nev72

Yep! Do you play a sport?

Ben & Jerry's Greek Style Yoghurt.

1. Coldplay Joint 2nd. The Killers Joint 2nd. The Stereophonics 4th. The Script 5th. Bastille Honourable mentions to Muse, Thirty Seconds to Mars, Noel Gallagher's HFBs, Imagine Dragons and OneRepublic.

My... ermmm... "star".... Is it just me or are steps 10-12 which-craft?

Stop The Clocks- Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds.

Nice review Linus. I ate at that very same cafe as well (we weren't there at the same time though.) Glad you enjoyed the gig :)

Too Close- Alex Clare

64,205

Nope, I've never sunk that low :P Do you ever go to the pub (bar for you Americans!)

Somebody Told Me- The Killers

Meh, it's a nice, but entirely forgettable song. Probably won't listen to it again.

You could try your library?

I'd say The Killers and Stereophonics followed by The Script and Ed Sheeran

The Bartender and the Thief, Stereophonics.

64,196

Daylight 4 Fix You 16 ---------------------------------------- Politik 10 Death And All His Friends 10 ---------------------------------------- Don't Panic 4 Violet Hill 16

Not been a bad week for you batman! Penblwydd Hapus! (Yep, that's Welsh for Happy Birthday!)

There could be some spares around somewhere. You could try contacting the Coldplay Store (http://coldplay.fanfire.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/Store.woa/wa/contactus?sourceCode=COLWEBUKWGBP) and Royal Albert Hall (http://www.royalalberthall.com/contact/default.aspx) There will also be stuff available on eBay, but it will probably be more expensive.

Oh, I'm about to use my new GS Mug for the 1st time :)

It's review time! 1,900 words, 1,000 of which are moaning about the ticketing process. You can see I love a good moan (though the gig didn't give me any reason to!) Coldplay @ Royal Albert Hall- 02/07/14. On the 17th April 2014, I was sat on the metro in Tokyo, Japan (not bad for some :P ) when I went on Twitter (yes, they have WIFI on their metro, fancy!) and to my delight, I spotted the announcement of the Ghost Stories promotional tour, which included a date at the world famous Royal Albert Hall in London. I was returning back to my hotel after a long day of being a tourist with my feet killing me (life is tough you know!) but that certainly put a smile upon my face. This gig was ultra-convenient as I was due to be at an open day for a university in London the very next day, I simply had to get a ticket. 50 days later, it was the date with destiny; ticket release date. In the week building up to it, I had difficulty sleeping. It was a nerve wracking experience. If I were to get tickets, it would be my 1st ever Coldplay gig, at the Royal Albert Hall, what a place to do it! Seeing my favourite band in one of the most beautiful buildings in the world in my favourite city in the world. It would certainly be something crossed off my bucket list! I went downstairs, I had 2 laptops (one on G&T, one on See Tickets) and my phone (G&T) on the go. I joined the queue on all of them at 9:20 AM, and I didn’t even get a look in until around 10:30, by which time, the gig was “sold out”, yet I got the choice to pull tickets. I tried in vain in the last minute ticket scramble, missing out on circle and stall tickets (“Could not Allocate” error) by not being quick enough. I was gutted, and angry with Gigs and Tours, I had been in the queue way before the on sale time, yet I couldn’t get a ticket for the gig of my dreams. BUT WAIT, Coldplay tweeted there was going to be a 2nd gig! I had a 2nd chance, though my planned trip to school to go to a revision class would have to be sacrificed to give me a chance. In the hours that followed the morning debacle, I learnt that G&T do not operate a conventional queue system; the opportunity to book tickets would go to a random person that refreshed when a spot opened. (Fair? No.) It was useless to wait for the 20 second timer to run down. I also decided to ditch my phone for this attempt. Of course, this sale was a disaster. G&T displayed an error for a good 10 minutes after tickets went on sale, and See Ticket’s page for tickets was taken down. However, I had visited the See Tickets page before it was taken down so I had the link. I tried it, and I was put into the dreaded queue. I refreshed like crazy, and I got through after about 5 minutes. Tickets were available everywhere, and given the problems with the sale, I thought I’d take advantage by bagging an Arena seat. I clicked “Get These Tickets”, thinking that I had achieved my goal, with the best seats in the house as well. HOWEVER, See Tickets was not having any of it. It crashed, and then kicked me straight back into the queue. I was devastated, and absolutely furious. In spite of my fury, I kept trying, but then, the dreaded “Sold Out” tweet came. Given my close call earlier in the day, I knew that hope wasn’t lost, if anything, I had more of a chance. I got through to the ticketing page a couple of minutes after the “Sold Out” notice, yet everything bar one (Sold Out) was “Tickets Not Available”. I knew tickets might come, so I kept on refreshing. However, I was due to leave at 5:10pm for a game with my 5-a-side football team. Tickets still weren’t appearing. My Dad arrived, ready to give me a lift to the game. BUT THEN, with what probably would have been my last refresh before giving up, most categories magically became available! I tried to grab a stalls ticket, but I got the “Could not Allocate” message that had plagued me earlier in the day (actually, I think Coldplayers Linus and Cheeetaz beat me to those tickets :P ). I thought I had blown it. I frantically tried to get a Circle ticket, AND EUREKA, I WAS INTO THE PAYMENT PAGE. I rapidly filled out the page (luckily, I had filled in my card details and address prior to the sale) and clicked Confirm. It proceeded to the Bank’s security check. I prayed nothing went wrong at this stage. And then came the page I had been dreaming of all day, the confirmation page. I was in such a frenzy to fill in the payment details that I hadn’t even looked at my seats. Block V, Row 1, Seat 149. Not bad! I celebrated as if Cardiff City had won the Champions League (of course, that will never happen) but my celebrations were held short. I was 5 minutes late for leaving, and my Dad was looking a bit impatient. For those wondering, my team lost that game 9-1, a very low scoring game for a 40 minute 5-a-side game. But I could not care one iota. I had Coldplay tickets! It was one of the most stressful days of my life (this was the 1st time I had ever gone for tickets that were certain to sell out extremely quickly after being put on sale) but it was worth it! I should just say, the ticketing process was farcical. There was always going to be people disappointed, but that was just ridiculous. I was extremely lucky in the end, but G&T could not organise a piss up in a brewery properly, never mind an in demand ticket sale. So, 26 days until the gig. I could not wait! The week building up to the gig dragged, though there were 3 significant events that happened that week: 1. My ticket arrived on June 27th 2. I chose what was very close to being the worst time to get flu (Monday 30th. Still don’t feel 100% now). 3. The July 1st gig. I decided to listen in and it made me even more excited for the gig. However, what was slightly worrying was that Chris’ voice seemed to be running out of steam towards the end. 4:30AM, 2nd July 2014. That is the moment that my alarm was set for to head off to London for the gig. I needed to be at an openday in the city, hence the early start. I set off at 5:10AM and I arrived in Shepherd’s Bush at 9:15AM after getting stuck in the rush hour traffic. I won’t bore you with the details of the open day. I then spent the afternoon in Hyde Park. I swear I could hear Arcade Fire sound checking for their gig there (which takes place on July 3rd). At around 5:10PM, I wondered over towards the Albert Hall. I did a few laps around the place as I had plenty of time to burn. I then sat down at the statue at the rear of the hall where 2 touts were operating (and several people wanting tickets). One of the touts tried to buy my ticket off me (he dished out some money, looked like £100/£120, which was kind of insulting. There was absolutely no chance that I would sell my ticket, especially for that price.) On the other end of the scale, I was sat with some fans who didn’t have a ticket. Luckily, one of the guards told them not to buy from a tout, instead to look on the G&T website. I don’t know whether or not they got a ticket because I decided to head in search of a merchandise stand (as a result, I got let into the hall at 6pm), but I hope they did. I headed up to the merchandise stand on the circle. I brought a Ghost Stories mug, the Lithograph and the button set. I opted against the t-shirt, it was way too expensive given that I had paid £95 just for the ticket. I then headed to the bar for a drink before looking at the photographs on the wall. I then sat outside my door, waiting to be let in to the auditorium. At 18:35 (5 MINUTES LATE!!!!), the doors swung open, I headed straight to my seat, took a few photographs and then I kicked back and relaxed, though I had to get up every 2 minutes to let someone through. Word of advice, never get an aisle seat if you can help it! AlunaGeorge came on at 20:00. I wasn’t expecting anything good from her. I was disappointed when she was confirmed as the support. I listened to a song of hers on Youtube, didn’t like it so my expectation were low. I was right to set them low, she wasn’t very good. She looked like a stripper who had got stuck in her own clothes for half the time (for goodness sake, either take your jacket off or leave it on, it’s not hard!) Saying that, I forgot that she featured on Disclosure’s White Noise, which was the only pleasant surprise in an otherwise poor set. So, the headline act. Coldplay finally hit the stage. I’m not going to go through the whole set, only a few highlights: • Always in my Head was a nice way to open the gig. • Charlie Brown was absolutely brilliant. It was by far my favourite song of MX and it sounds even better live. • Paradise was also great. • Clocks, What a song that is, the piano riff is just gorgeous. • The Singalong for The Scientist was breath-taking. • Don’t Panic is one of my favourite Coldplay songs, great to witness Johnny singing it 3 times! • Ink/True Love were superb. I sang every word of them both  • It doesn’t get any better than Viva ringing around the Royal Albert Hall • ETIAW and ASFOS were absolutely mental. 2 epic live tracks. Also, I swear Chris pointed straight at me during ASFOS :D (Might have been Fix You actually) • Fix You was a fitting way to end not only the show, but the tour too. I was slightly disappointed that the setlist was exactly the same on both nights, no real surprises in there. I was hoping to hear Green Eyes, Yellow and Ghost Story (only realistic ones included) but I’ll just have to wait until next time. People commented on the loudness of the speakers. I think they were at a perfect level. Saying that, I was right at the back (well, the top of the back if you get what I mean). A personal highlight was walking back through the tunnel to South Kensington Tube Station. As soon as I walked in, I heard the Viva Chant echoing around. Gave me Goosebumps (not that the concert itself didn’t!) Overall, it was one hell of a gig! I can’t wait to see Coldplay again, hopefully it will be soon (wonder if they’ll do another U1R show this year?). Anyway, see you all next time Coldplay hit the road! Photos

Wow! That's incredible! I think you were in my block (originally) (I was the one in the red polo, front row, seat next to the door.) I bet you enjoyed that! (I mistimed my journey to the toilet actually, the Scottish guy had been and gone by time I got back to my seat. I highly doubt I would have been upgraded anyway since I was rather calm considering I was about to see Coldplay) The gig was still fucking awesome from the gods though! I'll post a full review later of my thoughts.

I've decided to go for a walk around the rah. If any of you see me, let me know.

I'm at the meeting point now.

I'm heading for the meeting point now. I'm 10 mins away. Remember, I'm in a red Ralph Lauren Polo, blue chinos and I am holding a grey hoodie (also, I'm wearing glasses, forgot to mention that)

I'll be fine to make 5:30 actually. If anyone is anywhere near The Serpentine in Hyde Park, I'm there for the next 15 mins before I'll be moving to a cafe by the serpentine. If you're there, I'm in a red Ralph Lauren polo and blue chinos on a deck chair so come and say hi (I also have a grey hoodie with me.)