R#42 blog

Check out coldplay.com for a new blog entry: #42 and the post-tour hibernation   Discuss this blog entry in the Coldplay forum here onwards [thanks marie/pims]   Which cliché to chose in describing the experience of finishing a tour?   "It's like stepping off a fast moving train"? "Like being fired out of a cannon at a brick wall"? "The kind of dis-orientation you get when shaken awake from a deep sleep"?   All handy phrases I've used in the past to romanticise "life on the road". In reality, t

Check out coldplay.com for a new blog entry: As promised yesterday, it's #42's Wembley blog   Discuss this blog entry in the Coldplay forum here onwards [thanks SueDeNimes]   It's been 159 shows, 17 months and I couldn't even begin to imagine how many miles. I believe that the first blog entry of this tour was written on a flightcase in the corridor of Brixton Academy and included the line: "The crowd's gone home, the floor's a mess and the truck's nearly packed."   Well, looks like this is wher

Check out coldplay.com for a new blog entry: #42 is back, Back, BACK! And he's in the sudio...   Discuss this blog entry in the Coldplay forum here onwards [thanks cephaus & deathandallmyfriends]   I keep wanting to say "Happy New Year" every time I see people. I can't speak for others, but six weeks off tour in the warmth of home, loved ones and general all round "real life" has felt like the holiday season. It hasn't helped that I saw my first "Christmas Shopping" adverts in mid-October th

Check out coldplay.com for a new blog entry: An amazing little film from #42   Now, I know the last blog had a clip of the crowd doing the Viva chant,but I couldn't not show you this. I stuck a camera up on the drum riserlast night, looking out past the piano. As the fellas come back fromdoing the acoustic section at the back of the arena, soundman Dan Greennow puts on a Viva remix. So whilst the chaps were out in the loadingdock having a drink and a breather before the encore, here's theParisia

Hello there, I am Roadie #42. My good friend Prospekt has asked me to keep you all posted on the goings on from inside the tour. I sit somewhere stage left through every performance. Wherever the band are in the world, I'll be there and I'll be reporting back to you.   So here we are in Brixton Academy. The crowd's gone home, the floor's a mess and the truck's nearly packed. It must be the first night of the Viva La Vida tour.   In many ways, it feels as though we've run a marathon just to get t

Check out coldplay.com for a new blog entry: #42 blogs from LA on the day of the first show   It struck me today that so far we've spent time in Wembley Arena, Madison Square Garden and the LA Forum - and yet the tour hasn't yet officially begun. Either it's all downhill from here, or this is going to be one hell of a ride...   Somewhat predictably, the week of production rehearsals has passed in the blink of an eye. For the first couple of days, the band were still in the UK. The lighting depar

Check out coldplay.com for a new blog entry: #42 expands his role to passport photo snapper...   Two for two.   Well, it seems that we're airborne. The maiden flights of the Viva La Vida tour have been a success and it looks like we're in for a good run. Admittedly, the shows passed in a blur - a mixture of concentration and panic that leaves one utterly shattered. I have to say, the standout aspect of the shows for me is how effective the acoustic section has been. This is possibly because I do

Check out coldplay.com for a new blog entry: #42 reports on a magical night in Vegas   San Jose sees set-list tweakage continue. The LA shows have gone very well and feedback has largely been extremely positive. The band, however, aren't really ones for auto-pilot. Everyone is very pleased with the show, but the search for the ultimate knockout punch continues.   To this end, Politik is pulled out of storage and gets a good airing. I can't really see the point in ever doing a Coldplay show witho

Check out coldplay.com for a new blog entry: Coldplay in a fan's back garden.   Last week the band had a crazy day where they finished the Jay Leno show and headed off to play their first ever barbeque (in a fans back garden!). It sounded like a ridiculous idea, but we got there it turned out to be really rather wonderful.   Here's a little home movie of it. R#42.  

Roadie #42 crashes the Barcelona press conference   17.6.08 - Barcelona   The crew is running entirely on espresso today. I sneak along to the press conference in a nearby swanky hotel. When we get to the rather impressive and imposing foyer, there is a gent in a suit at a grand piano playing a lounge jazz version of Trouble. Given my level of sleep deprivation, it seems wonderfully twisted. Lord only knows how the band manage to be so affable and approachable throughout. The wit and good hum

Short but sweet post from #42   I'm with the band...   Roadie #42 @ coldplay.com  

Check out coldplay.com for a new blog entry: #42 sends pics from Paris   Well that was one of the more intense weeks I've had in this game. To be honest, these promo shows have wiped us all right out. The thousand-yard stare has been replaced with the utter 'man down' exhaustion where merely being awake and having to function feels like cruel and unusual punishment. We're off for a few days to get home, do some laundry and then pinball off to New York. Nobody said it was easy! ;-) In the meanti

Check out coldplay.com for a new blog entry: More Paris pics from #42   I expect I'm either on a Plane to NYC, or in the back of a truck at MSG as you read this. Couple more from Paris for you. First, the Q&A session..   More on this here onwards [thanks iriden]       And here's the fellas giving it some to a crowd of Parisians. Capital city crowds can occasionally be a little 'too cool'. None of that here though, this lot were bonkers!          

Check out coldplay.com for a new blog entry: R#42 blogs amid crazy scenes in NYC   I had yesterday pegged as just another TV show all the way up to about 6am. Just as the sun came up, it began to dawn on me just how amazing this was going to be. I can't remember anything like it in my whole time working for the band. The first Jimmy Kimmel show in 2002 was pretty amazing, but even that was just closing down Hollywood Boulevard. Here, there was major disruption to traffic on two different NYC str

Check out coldplay.com for a new blog entry: #42 sends an update from LA   Back to school.   After the past few weeks of complete and utter chaos, we find ourselves loading into a huge empty space in LA with an entire week until the doors open for the first show of the tour. It's a little like finally getting a chance to move into your new home after a mad month of parties and visitors. Finally, we have time to arrange the furniture, to work out where the fusebox is and to attend to that trouble

Check out coldplay.com for a new blog entry: #42 gets mistaken for a woman and spins a ripping piano yarn   Discuss this blog entry in the Coldplay forum here onwards [thanks wabbit]   So I arrive at the check-in desk at Heathrow airport and tell them where I’m going and what my name is. I always feel a little doubtful when I do this that it’s actually going to work, that they’ll look at me incredulously and demand a huge docket of paperwork that demonstrates my entitlement to travel. Years of f

Check out coldplay.com for a new blog entry: #42 reports on a rare Coldplay soundcheck as the band try out some ideas   Discuss this blog entry in the Coldplay forum here onwards [thanks Coeurli]   Soundchecks are something of an oddity by this point in the tour. First day back in Toronto, though, that’s exactly what we’re up to. There are plans afoot for much further down the line which require a bit of work now to start getting right. As is often the case with future plans, there’s as much tal

Check out coldplay.com for a new blog entry: #42 - and a dozen cameras - experience an amazing night in Montreal   Discuss this blog entry in the Coldplay forum here onwards [thanks Coeurli]   Back in the seventies (when sound systems were somewhat less refined and attitudes to health and safety a touch more vague), the sign of a good show was that the band sent the crowd home with a ringing in their ears. Montreal these past couple nights has kinda turned those tables a little.   Canadian crow

Check out coldplay.com for a new blog entry: #42 gives us the world premiere of Graham Against The World   Discuss this blog entry in the Coldplay forum here onwards [thanks wabbit]   We head out to Boston spread across a couple of smaller planes. It would seem that there’s been some storm damage to the regular ride, so this is the best way forward. It’s impossible to sit on the tarmac looking at the similarly nippy looking plane opposite us out of the window and not think one thing: “Let’s race

Check out coldplay.com for a new blog entry: #42, the harsh YouTube judgement and the Amsterdam revival   Discuss this blog entry in the Coldplay forum here onwards [thanks Tash]   YouTube comments threads are pretty well known for the massive amount of snarky negativity they can contain. In this globally super-connected age, anything you can imagine can be filmed, uploaded and then called “Ghey” by a 12 year-old in the midwest all in a matter of minutes.   I had the utter delight the other mor

Check out coldplay.com for a new blog entry: Roadie #42 and the forgotten passport...   Discuss this blog entry in the Coldplay forum here onwards [thanks Tash]   The “Day Sheet” is an element of touring life that you folks may not be familiar with. It is, I’ve come to learn though, the most vital document of the day. The day sheet is written by tour manager Marguerite and outlines every key piece of information for the upcoming day: the times that everything is happening, flight details, additi

Check out coldplay.com for a new blog entry: #42 writes from his plane to New Zealand   Discuss this blog entry in the Coldplay forum here onwards [thanks Tash]   Greetings from 30,000 feet, folks. I’m going to move swiftly past jokes about the mile high club and welcome you to my first blog sent from a comfy chair moving through the air at 500 miles an hour. I’m heading down to New Zealand a little ahead of the main party to see some friends of mine and there’s wifi on the plane. The future has

Check out coldplay.com for a new blog entry: #42 reports on the soundcheck in Paradise (aka Auckland)   Discuss this blog entry in the Coldplay forum here onwards [thanks Tash]   We’ve been out for over a year now and in every country and every city we’ve visited, Chris has sung “This could be Paradise”. New Zealand though, gets my vote for it being closest to the truth. Of course we’ve arrived mid-spring, escaping a damp and chilly run into winter at home. Even so, it’s lush, it’s green and it

The Coldplay blog from Exeter Castle in Southwest England has started following a bout of technical problems (well, a delayed train anyway). Please join us now at the Coldplay forum for all the discussion on the latest pictures, interviews, videos and updates from the live Coldplay Exeter blogging! Don't forget to keep an eye on the Vivacrew Twitter account which will also be tweeting live updates and photos prior to, during and after the performance courtesy of Jayzo and mimixxx.   Here are the

The Coldplay blog from the Roskilde festival has started - there is expected to be updates also from the official Twitter account if the Danish wi-fi service becomes unreliable. Please join us now at the Coldplay forum here for all the discussions on the latest pictures, interviews, videos and updates from the live Coldplay Roskilde blogging! Here are the latest updates...   11.42pm: And with that, we'll bid you goodnight. Thanks for reading, wherever you are. The band are very aware that they'