R#42 blog

Check out coldplay.com for a new blog entry: #42 and the wonders of technology   Discuss this blog entry here onwards [thanks Lore]   What on earth did roadies do before the laptop? Roadies and laptops are like kids with colouring books - give them a laptop and a wi-fi connection and they're quiet for hours. More seriously though, technology has genuinely changed the human experience of touring. There's no getting around the fact that a major tour means weeks at a time away from those that you l

Check out coldplay.com for a new blog entry: #42 and the Grateful Undead   Discuss this blog entry here onwards [thanks melanieau]   Soundcheck in Washington gets cancelled in the name of a little more time in NYC in the morning. Whilst this is a right result for all, it does mean that we land at Dulles just after 5pm. Of course, as we get on the road, it becomes clear that we're in for a slow trip. One of the reasons to run away and join a tour is to escape the 9 to 5 and here we are sat in rus

Check out coldplay.com for a new blog entry: #42 and the wonders of technology   Discuss this blog entry here onwards [thanks coldpatrix & Pris]   Philly is close enough to drive from Manhattan. We're in the van bringing up the rear (oo-err missus, etc etc). For reasons best known to security folks (and quite possibly insurance companies), it's better for all the vehicles to travel "in convoy". Being in the back vehicle as we are today is occasionally a hair raising experience. A string of v

Check out coldplay.com for a new blog entry: #42 and a new dawn   Discuss this blog entry here onwards.   I start the day today by filling out forms for my Japanese visa, in readiness for the February trip. Somewhat less glamorously (if indeed, filling out forms could ever be considered glamorous), I then move on to the launderette. We're a day or two from leaving New York, so it makes sense to walk around the corner and drop in my smalls for a fluff and fold.   My washbag is one of my favourite

Check out coldplay.com for a new blog entry: #42 and the aura explorer   Discuss this blog entry here onwards.   Today marks the day when we decamp from our temporary home in NYC. We've been based here for two whole weeks now. I can't think of another establishment in the world where the staff have become friends in the same way. From the doormen, to the desk staff, the bar staff, the housekeepers all the way up to the management and the owners. Some of them have come along to the shows, many ha

Check out coldplay.com for a new blog entry: In which #42 reaches his half-century   Discuss this blog entry here onwards [thanks deydey]   Chris bounds up to me on the journey into Orlando with a new setlst. It's been quite a while since we've played Setlist Twister. The start of this tour often felt like trying to ride a malfunctioning mechanical bull and then, all of a sudden, seemingly out of completely nowhere, things settled into a definitive form.   The current setlist is pretty much eng

Check out coldplay.com for a new blog entry: #42 joins Chris in the studio as he works on new songs...   Discuss this blog entry here onwards [thanks Lore]   It would seem that the impending Prospekt's March EP release has sent the band (and Chris in particular) into that familiar Coldplay overdrive. It's a day off today, but the term seems to mean little to one Mr. Martin. I've tagged along as he meets up with Viva's co-producer Rik Simpson to "put some ideas down".   I remember talking to Rik

Check out coldplay.com for a new blog entry: In which #42 muses on Hooters and parties   Discuss this blog entry here onwards [thanks Loud Meditation]   Our show in Fort Lauderdale or Miami (nobody seems exactly sure where we are) is a nicely noisy affair. You can always pretty much judge how raucous an audience is going to be by watching them during the Blue Danube intro. Tonight it's arms aloft, swaying in time. It can't hurt, obviously that many of these arms are attached to rather large plas

Check out coldplay.com for a new blog entry: #42 and the exit strategy   Discuss this blog entry here onwards [thanks mimixxx]   I start the day in Minnesota by going to the wrong arena. I've left the hotel in search of breakfast and spot the Target Center where we played last time we were here. Although I'm not due in for a good while yet, I know that catering will be up, so I wander over. I spend a good couple of minutes explaining to the folks on the back door at the Target Center that I've l

Check out coldplay.com for a new blog entry: #42 and the Flaming Lips cover   Discuss this blog entry here onwards.   It's pretty common for shows in more out of the way places to be the ones with the most enthusiastic crowds. Oklahoma then, has potential to be a right good night out. We arrive late in the day, as soundcheck has been bypassed yet again. At the top of the ramp that leads us into the bowels of the arena are three young ladies holding banners who giddily bounce and wave as the band

Check out coldplay.com for a new blog entry: #42 and the Texan cable massacre   Discuss this blog entry here onwards [thanks coldplay12]   "If you're from Tex-as, won't you le-e-e-et me know...". Chris ends Violet Hill with this line in Houston and they spend the whole night doing just that. The Houston crowd are extremely vocal. It's not just the line from Chris that sets them off either. I was musing the other day that some crowds give a cheer when the house lights go off but then get very qu

Check out coldplay.com for a new blog entry: #42 and the random rememberings   Discuss this blog entry here onwards.   Gah! I hate leaving the blog for a few days - I forget all the tiny details of what happened. Hence, if this installment reads like a random list of unrelated rememberings then that's because it's exactly what it is!   Lets see, where were we up to? OK, I'd got as far as leaving Texas.   The Denver show brings a guest at soundcheck. We are joined by a chap called Ricardo Leon, w

Check out coldplay.com for a new blog entry: #42 and the pumpkin soup   Discuss this blog entry here onwards.   Marguerite drops into her seat at dinner in Anaheim looking as though she's just been mugged. The explanation is simple enough - it's LA and consequently, she has just submitted a guest list that outnumbers the attendance at the band's first ever gig by a factor of three to one. Shows in London, New York and LA tend to be ever thus.   They're not just gigs, they're mini music biz event

Check out coldplay.com for a new blog entry: #42 on being back in Blighty   Discuss this blog entry here onwards.   I've often said that I never feel as British as when returning from a long stint away. We've been out of the country for so much of the last six months though, that for the first time ever, it actually feels a little odd to be back in Blighty. Without wanting to get all cliched and "life on the road" about it, I have to admit to finding my own country feeling a bit foreign and unfa

Check out coldplay.com for a new blog entry: #42 and the nasty flu   Discuss this blog entry here onwards [thanks coldplay12]   Don't get too close, readers. I'm full of cold. Being ill on tour (OK, I know, it's only the sniffles and a sore throat...) is a pretty rubbish experience. If I had a sensible job, I would have called in sick and spent the day under the duvet feeling sorry for myself. That's not really an option in my line of work, so instead, I've turned up to a cold and draughty arena

Check out coldplay.com for a new blog entry: #42 and the crazy car chase   Discuss this blog entry here onwards [thanks JENNY34]   On the ride into Liverpool from John Lennon Airport, there is much talk in our van (which, I hasten to add, included none of the band) about The Beatles - as though this is all that has ever happened in Liverpool. Come showtime, Chris gets part way through In My Place and reminds the crowd that half of the songs they are hearing were written here. Suddenly, it strike

Check out coldplay.com for a new blog entry: #42 and the hometown show   Discuss this blog entry here onwards [thanks Pris]   Finally, I spend an entire day off in bed and so see an end to the misery that is "the tour cold". Everyone is suffering. Folks have either had it, just finished it, or are right in the middle of it. It seems poor old Jon Hopkins has been hit harder than most though. He's come down with something a bit heavier than a cold and he's not with us for the Manchester shows. Let

Check out coldplay.com for a new blog entry: #42 and the secret special guest...   Discuss this blog entry here onwards.   Here I am, sitting outside the production office in the O2 arena. It's the first of the "Big London Shows" today, which would traditionally mean much stress and fretting all round. However, we've managed to completely circumvent any last minute nerves by being so insanely busy that worrying has fallen off the to-do list entirely.   Whilst the first of the 14 trucks are being

Check out coldplay.com for a new blog entry: #42 and the London homecoming shows   Discuss this blog entry here onwards [thanks mimixxx]   I note that on the X&Y tour, there were three "Big London Shows" at Earls Court on the 14th, 15th and 16th of December. Three years, an album and an EP later, here we are with three "Big London Shows" on exactly the same dates. Hometown shows around Christmas make perfect sense really. If it's supposed to be a time for getting together with family and fri

Check out coldplay.com for a new blog entry: #42 tells you about tour fatigue   Discuss this blog entry here onwards.   Tour Fatigue, Road-burn, Knackered-ness, "Ready for Bo-Bos", it's called many things, but all describe the same thing. I've shied away from describing some of the less enjoyable aspects of touring because - well, lets face it, the job we do is amazing and I can't even bear listening to myself moan about it, let alone imagine how little anyone else would care.   It is, however,

Check out coldplay.com for a new blog entry: #42 is back in business   Discuss this blog entry here onwards [thanks Lore]   It was always inevitable that the Christmas break would vanish before we'd had the chance to get nearly half the lazing about done that we'd planned. Sure enough, here we are again heading off to do a TV show. I set off this morning in the belief that we were going to do the German equivalent of the Grammy awards. Somebody asked me yesterday where that would be. I told them

Check out coldplay.com for a new blog entry: #42 is our mole in the studio   Discuss this blog entry here onwards [thanks marie/pims]   After touring's "ying" of constant motion, noisy crowds and repetition, studio work's "yang" brings stillness, quiet isolation and a torrent of creativity. I've been in the corner of the control room at the Bakery for the past couple of weeks watching the first foundations being dug for the next batch of songs.   Regular readers will remember that whilst we were

Check out coldplay.com for a new blog entry: #42 and the London Monkees   Discuss this blog entry here onwards.   Well, it would appear we've brought the weather with us. As we sped up the freeway tonight to the hotel, the heavens opened. Los Angeles is far better at clear blue and hot - but it's certainly demonstrated the breadth of its repertoire today. Perhaps the British-style downpours are a good omen for the Grammys? Let's hope so, eh?   But the Grammy Awards aren't until Sunday. We've com

Check out coldplay.com for a new blog entry: #42 sends his Grammy report   Discuss this blog entry here onwards [thanks coldplay12]   Now, I'm not a huge fan of awards shows. For a roadie, they're basically a monumental pain in the arse. If you're a bloke who earns their living plugging gear in and telling the band that it's going to work, then they're by far the most stressful thing that you can get involved with. The gear flies from the loading dock to the stage at terrifying speed and you get

Check out coldplay.com for a new blog entry: Roadie #42 and the disappearing day   Discuss this blog entry here onwards [thanks sirhc]   I've been robbed, readers. Nothing's been taken from my luggage, nobody has held me up at gunpoint. I'm missing no money (apart from what I've wasted on room service - trampling another New Year's Resolution into the dirt). So, what's happened? Well, I've had 24 hours of my life whipped away from right under my nose. That's right, an entire day - stolen.   You