R#42 blog

Check out coldplay.com for a new blog entry: #42 and the huge mass of humanity   Discuss this blog entry in the Coldplay forum here onwards [thanks pris]   I've never not had a great time in Dublin. Pardon the double negative, but it's absolutely true. I worry sometimes that it may get tiresome for you the reader, to continually be told what a belting crowd it's been, but it's been a tour so absolutely rammed with highlights that it has become unavoidable.   I travel alone from Manchester to Dub

It is now. For Manchester at least. The VIVA tour is not quite done yet.. 4 shows to go. 3 Countries. 2 national stadiums. 1 week. The bands have left. The crowds have dispersed from the pitch. The trucks have started their engines, and the Oxfam road case, has been loaded on it’s way to Dublin.   Coldplay. Jay-Z. White Lies. Blackmanalishi. Tone-Acity. ortoPilot. That was the line-up for today’s concert in Manchester. The last three of those played on a slightly smaller stage to the one graced

Check out coldplay.com for a new blog entry: #42 and the hometown hijinks   Discuss this blog entry in the Coldplay forum here onwards [thanks Noémie]   So here we are in Manchester. I live here (well, it's where the suitcase gets unpacked, anyway). It's famous for many things, not least some of the finest bands of all time. It's also well known in the UK for often being somewhat damp. Today though, there literally is not a cloud in the sky. The white covering they've used on the cricket pitch i

Sitting in Goffertpark, Nijmegen. Surrounded by autumnal tinged green trees. It’s a beautiful late summer’s day in The Netherlands. To my right, I can see the big stage star-light VIVA balloons being hoisted up onto lighting towers. Speaker stacks being raised by the riggers. Fork lift trucks keep rumbling past me carrying fencing, cases, portaloos and various other loads, as Goffertpark prepares to host two days of the Coldplay festival.   By my feet are the keys to the little green Oxfam Novib

*Here;s a note from Bern a couple of days ago.. originally scrawled on a scrap of paper*   I’ve just run out of the pouring rain. My hoodie is soaked and my trousers, rolled up, to avoid soaking up any more puddles. Out of the front lounge window, on the tour bus, I can see a constant flow of people hurrying home. Like a river of people flowing out of the exits of the Stade de Suisse, and splintering off into tributaries. The reverse of what I was taught about river systems in Geography.   A few

Check out coldplay.com for a new blog entry: #42 and the Catalan chorus   Discuss this blog entry in the Coldplay forum here onwards.   I remember somewhere back last year I talked about the band's stadium show in Tokyo. It was an absolutely belting night and I wrote the following: "You get the impression that the guys are on such a roll that the PA system could fail, the lights could go dead and they'd still carry on, just them and the crowd, too caught up in the moment to notice anything had c

Back in Barcelona. About a year ago, we were next door, in the Palau St Jordi arena, for one of the best Coldplay shows so far (in my opinion). It was an incredible night. Next door, England fans piled into the stadium where the Coldplay stage now sits, preparing for an international with Andorra. Somehow it feels like it could have been yesterday.. familiar weather, faces, scenery. Fans are already outside waiting to come in. In fact there was a handful of them out there in tents last night..!

Leapfrogging through the country’s again. It’s an odd feeling. Waking up in a different landscape, country, culture, currency every other morning, but in the same bunk. I open my curtains, soon after the bus rolls to a halt, and look out of the front lounge at the view. First, I usually see a dusty carpark and a lost looking roadie taking directions from an in-the-know bus or truck driver.   Those guys seem to have a permanent compass and map in their heads - knowing where everything is and neve

Check out coldplay.com for a new blog entry: #42 and the dodgy merch   Discuss this blog entry in the Coldplay forum here onwards [thanks Zeya]   Italy can occasionally be challenging for the roadie community. Things are never quite as you expect them and you get the distinct impression sometimes that people would rather be wearing sunglasses and smoking cigarettes than helping you get the job done. Quite frankly, I don't blame them. There's something about the gorgeous weather that makes all th

Check out coldplay.com for a new blog entry: In which #42 reaches his century   Discuss this blog entry in the Coldplay forum here onwards [thanks SueDeNimes]   So then, the hundredth blog. I suppose I should be doing something special for the end of the first century. Let's face it though folks, every single one of them is special.... (This is another way of saying that if I wait until I've had time to do something uber-cool, we'll be stuck on 99 forever, so we'd better move swiftly along).   T

Hello. It’s me. ‘Oxfam’. Oxfam America’s wonderful tour rep has stepped off the bus. The North American ’shed’ tour has come to an end. Volunteers across the continent have come together two years in a row, having countless conversations, signing up tens of thousands of people, and giving Coldplay fans the chance to take an action to help alleviate poverty. They’ve had a laugh. Smiled until their cheeks hurt. Sung until their throats were sore. Let’s hear it for our volunteers, and their intrepi

Check out coldplay.com for a new blog entry: #42 and the new song soundchecks...   Discuss this blog entry in the Coldplay forum here onwards [thanks Zeya]   You get the distinct impression that the Stockholm crowd are going to be a belter when the soundcheck finishes and from outside the stadium walls you can hear the thousands of early arrivers chanting the "woah-oh-woah-oh-oh...." from the Viva chorus.   In fact, there's so many folks outside that word comes around that they're going to open

Check out coldplay.com for a new blog entry: #42 and the awkward delivery   Discuss this blog entry in the Coldplay forum here onwards [thanks SueDeNimes]   I spent the days off before the Stockholm show putting together some video from the first two big outdoor shows - here it is. For the majority of the European stadium shows, the band are spending the days off at home with their families. Being as I live outside of London, I'm booked into the same London hotel room for the whole month. It's a

Check out coldplay.com for a new blog entry: #42 and the fearsome fireworks   Discuss this blog entry in the Coldplay forum here onwards [thanks mimixxx]   This quick little six week run around Europe to close the tour has collectively been referred to amongst the camp as "The Stadiums". Today in Norway, we're in quite a small outdoor space which is essentially a green field at the foot of great mountains and an old military fort. Quite frankly, I'd take this over a big concrete and steel shell

Check out coldplay.com for a new blog entry: #42 and the stadium show excitement   Discuss this blog entry in the Coldplay forum here onwards [thanks marie/pims]   It would be too easy a gag to start off by saying that it's only 16 months into the tour and we've finally made it to production rehearsals. In reality, we're knocking it up a gear for this final run of shows. Yes folks, it's stadium time.   I talked a little about scale when the band played in Toronto in what was in essence an indoor

Hello lovers and friends of the world! Soha here, coming at you from the departure terminal of Boston’s Logan International airport. The last time I wrote to you all from an airport terminal was in Vancouver at the end of the first leg of the summer tour. I was headed home for a two-week break before resuming the rest of the tour.   It feels like a million years ago recalling that moment where I sat with a signed Coldplay banner at my side, the knowledge that Oxfam now had over 100 thousand acti

Check out coldplay.com for a new blog entry: #42 and the creeping exhaustion   Discuss this blog entry in the Coldplay forum here onwards and spot the teeny mistake by an eagle-eyed Coldplayer [thanks lfdianne & Pris]   Big. A word whose purpose is to describe vastness, enormity and sheer-all-round-bloody-hugeness. You'd have thought they could have shelled out a few more than three letters on it. It certainly doesn't really do justice to the experience of walking into the back of the arena

Hello world! I’m coming at you from the lovely lovely Toronto, Canada on the second of two much appreciated days off. This leg has been characterized by many long drives that end with our arriving to our hotel on a day off at 7pm with just enough time to take a good shower, grab dinner, and have a decent night’s sleep on a real bed before waking up the next day and doing it all over again.   This tour has given me the opportunity to become acquainted with many of our neighbor in the north’s majo

Check out coldplay.com for a new blog entry: #42 and the troublesome balcony   Discuss this blog entry in the Coldplay forum here onwards [thanks Zeya]   We arrive into the Saratoga Springs venue a little late. Well OK, we're a couple months late. This is the show that had to be re-scheduled from our last US leg. The route in seems to lead us through a wood, which is all rather pleasant for a summer's afternoon. The venue itself is a little unusual. It's a shed, like most of the others we've don

Check out coldplay.com for a new blog entry: #42, the Elbow shiver and the loud crowd   Discuss this blog entry in the Coldplay forum here onwards and meet the owner of the Viva-Car™ too [thanks Lore & kspillers2]   We start the Alpine Valley show with a rather novel quad-bike escort into the gig. The venue is called Alpine Valley Music Theatre, presumably in reference to the mountains and ski resort behind the stage. The quad bikes escort us past a lodge that's more than a little reminisce

Check out coldplay.com for a new blog entry: #42 is a Big Apple man   Discuss this blog entry in the Coldplay forum here onwards [thanks Zeya]   It's another warm night in Maryland Heights, MO. I had figured that moving north from Texas would mean a bit of respite from the heat, but there is nothing of the sort. If anything, the stage here is even more humid than the past couple of shows. Things heat up on the B-Stage too, when Chris fluffs The Hardest Part and falls into laughter, admitting tha

Hello world, I humbly throw myself at your feet in apology for not writing in a very long time. Major props to my boy Pete who is always so good about keeping in touch. Lately I have been plagued by the thought that my entries lack an underlying, unifying theme and for that they are no good. Such is the life of a perfectionist…   The rest of the crew and I have been longing for the days of torrential downpours and thunderstorms that seemed to plague us earlier this summer. The past few shows hav

Hello world! …And we’re off! Leg 2 of the Viva La Vida summer tour! I’m coming at you from The Gorge in the beautiful state of Washington. Check out the view from behind the stage. Not too shabby right?   Oxfam America’s goal is to have 30,000 new people take action with us this summer and we are right at the half way point! Do come and visit the Oxfam table and learn about how you can fight hunger, poverty, and injustice in your community! You can also sign our petition urging the President to

Check out coldplay.com for a new entry: Roadie #42 remembers Coldplay super-fan Jennifer John   More on this entry is at the Coldplay forum here onwards [thanks Sirhc]   I have just learned of the tragic death of a big personality and well-loved member of the Coldplay fan community. Jennifer John, known to most as "Nettie". Jen ran two fansites dedicated to Coldplay: mycoldplay and guyberryman.net. These sites were a strong and very active part of the fan community and Jen attended a huge number

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'