Coldplay Live Reviews, Photos and Setlist - T In The Park festival, Balado, Scotland (9th July, 2011)

In arguably their best festival performance of the summer so far, Coldplay headlined T In The Park last night (9th July, 2011), which was broadcast live in the UK on BBC3 and BBC HD, and an unofficial online stream was also found courtesy of magictv.co for those who could not receive the TV channels. Noteable highlights include a cover of Travis's Why Does It Always Rain On Me? just before Fix You during the encore. Fix You was dedicated to Chris Martin's mum. Chris also hilariously fucked up his solo part of God Put A Smile On Your Face earlier in the set, and Guy was given a huge introduction and ovation as he walked onto the stage during Us Against The World.

There were no setlist changes... once again Shiver was performed in place of Cemeteries Of London - but prior to the show Guy had said in an interview that Shiver would not be played. As Shiver began, Chris whispered something in Guy's ear - make your own minds up what was said! During the show, Shiver trended worldwide on Twitter.

If you are in the UK you can rewatch the performance via BBC's iPlayer now, and also via our Multimedia forum where the set has been uploaded in various formats. More live discussion on this show is at the Coldplay Live forum. Thanks to everyone who has contributed on the forums, Youtube and twitters. We'll have more on this show over the next few hours/days!

Setlist confirmed):

MX

Hurts Like Heaven

Yellow

In My Place

Major Minus

Lost!

The Scientist

Shiver

Violet Hill

God Put A Smile Upon Your Face

Everything's Not Lost

Us Against The World

Politik

Viva la Vida

Charlie Brown

Life Is For Living

-------

Clocks

Why Does It Always Rain On Me? (Travis cover)

Fix You

Every Teardrop Is A Waterfall

Photo via Gigwise

WOW, is this performance WAAAY better than Glastonbury or what? The boys seem tons more relaxed, their playing is tight, the crowd are hot, the HD picture is stunning, the sound mix is great (Chris's vocals not lost in a sea of backline). And yes, that was the best Major Minus I have heard, hands down. Wonder if they have been asked to drop some parts of the set to meet curfew / BBC Three & HD off air time? (Due to Beyonce overrun). I haven't seen Gothenburg and Werchter (I confess I don't need to see every televised performance on this festival tour, nor am I passing judgement or looking down on anyone who has been watching all the streams) but I prefer tonight to Glastonbury - for one the sound mix has been vastly superior, in my opinion... [thanks RC34127]

I LOVED the show tonight! Coldplay was just amazing. Chris' voice sounded fantastic and there was only one minor error throughout the whole show during GPASUYF, but it was fine, Chris shaked it off and kept going. Fantastic playing by all four boys. I thought it was really sweet when Chris put Guy in the spotlight during Us Against The World. Guy was all smiley--> It was also sweet that he dedicated Fix You to his mum. Coldplay showed lots of energy tonight and they looked very happy to be playing. The crowd was fantastic as well jumping and singing along. I was watching from the comfort of my room but I was singing and dancing along as well to every song. I'm also very glad that BBC decided to show the whole show instead of the good chunk they kept mentioning. Truly, another great show by Coldplay tonight, and I can't wait to see them live again in person.... [thanks iduran20]

Not one of the best performances so far and a pretty average crowd at best.. but they can only get better. When compared to Glastonbury, Gothenburg and Werchter for example, i think this performance doesnt necessarily stand out for me, all the more so even though it has been specifically televised. [thanks Lukestar1991]

This was incredible! Couldn't agree more when people say that it was one of their best. Glastonbury succeeded this one for me, but it was nonetheless spectacular. As previously stated, Chris' voice continues to sound great--loads better than it did near the end of Viva (though, I still thought he sounded wonderful). The Travis cover was lovely, of course. And I'm sure it meant a lot for Guy to play there as well. You could see how happy he was throughout the show and especially at the end (he was the last to go off stage and certainly didn't appear as though he wanted to!). Makes me incredibly envious of anyone that gets to see them while they're playing this setlist. Shiver, Life Is For Living, Everything's Not Lost....If only RXP Festival hadn't been cancelled....(Yes, I'm still bitter.) [thanks xmonstermaggie]

Guy lied to us about Shiver. What was the crowd singing during the drum part of GPASUYF? Liked how Chris wanted everyone to go nuts when Guy joined along during UATW. Absolutely love the pre-Viva piano part after Politik. I couldn't stand that guy they kept showing I think three times during the concert, the one the host commented on. I like the different songs Chris plays before Fix You. I thought when Chris was swinging his jacket around during Fix You, he was going to hit Jonny and mess him up. ETIAW, very good. Overall rating: 8.0 Rock Am Ring was 10. I compare every concert to that. [thanks Drew42LP5]

Have to say that this concert was awesome to watch! Jonny was in top form today, as well as the other guys. But man, that guitarplaying! Best version of IMP that I've heard so far, with the 'oops' from Chris and the Beyonce reference with 'to the left to the left'. Also the crowd was alive and kicking ass =D. Overall amazing! People were very lucky to be there and to be able to see that live. [thanks LoversInJapan]

The show was just amazing. On par with Glastonbury or maybe even better. The band played the best version of Major Minus since Rock am Ring and Fix You was also great with Chris dedicating it to his mum. I'm loving the new version of GPASUYF and tonight's version was the best yet, I've never seen Will pound those drums as hard as he did tonight on that song. Guy also got a huge applause as he was in his home country and was really energized tonight. I felt the band and crowd really brought it tonight. Chris hasn't sounded so good live since probably near the end of the AROBTTH tour in 2003. GREAT effort by the band tonight. [thanks ChadBC]

What a great performance from the guys! I was getting a bit worried that the entire concert wouldn't be broadcast (even moreso because the guys started late), but overall a very rewarding experience. The guys really seemed to be enjoying themselves (especially Guy!). There was only one minor mess-up during GPASUYF, but everything else went very smoothly. Major Minus, Shiver, and Lost! sounded particularly good, and there was a very good singalong from the crowd with Viva. Politik was epic, as always, although there could have been better participation from the crowd on Everything's Not Lost (I suppose there weren't too many there that were familiar with it, though, since it isn't one of their more popular songs). The encore was spectacular, and I love that Chris sang a bit of 'Why Does It Always Rain On Me?'. In my opinion, better than the Glastonbury performance. Well done, Coldplay! [thanks ColdplayingfromKansas]

I found the show absolutely amazing, loved each performance (as usual it's Politik the breath-taking one for me), and 'Why does it always rain on me' was an added value, it was so nice from the guys to tribute Travis, who are Scottish and among those bands who inspired them. The crowd looked great too, even though I have to agree with the guy who said that those close shots on ppl who did not know the lyrics were not that nice! [thanks Steph589]

I really think this was better than Rock am Ring, because it seemed that they had more energy today, and they were also a lot tighter in their performance. It was great to see them use their excitement in the right way, to make the music more powerful, and not as in Glastonbury, where they used all the adrenalin to overdo it and make mistakes. The crowd sounded amazing as well. Although not singing along with Glastonbury-power, they really showed how excited they were and showed their appreciation to Coldplay. Also good to see that they never "fell asleep", they were consistently alive and it seemed like they enjoyed every song. Jonny was great, Guy enjoyed himself, Will had a lot of energy and Chris was focused and didn't do any major fuck ups. Shiver and Everything's Not Lost were the songs I doubted before the show started, but they both worked really well and surprisingly I enjoyed them really much! But I still missed Cemeteries of London, as well as Speed of Sound and Lovers In Japan. Hurts Like Heaven wasn't as good as in France, and Major Minus not as good as at Glastonbury, but except from that, they did everything so perfect that I'll give them a 9,5 out of 10. [thanks hente44]

They had this stupid Golden circle thing going on, whereby you had to queue after each act to get in, we were almost crushed to death trying to get in before Coldplay. People were surging and the barriers were really narrow, it was scary. The guards did absolutely nothing. Some people were being sick or were too inebriated on whatever to function, others were launching drinks into the air and crowd surfing. One idiot was even standing on someone's shoulders. People were lurching so much we managed to get from row 11 to row 4 by the end. Those who were compos mentis though were brilliant, it really was a spectacular crowd. They all went wild for Guy when Chris was being very sweet and bigging him up massively. The Why Does it Always Rain on me cover was inspired too. Can't wait to watch the whole thing back. But no T is definitely not for me, but it was an experience. [thanks mimixxx]

Watched the performance on iplayer. Fantastic stuff as ever. I think Chris's voice in this set was the strongest it's ever been. Probably the stongest vocal performance I've seen from him. The encore they gave was probably the best encore they've ever done and the small Travis tribute in there was really great. And Every Teardrop Is A Waterfall - probably the best reception it's ever been given. It seemed they loved it. And I thought the reception Guy got from his home crowd especially in Us Against The World and the end when Chris held his arms up when they applauded the crowd was really wonderful. They were clearly proud of him! [thanks howyousawtheworld]

Any act following Beyonce Knowles onto the main stage at T in the Park on Saturday was going to have their work seriously cut out for them, so kudos to Chris Martin and co for giving it a go. The start they made was impressive, bucking the tradition of closing a festival with fireworks by sending multi-coloured rockets crackling through the air as they took to the stage, beginning with the hurtling, Arcade Fire-sounding Hurts Like Heaven and then the old fan favourite Yellow. The latter song was lit up by a red signal flare amidst the crowd, a new trend at Scottish gigs that's already earned perpetrators threats of expulsion at this year's T. What followed this opening was a set which, despite a healthy dose of Martin's customary earnestness, was pretty much a textbook example of how to work a festival crowd with a series of effortlessly affecting guitar anthems. Addressing the Beyonce issue early, Martin cheekily added the "to the left, to the left" lyric of her Irreplaceable to In My Place and warned "we don't really have her curves - we don't really have anything she's got, so you can go home if you want." Major Minus featured an arena-standard guitar line in the style of U2's The Edge from Jonny Buckland, Lost saw multicoloured balloons thrown into the crowd and The Scientist, featuring just Martin, his piano and the entire audience on backing vocals, had the singer bait the crowd's affections to perfection when he changed the song's lyric to "nobody said it was easy / I'm going to T in the Park." Every song was warmly familiar, from Shiver to God Put a Smile Upon Your Face to the heart-warming highlight Everything's Not Lost and the symphonic Viva La Vida, their welcome reception from the crowd topped off by Martin's proud introduction of bassist Guy Berryman as being "from Kirkcaldy, Fife." // **** out of 5 stars. [via Scotsman]

New photos of Coldplay - T In The Park festival, Balado, Scotland (9th July, 2011):

Photo via Gigwise