R#42 blog

Check out coldplay.com for a new blog entry: #42 goes for smiles and smiles   Congratulations to Elena35 who wins the 6th round of Roadie sweepstakes! Discuss this blog entry in the Coldplay forum here onwards [thanks zzz]   I guess it's inevitable that after a couple months away from the recording process, the first couple of weeks back would feel a little like being thrown into a wind tunnel. When the fellas get the bit between their teeth, things start to move very quickly. And then they acce

Check out coldplay.com for a new blog entry: #42 fancies a cuppa   Discuss this blog entry in the Coldplay forum here onwards [thanks Lore]   Tea. Daily studio life can come to revolve around it.   To borrow someone else's story for a moment, it's claimed that uber-producer Flood earned his nickname very early in his career whilst working as an assistant on an album with The Cure. Legend has it that he was one of two assistants working alternate days in the studio. The two chaps apparently had v

Check out coldplay.com for a new blog entry: #42 on Christmas Lights, shivering and Shiver   Discuss this blog entry in the Coldplay forum here onwards [thanks Kris W.]   Bloody HECK, but it's been busy. I'd forgotten what it's like when they release a record. I've experienced 3 album launch campaigns with this band and I swear that the mind blocks out the memories. It's only as your brain starts to feel as though it's doing the wall of death round the inside of your skull that the vague recolle

Check out coldplay.com for a new blog entry: #42 is busying himself for festival season   Discuss this blog entry in the Coldplay forum here onwards [thanks Natascha]   We had an email go around recently from our fearless new production manager (you’d bloody have to be…), Wob Roberts. It had the subject line “More changes - No change there”. Now, that could come across as snidey moaning, but given Wob’s unflappable nature, it’s clearly just the knowing wink of someone who’s seen it all before. T

Check out coldplay.com for a new blog entry: #42 and the family and friends rehearsal   Discuss this blog entry in the Coldplay forum here onwards [thanks SueDeNimes]   Back in 2002, I did my first ever day’s work for a band called Coldplay. They were doing Production Rehearsals at The Forum in Kentish town. For those who have never been there, The Forum is a theatre sized rock venue, with a stage almost exactly the same size as the one in the Christmas Lights video. It also happens to be right

Check out coldplay.com for a new blog entry: #42 reports back from the first show of the festival run   Discuss this blog entry in the Coldplay forum here onwards [thanks Natascha]   We all meet up around noon to head over to the first festival show. Coincidentally, it's the exact time that the new single breaks cover and hits the radio waves for the first time. Everyone wanders into the lounge with different news: "They gave it a rewind - so good they played it again straight away"; "Twitter ha

Check out coldplay.com for a new blog entry: #42 and the rocking in the rain   Discuss this blog entry in the Coldplay forum here onwards [thanks jeremyy]   The human race, really, is pretty amazing. If a wildlife documentary showed you a species gathering together in tens of thousands to sing and dance together, it would be gripping, unmissable television. If it showed this happening in torrential storm conditions with all of the assembled creatures showing no signs whatsoever of losing enthusi

Check out coldplay.com for a new blog entry: #42 and the days off that weren't days off   Discuss this blog entry in the Coldplay forum here onwards [thanks mimixxx]   Doing festivals means a lot of days off. Or rather, it doesn't. Following Rock am Ring, the band party headed off in a convoy of vans through quite the most dramatic thunderstorm I can remember since the Dubai show a few years back. As the crew saunter down to Venice for a few days off, the fellas head back into the Beehive to giv

Check out coldplay.com for a new blog entry: Roadie #42 and the solitary candle   Discuss this blog entry in the Coldplay forum here onwards [thanks doritji]   So that’s the last two big, big festies out the way before what’s becoming known as G-Day (or Glastonbury to the rest of the world). These shows have been a great way to shake off the rust from the touring machine and get into gear for the big one. In so many ways, Glasto is just another gig - and given the fact that we’ve been doing huge

Check out coldplay.com for a new blog entry: #42 and the continuing European festival adventure   Discuss this blog entry in the Coldplay forum here onwards [thanks doritji]   There’s an urban myth that a frog can’t discern tiny changes in temperature - meaning that you can plop it in a pan of cold water and if you turn the heat up slowly enough it won’t realise it’s being boiled alive. Now, this is apparently untrue and obviously I don’t condone any kind of animal cruelty, but as an analogy, it

Check out coldplay.com for a new blog entry: #42 and the globe-trotting adventure   Discuss this blog entry in the Coldplay forum here onwards [thanks coldplayfan_115]   Greetings to you all from Tokyo. We just flew in from London yesterday and boy are our arms tired… And so begins a trip that sees us do an entire lap of the planet in just fourteen days. London-Tokyo-Brisbane-Sydney-LA-Chicago-London. Two weeks of insane travel, monstrous jetlag, huge shows and days packed with promo. There’s ju

Check out coldplay.com for a new blog entry: #42 and the great karaoke caper   Discuss this blog entry in the Coldplay forum here onwards [thanks _Tash]   We’re sitting in the reception of the Brisbane hotel, which I guess must mean that we finished our days in Tokyo. I have to say, I was utterly delighted last night when the immigration fella greeted me with a cheery “G’Day”. That’s not in any way to say that I’m glad to have left Tokyo you understand, more that it’s actually a joy to remember

Check out coldplay.com for a new blog entry: #42 tells of unexpected encores in Chicago...   So today we exchange the sun-drenched palms of Western California for the 'Windy City' of Chicago. It's a rudely early awakening for the flight - made no better by the fact that I didn't really start packing until about 2am. We get to the plane and the luggage van looks like an explosion in a childcare store.   You can't help but wonder whether the huge burst of bright colour and 'home-made' artwork that

Check out coldplay.com for a new blog entry: #42 and the global time travel   Discuss this blog entry in the Coldplay forum here onwards [thanks melanieau]   Australia, as regular readers might remember, is one of my very favourite places on the face of the Earth. Imagine then, my level of dis-chuff to find that we’d be spending a grand total of 36 hours there - much of which was spent asleep. Good thing then, that the gig went a long way to making up for it.   Firstly we arrive, as we have at s

Check out coldplay.com for a new blog entry: #42 and the rehearsals of the new songs   Discuss this blog entry in the Coldplay forum here onwards [thanks Lily42 & _Tash]   The fact that I’m sitting amongst a pile of road cases looking over at Chris’s piano must mean that the summer holidays really are over. I had intended to go away somewhere nice for a week or two. To be honest though, getting on a plane wasn’t top of my list of things to do once we got home from our “round the world in 13

Check out coldplay.com for a new blog entry: #42 and the rehearsals of the new songs   Discuss this blog entry in the Coldplay forum here onwards [thanks _Tash]   The four weeks off it seems, haven’t just breathed new life into the crew - the band roll up for the first day of rehearsals positively beaming. It’s all hugs, smiles and “So, what’ve you been up to?”. Everyone looks fresh, relaxed and ready to take on the world. Pretty good thing too, as that’s what’s on the agenda for the next year o

Check out coldplay.com for a new blog entry: #42 reports back from the live debut of Paradise   Discuss this blog entry in the Coldplay forum here onwards [thanks _Tash]   Paris. Add a few more letters and you get “Paradise”. Quite fitting then, that it’s the first city in the world to get a public airing of the tune. Admittedly, it’s in a closed TV studio, for broadcast at a later date, but the point is that there’s a crowd of people here that are going to hear the song for the first time. If t

Check out coldplay.com for a new blog entry: #42 reports from two Coldplay's two Austin shows   Discuss this blog entry in the Coldplay forum here onwards [thanks _Tash]   The customs officer at Houston airport greets us with a cheery “howdy”. One of his colleagues shouts over, pointing at the entire entourage, informing him that non-specifically and collectively “this is Coldplay”. It turns out that our guy knows of Coldplay. He’s even got one of the records: “The one with all the old soldiers

Check out coldplay.com for a new blog entry: #42 stares down the barrel while being fired from a cannon. And Coldplay do too   Discuss this blog entry in the Coldplay forum here onwards [thanks _Tash]   So we’re officially slap bang inside the pre-release promo phase. The clearest indicator of this is the proliferation of thousand yard stares and slightly tattered nerve endings visible all around. Every album’s launch phase is its own pinball machine of utter chaos. If the recording process was

Check out coldplay.com for a new blog entry: #42 is watched in his hotel room and sees Queen Elizabeth moshing...   Discuss this blog entry in the Coldplay forum here onwards [thanks _Tash]   We’ve finished the most exhausting six day sprint in recent memory - and, somewhat predictably, I can’t sleep.   The final two days of this leg of promo-mayhem first take us over the desert and into Vegas. The venue is a huge arena with an even huger hotel / casino complex on top of it. We have “day rooms”

Check out coldplay.com for a new blog entry: In which #42 sits by the pool and tells tales of Brazil   Discuss this blog entry in the Coldplay forum here onwards [thanks _Tash]   Touring is a strange activity. People generally believe that it’s all exotic travel and flash hotels. Like a long luxury holiday with a few gigs thrown in. The reality is somewhat more grubby and demanding, which makes the days where it actually *is* like that all the more surprising.   Today, we’re laying by the pool i

Check out coldplay.com for a new blog entry: #42 and the amazing African adventure   Discuss this blog entry in the Coldplay forum here onwards [thanks _Tash]   As you get ever more road(ie) miles under your belt, two things start to happen. Firstly, less phases you. Most things that the crew encounter on a daily basis are a repetition of what’s gone before. I remember on the Rush Of Blood tour, the enormous growth spurt that the band went through meant every few weeks, we seemed to be doing the

Check out coldplay.com for a new blog entry: #42 reports from Philly   I only realise that today is a Friday when I head out of the venue in the afternoon and see the first of the 'tailgaters' setting up in the parking lot. This is something that doesn't seem to happen in Europe - maybe it's the weather. For the uninitiated, what happens is that folks arrive way early for the show and have a barbeque / picnic / party out of the backs of their cars - all getting into the spirit of things with mus

Check out coldplay.com for a new blog entry:   Discuss this blog entry in the Coldplay forum here onwards [thanks _Tash]   A few days after the Cape Town stadium, which was literally at sea level (any closer to the coastline and it would have been a wet load-in), we pull into the FNB Stadium in Johannesburg and are reminded by stage manager Gary Currier that we’re 1,700 metres above sea level. This means thin air, which in turn means it’s very easy to get out of breath. Still - at least we’re m

Check out coldplay.com for a new blog entry: #42 and the tiny show in the tiny venue with the tiny doors   Discuss this blog entry in the Coldplay forum here onwards [thanks _Tash]   Neill Lambert (my keyboard-world partner in crime) has just been on stage to check the piano before the KROQ webcast begins. Before he’s even got back to our rig at stage left, Anchorman (my website co-conspirator) has emailed me a screen-grab...   I point at the image on the laptop when Neill returns, telling him