Coldplay light up the BBC Music Awards & exclusive gallery!

Coldplay opened for the first ever BBC Music Awards yesterday evening at Earls Court in London and gave us a scintillating performance, as Xylobands featured in a Coldplay performance for the first time since Under One Roof 2013! In a music celebration with over fifteen different artists such as Ed Sheeran, One Direction and Take That, Coldplay performed their single of the year nominated song, A Sky Full Of Stars.

It was the penultimate appearance of the Ghost Stories era and the band themselves were nominated for single of the year, with A Sky Full Of Stars. Unfortunately, they lost out to Happy by Pharrell Williams. Chris Martin appeared in a series of clips during the show, talking about each nominated artist for the British Artist of the year, including, Ed Sheeran, Elbow and David Bowie (you can download the videos here).

Pre-show Coldplay huddle, courtesy of BBC Music on Instagram

Before the show, there was excitement as everyone walked into the arena with crates full of white Xylobands surrounding the entrance! The new bands flash in different colours, as opposed to the one set colour we were used to during the Mylo Xylotour. Before actually getting to the Xylobands and here's the part you don't hear about, there was a stampede of people rushing towards the doors, as they opened. 1,000 fans were present for the 'inside' queue, mainly fans of One Direction, some waiting since 4am. To say they were eager to get in was an understatement! Security staff were overwhelmed in a crazy five minute rush. It's fair to say, if you go to an event involving One Direction in the future, be sure to expect crazy stampedes as part and parcel of it!

The pre-show entertainment started at 19:30 as the camera, moving across the stageside, filming the excited crowd wearing flashing Xylobands, contained a screen of lyrics next to it with "Cause you're a sky cause, you're a sky full of stars", indicating the first song and the expected choice for Coldplay's performance, considering it was up for the single of the year award. The BBC Music Awards presenters, Fearne Cotton and Chris Evans rehearsed in front of the awaiting audience, minutes before the show was due to go on air to BBC Radio 1,2 and BBC 1 in the UK and across the world. We were told to make noise when Chris Martin comes on the stage and before Chris' backstage intro took place, Jonny, Guy and Will were ready and waiting on the stage (see heading photo).

You can watch the energetic performance below. As is often the case, particularly at music events where many artists play, sound is sometimes edited to make the atmosphere sound much better but not in this case and it was even more evident inside the venue, with general music fans warming straight away to Coldplay and with Coldplayers going wild of course, in a sea of Xylobands and confetti stars!

Exclusive Gallery

We have exclusive photos from the BBC Music Awards (Thanks to the BBC / Rory Connolly) including Chris Martin's backstage chat after Coldplay's performance. Check them out!

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Check out the clip of Chris Martin backstage, talking about Paloma Faith below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_LIQaOcukg&feature=youtu.be

Download

The video of Coldplay's performance, including snippets from Chris Martin reviewing some of the nominated artists on the night is available on the Coldplaying forums now! (With massive thanks to KaeEM)

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