterwards he asks for his piano to be moved further back so Guy is more visible They also run through CoL, as Guy walks over to play Chris' piano at the start of it, he looks at the keys and laughs and says "they're all different colours I can't play this" and Chris agrees and says that they need to get rid of them before next year. They also perform half of VLV before Chris forgets the lyrics, he's asking Will what they are and running through the verse quickly and Will mimes a puppet on a string to him I think it was during VLV that Chris got out a pocket camera and filmed the band and then us! :cheesey:
The also attempted Christmas Lights, Chris kept messing up during the middle, he did it twice and Will was cracking up at him, in the end Chris had to look at Will who mock baby stepped him through it by counting him in with his drumsticks in a exagerated fashion
Oh also Will's daughter was there, she must have loved Christmas Lights cos she was dancing around for all of it And Chris sang her a song and was waving at her.
After about 45 minutes they decided they needed to get into the soundcheck properly so we were to leave, Chris (and Phil) came to talk to us again People were asking him things I think someone mentioned Life is for Living which Phil said they'd have to bring back next year He was saying goodbye to us all and said "I'm sure I'll see you in the exact same position later" and touched my arm!! I am ashamed to admit I died a little! [thanks mimixxx]
Will try and put some thoughts together later, for now I will just agree with Mich (the Coldplaying Fairy Godmother ) that it was the best I've ever seen them: happy, confident, goofy, yet with rockstar swagger. The mistakes were dealt with in the sweetest, most charming manner and just added to the whole thing. I think they all, but Chris in particular thrive off a small, intimate crowd, but perhaps Exeter was a little too small. I guess the audience was about double the size last night and it made all the difference. But also it seemed they seemed really refreshed - the shackles of touring are off, there was no pressure to deliver new material - Chris announced early on that it would be "the greatest hits" last night, then joked "We've only got three so we'll be off in 10 minutes."
I feel so lucky to have been there - and actually glad that I'm an idiot who left her camera at work, it left me free to just enjoy. Although I'm aware that I enjoy other peoples posts from concerts so I tried to tweet during the show, I hope they somehow caught the atmosphere of the night. When I came out, my initial reaction was "I might never go and see them again" It was so perfect, I doubt it could ever be topped. Of course, when the next tour comes round I'll forget about that. Then Mich will tell me what ridiculous time we're queuing and I'll forget that this morning my feet are still throbbing from yesterday. She's such a bad influence, that girl. Ok, that's enough from my tired brain now. Need food, painkillers, then more sleep... [thanks RedGirl76]
Pictures courtesy of Filippo L'Astorina on Facebook.
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