mathieu_cpfan

Loads of people talking all the way through the song. I can see this happening at a stadium gig in the back. But in such a small venue for such a special occasion? No words...

- Politik as an opener during the AROBTTH tour was the best opener they've had. But maybe an even better opener would be Life in Technicolor going into Politik. That would be heaven! - Viva La Vida really is their signature live song and I can no longer imagine a concert without it. It seems like every song works towards the massive release of crowd energy that is Viva La Vida. I can't imagine they'll ever stop playing it. - Everything's not Lost gives me goosebumps every single time. At the time, I thought they'd play it at every gig, but then Fix You came along and kind of took its place in the setlist.

Some very good ideas in all posts. Most of it is doable in some form of another. I guess it all boils down to reducing both their own footprint (the production and logistics of the tour), reducing the footprint of people traveling to the concerts and using the huge platform they're given each night to raise awareness and inspire people to change. Taking all these in consideration, I do think the net outcome could actually be quite positive. Which is what Chris wanted. In a way, it's a shame that this is the album they won't (or barely) take on the road. No previous Coldplay album has been a better fit to raise awareness and inspire people. It is a political album. Well, Coldplay's take on a political album anyway. And what's the point of releasing a political album if you don't try to get your message across to as many people as possible?

Yeah it was. I did not know there was a (decent) live recording of that!

So... sustainable touring. If we want the band back out on the road again, we can only hope they'll figure out a way to tour with less of an environmental impact. Maybe we should give them some ideas and send them to Phil Harvey or something. :cool: What would YOU do if you were Coldplay and: A) You want to decrease your environmental impact B) Ensure your fans still get a chance of seeing you C) Keep making the same amount of money as before? Some things from the top of my head: - A smaller production. I know the impact of the production is rather small compared to the people traveling to the gig but still... . You have to start somewhere and I know Radiohead scaled down their screens and stuff and used different lights to achieve this. And 5 trucks instead of 20 is still a big difference. - Chose venues more carefully so that they are easily reachable with public transport. - Enforce the venue to contact public transport and make arrangements to ensure people can actually get home after the gig. Public transport often does not run late enough. They are big enough and draw huge crowds. They have the power to do this. Other bands have done this. If it's not possible, just start earlier! - Give people a discount, a refund or a gift if they can submit a validated public transport ticket. I know this works differently in every country, but still... . It's not impossible. - Make sure every venue has a parking lot for bicycles. Give everyone who came by bicycle a ticket which can also be used for the discount, gift or whatever. - Work together with other bands that draw crowds of a similar size and use each other's infrastructure and production. E.g. team up with Foo Fighters and Metallica. Travel together from city to city with (mostly) the same crew, stage, screens, etc. . Have a different band play each day and then move together to a different city. Probably not easy to pull off, but by joining forces, some of the other ideas could be more easily enforced. - Don't skip festivals! The ecological footprint of one sustainable festival is smaller than that of individual gigs of all bands combined. Also you're Coldplay, you have a certain degree of influence over festival organisations. If Morrissey can ban meat at festivals, I'm sure Coldplay could (and should) ask for way more. - Combine festivals (where a huge amount of people can see you) with smaller gigs that have a smaller impact. Intuitively, I think the mid-sized arena and stadium gigs have the biggest footprint (relative to the amount of people attending). Other ideas?

Yes, very strange indeed. I know it was kind of heavily advertised, but still... . You either had to buy the album or dig a bit deeper and see the "regular" registration link. But I was at the Exeter castle gig in 2009, the Royal Court in Liverpool in 2010 and Cologne for the GS gig. Those were also small gigs, heavily advertised and even easier to register for a presale link. All those venues were filled with loads of people from Coldplaying. Royal Albert Hall was difficult, but I imagine demand was even higher and still quite a few people managed to go. I think the only logical explanation is that way fewer tickets were actually on sale than ever before and the venue is even smaller than previous "small" gigs. I hope at some point they'll do what U2 is doing like Bauk mentioned a few pages earlier. Have a fanclub with a paying subscription. Give us something small each year in return (a vinyl single, a booklet, a fanclub only download, etc.) and first dibs at every presale. Coldplay will make some extra money from this and a lot more die hard fans would be able to go. I realize this is not their top priority and they don't owe us anything, but it would be a nice gesture. :)

Are there people like me who still periodically check the ticket link?

And it's actually a pretty good review. Not that it matters. Their rating system is stupid, they lost their relevance about ten years ago (as much as I like that album, but 10.0 for Kanye West, really???), but while reading the review I thought they'd give it a score somewhere in the low seven range.

If loads of tickets do were to pop up today, I'm always willing to jump on the first available Eurostar. Since it will start so late, I could still make it if I take a 6pm Eurostar out of Brussels. Never gonna happen, but I can still dream. :)

Shiver was played during my wedding in the city hall. o_O My sister popped in the Parachutes cd in the city hall sound system before the wedding. It sounded so cool they kept it on blasting at full volume during the entire ceremony. I couldn't hear a thing of what the mayor was saying, but it was pretty unique. :cool:

Echo & the Bunnymen were a huge inspiration for AROBTTH era Coldplay. Also, the new songs that were played during the last legs on the AROBTTH tour that didn't end up on X&Y almost all sound like Echo & the Bunnymen songs (minus the vocals). Which was probably one of the reasons why the first recording sessions for X&Y ended up being discarded. :p

Try the night at the museum plan. Hide in a bathroom. At the very least, even if you get caught, you'll end up with a story to tell your uninterested grandchildren.

Sunrise. It also sounded better on the livestream.

Obviously they're the biggest band on the planet and fewer tickets will have been on sale compared to the GS tour or previous small gigs and try-outs. But still... . There has got to be a way to make this more fair. I know there was an experiment with the Bruce Springsteen Broadway show where you could submit your social media profiles and an algorithm would check for Springsteen references on your accounts. They also took previous ticket sales into account. It's not perfect, but it's a start. Also, Nick Cave sent out invites to people with the most streams on Spotify. None of these systems are perfect, but maybe a combination would do the trick?

I don't think it will be worth it. With so many entries and exits to the museum, it will be very hard to meet the band. And I wouldn't count on extra tickets being released, let alone them handing out tickets.

So no-one on here got tickets? Is this a first?

They said residents, not citizens. And there's no practical way to check residency.

Spam filter?

Wow, I didn't know this existed! It's great! Also, it's so much better than the 2003 Sydney DVD, which is a rather poor representation of how good that tour was. They seem so tired on that DVD. This however, has tons more energy! The early AROBTTH songs sound a bit iffy though. But that's part of the charm.

They couldn't have asked for a better sunrise with those clouds breaking up the light! I really hope this record becomes their biggest ever release so they will HAVE TO TOUR. Preferably with a Gorillaz style extended band!

We should appreciate the fact that 20+ years into their career they A) are still making music together B) are still able to reach a creative peak The Beatles never lasted that long (granted, they had a huge creative output in those relatively few years), The Rolling Stones were only relevant for about 10 years and had multiple line-up changes. Same goes for The Who, Beach Boys, Led Zep, Queen, Nirvana, Pixies, The Doors, The Clash, Pink Floyd or even Kraftwerk. The list goes on. Radiohead is still relevant, Bruce Springsteen is somewhat relevant (even though no one goes to a Springsteen concert to hear new songs) and U2 also hit some sort of a creative renaissance 20 years into their career (but that was in the early 2000s, they've since lost it again). But that's a pretty tiny list! We are in uncharted territory here! They may do another "poppy" album not everyone will like, but the fact that they just released a completely bonkers record bodes well for the future!

This song breaks my heart everytime I hear it. The video is so beautiful. In the long history of brilliant Coldplay videos, this one hits me the hardest. Hauntingly beautiful and a perfect fit for the song!

I was always surprised by this. We'd have two or three extra people rank them, and you'd always end up with the same 20 to 30 that really stick out. Definitely not more. They once gave us more tickets than we thought we'd get and had to include some of those "song titles for an answer" submissions. I can't imagine it would be that different today.

That's not very nice of them! Then again, Studio Brussel is run by a bunch of no clue idiots these days. In the past during the AROBTTH -> VLV era, I've organized a few of these competitions myself for small scale Coldplay gigs for Belgian and Dutch fans. We also always asked to submit a motivation. Fortunately, we were always allocated 20-40 tickets, so way more than the two tickets they're giving away. That did make it easier. Anyway, if you'd get a thousand submissions, they always followed the same pattern: - 20 to 30 answers from people you could immediately see are real die hard fans. They put the effort in, write a personal story that's longer than one sentence. These immediately stand out. One or two could make you cry. - About 200 answers that are entirely made up of Coldplay song titles. E.g. "I looked at the sky full of stars and they were all yellow. If I don't go to this concert, all my teardrops will be waterfalls..." - All the rest are either variations on "I am the biggest fan" or "I want to surprise X because he/she is the biggest fan".

For those who entered the competition on the Belgian radio Studio Brussel, they changed the text on their website since it first appeared. They will call you tomorrow between 6 am and 9 am and then you will need to be in Brussels at the studio for the competition at 9am on Friday. So don't turn off your phone tomorrow. I know the odds are small, but if two coldplaying members are chosen, can't we just rig the competition and both go? :innocent: