R#42 blog

Hey gang, So, you know that I’ve been referring to a big announcement a lot lately. A few days ago in my entry written from the departure terminal at Vancouver International airport, I alluded to sitting with an important package by my side.   Yesterday in the wee hours of the morning, I posted a picture of Chris Martin and Guy Berryman facing a poster of sorts with writing that appears to match the graphics on this page. Well, In the immortal words of one Jim Morrison, “The time to hesitate is

Lovers and friends, How’s everyone doing while the Viva tour is on break? For some of my crew mates and I, it’s already beginning to feel like that point in summer break where you admit to yourself that you’re bored with all the time off and want school to start again so you can see all your friends.   This is evidenced by the text messages and Facebook posts that immediately began being exchanged that say, “I miss everyone already!” or, “I’m already listening to Howling Bells to me get myself b

Hello all! I wrote this from the Vancouver International Airport with a view of the mountains in front of me, and a supremely important package by my side…   Today is the first day of almost three weeks off while the tour is on hiatus and the band hits some major festivals in Europe. This means my crew pass and 2-way radio are unclipped from my belt-band, and that I’ll be carrying car keys in the place of a hotel key-card in no time. I wish I could say the same for those weary crewmates who do

Check out coldplay.com for a new blog entry: #42 and the last day of term   Discuss this blog entry in the Coldplay forum here onwards [thanks SueDeNimes]   Our Vancouver hotel is opposite a construction site. In the interests of noise avoidance I eventually end up moving between three different rooms before settling on a place to stay on the other side of the building up on the 26th floor. It's a smaller room, but it's well away from the noise and when you've spent a year in clanging arenas mos

Check out coldplay.com for a new blog entry: #42 and the Edmonton favour   Discuss this blog entry in the Coldplay forum here onwards [thanks SueDeNimes]   We arrive in Edmonton and the van that has come to pick us up has a windscreen adorned by several huge cracks. Franksy voices his concern to the driver who cheerfully claims that this is par for the course here in Edmonton. Apparently, the roads throw up stones at a rate of knots, which means that an unspoiled windscreen is a very rare beast

Hi world! When I received the tour travel itinerary early in May, I became aware of the fact that I’d be with the tour in Calgary on June 17th, which happens to be the day that I’d be turning what I call “the adult side of 25.”   I’m sooooo not the person to broadcast my birthday, especially not to an entire blog readership! How many of you do you think are out there? Sometimes I feel like it could be 5 people, other days it feels like it could be 5 million people… who knows? The point is that I

Check out coldplay.com for a new blog entry: #42 and the birthdays bonanza   Discuss this blog entry in the Coldplay forum here onwards [thanks CookyMnstr]   Rather hilariously, we recently hit a million Twitter followers - shortly after I posted a photo of a toilet door. I shall leave it as an exercise for the reader to decide what that says about the Twitter-verse... In all seriousness though folks, thanks for joining us - and obviously, I'm aware that it's Mr. Berryman's presence that has cat

Hello all! Today is the last of two days off in New Orleans. I’ve been here before, but this city and its people never cease to amaze me with their vibrance. Check out the picture below; it is part of a tape graffiti mural just outside the famous french Quarter.   Saturday night’s show in the Sommet Center in Nashville was a bit of a shift for the tour as it was the start of the arena portion of this leg. I love arenas because their enclosed nature causes the audience’s cheers to reverberate and

Check out coldplay.com for a new blog entry: #42 and the gangs in the vans...   Discuss this blog entry in the Coldplay forum here onwards [thanks Jizo]   Sometimes, completely out the blue, you get a blindingly bright view of your life from another perspective. We're approaching the Indianapolis show when, beside us on the freeway, we see a converted old school bus, with guitar cases, amps, drum carpet and so on piled up in the window. It's a band on their way to a gig. We too, are in a van, we

You know, world, when I’m done writing a new entry, I click on the little square to the left of the text that says “publish” and I wonder to myself, “Self, do you think anyone is actually reading this?” However, today I was pleased to find evidence that people are actually reading and liking these entries in the form of a concert goer today. She was waiting for doors to open to the show and as I walked by the gates she said “Are you Soha? I read your blog!” Wow. Thank you everyone! Thanks especi

Hello all! Just checking in from Cinncinati, Ohio. Today has been quite the eventful day despite my thinking that a day off in Cinncinati was going to be one of those marathon-movie-watching-in-bed days that are often accompanied by massive amounts of hotel room coffee and some form of chinese take out.   We awoke around 11:30 in the morning by the declaration that we’d arrived to our hotel and that we had to wake up and get off the bus so that it could be parked off-site. Often times on days of

Check out coldplay.com for a new blog entry: #42 and the mighty roar of Detroit   Discuss this blog entry in the Coldplay forum here onwards [thanks mimixxx]   America gets a lot of stick for being overly homogenised and lacking in diversity. I don't really see it, though. Maybe I'm lucky in that the whole place is blurring past us at such speed, but it's such a buffet of flavours and mini-cultures, you can't help but love it. Plus, if you don't love it, a couple hundred miles up the road, you p

Hello all! Tonight we’re leaving what has begun to feel like a home away from home, Pittsburgh, after three days off and a phenomenal show. I really enjoyed our time off here visiting the Andy Warhol Museum, shopping on Carson Street, and attending a Pirates game. Rolling into the venue at the early hour of 7:30am this morning I had a good feeling about the show. I knew the crowd would be a good one and that the Oxfam team would do well.   Pittsburgh did not disappoint; it was an awesome audienc

Hey Folks! I’m hollering at you from the beautiful Pittsburgh, PA. The rain curse that was brought upon us has been lifted during our glorious three days off (!!!) and its been nothing but sunshine and butterflies (naturally). It seems that everywhere this crew goes-Atlanta, Hartford, Hershey, Camden- rain ensues! In every city however, rain or shine, our volunteers make me so proud to be part of an organization that has inspired the type of commitment and dedication that they exhibit.   Its bee

Check out coldplay.com for a new blog entry: #42 blogs on the way to Hartford   Discuss this blog entry in the Coldplay forum here onwards [thanks Lore]   Without getting all "life on the road" on you, I had forgotten just how fast things move out here. It feels as though I've barely had time to exhale and we're already a week into the new tour leg. It's not so much that time passes fast, as that lots gets packed into short spaces of time. I've already had two major equipment panics - quite poss

Check out coldplay.com for a new blog entry: #42 is back at his desk...   Chris greets all the crew at the top of the soundcheck in West Palm Beach with a schoolmasterly, "Welcome back everyone, hope you all had a nice summer holidays". A six week tour break has been a real treat indeed. Everyone is looking rested, relaxed and rejuvenated. We've also flown west, which means that although there is a little jetlag to contend with, we've gained five hours. After the timezone table-tennis that this

Hello all! Soha here, your Oxfam representative on the North American leg of the Viva La Vida 2009 world tour. From West Palm Beach to East Troy- Montreal to Mansfield, I’ll be your on the ground source of news for all things related to Oxfam volunteers, campaigns, and more!   The tour kicked off with bang yesterday at the Cruzan Amphitheater in West Palm Beach, FL. Team West Palm Beach consisted of 20 of the most energetic, and enthusiastic volunteers I’ve met. How many sign-ups do you think th

Check out coldplay.com for a new blog entry: #42 blogs while the band work on new tunes   Discuss this blog entry in the Coldplay forum here onwards [thanks LittleMissMessy]   After three glorious weeks of real life, families, home and becoming human again we're back to a quick stint of recording. There has been some listening back to things recorded earlier in the year and some exploring of new ideas. Will has a new toy for drum programming which has sent him on a beat-making odyssey. He rolls

Check out coldplay.com for a new blog entry: #42 reports on the Abu Dhabi deluge   Discuss this blog entry in the Coldplay forum here onwards.   So, we've been home a week now. I managed on day four to move the suitcase from blocking the front door - I still haven't got round, though, to the rather dull looking pile of bills, final demands and other junk mail that's accrued during my absence.   Going from constant motion to utter stillness is obviously a treat. It also begins like many other bl

Check out coldplay.com for a new blog entry: #42 reports from Hong Kong and Abu Dhabi   Discuss this blog entry in the Coldplay forum here onwards [thanks crazyduckette]   Quite often, by this point in a tour, soundchecks become unnecessary. I guess it's the re-appearance of the "soundcheck party" that's kept us coming back in. Rather than trot through a few set pieces, the fellas have been trying out a few new (old) things to sprinkle into the set for the rest of the year.   In Hong Kong, they

Coldplay's Will Champion explains via the official site the formative influence Mercury Rev had on Coldplay. Here's what he had to say about them...   If I could go back to 1998 and tell a 20-year-old me that we would be playing some shows with Mercury Rev in 2009, I think my younger self would laugh me all the way back to the present. Such was the importance of Deserter's Songs to me and to our band. When we started out making music, trying to soak up as much information about songwriting, reco

Check out coldplay.com for a new blog entry: #42 and the monster Oz catch-up   Discuss this blog entry in the Coldplay forum here onwards [thanks melanieau]   Howdy folks. Apologies for the week and a bit of dead-air. I'm contributing photos to the new, updated tourbook and ploughing through all the pics I have has been nothing short of an insane task. It would appear that since the tour began, the mirror on my camera has clicked up and down just short of ten thousand times. I have no idea how t

No I don’t mean the early March storms that blew across Aotearoa, I mean the Coldplay drought! It’s been 6 long years since the band plucked a single note on these shores and tonight’s sold out crowd at Vector Arena in Auckland didn’t let them forget it for a minute. The evening started off with our posse of Oxfam campaigners, 20 strong, heading downtown on busses, trains, bikes and feet to tell people about our work…and to rock. I’m happy to report we did both.   Big ups to the band for providi

...in Australia who have supported our work. It was a bittersweet moment in Sydney on Sunday night as we bid farewell to the Coldplay lads at their last concert in Australia on their Viva La Vida world tour.   Oxfam volunteers were again out and about at Acer Arena taking full advantage of the chance to talk to Coldplay fans about our Make Trade Fair and Close the Gap campaigns. Many Coldplay fans were eager to hear about Oxfam’s work, and the efforts of our volunteers in Sydney resulted in over

As we set up the Oxfam campaigns table for the first Sydney Coldplay show, we could see hundreds of fans eagerly waiting to be let in the huge glass doors of the Acer Arena, and we could almost touch the excitement in the air! On the dot of 6pm, the doors flung open, and Coldplay fans streamed through ready to see their favourite band rock out Sydney.   3 hours later our team of 20 Oxfam campaigns volunteers had handed out thousands of stickers, tattoos and flyers about our work on Fair Trade a