24 November 2011: Little Noise Sessions St John-at-Hackney, London, UK (Chris and Jonny only)
From WikiColdplay
Contents |
Setlist
- Yellow
- Violet Hill
- Clocks
- Paradise
- Viva La Vida
- Charlie Brown
- The Scientist
- Every Teardrop Is A Waterfall
encore - Shiver
- Fix You
Photos
Photos from this show can be found at Coldplaying.com in the Gallery thread for Little Noise Sessions. http://www.coldplaying.com/forum/gallery/showgallery.php/cat/1909
Discussion
All post-show discussion for this show at the forum thread http://www.coldplaying.com/forum/showthread.php?t=90170
Downloadable Multimedia
Audio and video download links are available at the Coldplaying messageboard - Multimedia forum - http://www.coldplaying.com/forum/showthread.php?t=90662
Fan Reviews
All fan reviews have been submitted to us by the members of Coldplaying.com[1], unless stated otherwise.
Oh my god people that was the BEST.. I've just got up after about 2hour sleep max. Got to go into work and I feel like a car crash. As a new coldplayer this was my first Coldplay gig, I can't comment on how weird it was, because I haven't seen any others, I just know it was awesome! I loved every minute. The tambourine woman was odd.. but funny and Chris and Jonny were SO lovely.. Thanks for posting the videos guys.. I only took one and it was about 2 seconds long! LOL.. I must have got a bit excited.. I will do my own review later, but right now I am still smiling, through my yawns.. Thanks Mich and the girls for looking after me and being so lovely.. ! I think I have made six new and amazing friends. By the way we ARE all totally lovely loonies.. LOL. Gaaarrrrgh.. work.. [thanks Comicforce]
So... it all started on a Thursday morning... Anna,Mich,Jo and I met up in front of the venue at 7 am as we wanted to secure our spot in the front row. The security guards (and a priest who passed a few times) were very surprised seeing us there so early but they were very very nice: gave us chairs, free coke and also got tips where to go to grab lunch Time was passing quite quickly in the morning, Ro, Sarah and Kate joined us during the day. By the time we reached afternoon everything seemed to slow down a bit- I guess that’s just because I was getting very tired and cold. The crew arrived at around 2ish if I remember correctly and started to load things from a van and set things up inside the church. A bit later Miller came out and asked if we were here for the gig-we jokingly said ‘No, we just love this church a lot’ and he laughed and asked us what time we’d arrived. He was very impressed hearing us say ‘7am’. He asked if he could take a photo of us and post it on twitter which we all said yes to. During the afternoon some other artists came to set their stuff and also CP crew left when they’ve finished. …not too many things were happening around that time.
Chris immediately apologized that the gig was gonna be more enthusiastic than professional (well, I have to admit that turned out to be true…but in a good way) They’d started with Yellow, Chris messed it up around the middle but it was funny. Then came Violet Hill, before that Chris said he was glad to be in a room with friendly faces cause the Graham Norton show apparently didn’t go very well (probably he’s just too hard on himself and all is good). He stroke the first notes, got confused, started laughing and joked about being back in a small venue after all the stadium shows After that was Clocks which went very well without any mistakes although Chris went a bit mental by the end and was playing it faster and faster Next song was Paradise…I prefer this simpler version with only a guitar and a piano than the original one. In the chorus, we had to sing the second Para…it sounded very silly but was pretty entertaining. After that was Viva la Vida in which unfortunately the tambourine lady felt the urge of making her first appearance Chris told her to save it for the chorus..
After Viva, Chris asked us what we thought of their outfits which we of course answered with a big scream and while he was taking his vest and tie off and undid some buttons on his shirt, it turned into a big fangirly screaming from us which I think he quite enjoyed and then started joking about how big they would be if they had great bodies…”We’d be insane,maybe even bigger than Busted or McFly…those handsome devils” Charlie Brown followed that. I think that was my favourite song from the night, it sounds amazing in every form I guess-but I might be biased! Next stop: The Scientist…tambourine lady was about to ruin that too but luckily Chris stopped her which turned into a funny introduction of the song. (Have to mention when she put it down everyone clapped-that’s how grateful we were). At the end of the song Chris sang the following: "People ask me: Chris, what is your favourite type of drum machine...I tell them: Oh tough one but I think I have to say the tambourine". Then came Every Teardrop… I recommend watching the end of the video when Chris imitates Will’s drum solo by the end…dead funny. And also in the middle of the song, he stopped as Jonny looked at him really annoyed because of the tambourine lady who distracted him big time. Chris asked the lady to play it a more quietly because Jonny was giving him the ‘evil look’.
Media Reviews
- Chris Martin and Jonny Buckland – review - St John-at-Hackney church, London - **** (4 out of 5)
During the opening chords of The Scientist, the tinkles from the balcony become too much. Chris Martin stops the song, picks out the woman rattling a tambourine and launches a characteristically good-humoured rant about how "this isn't a tambourine song", how Coldplay have "played it for 10 years without a tambourine on it" and hoping she's not "from the Daily Star and going to fuck me over tomorrow". If this were a Van Morrison gig, someone would be receiving a tambourine suppository by now, but for Martin – though with tongue rammed stoutly in cheek – it's still the mock-meltdown of his career. Not the usual between-song banter at a charity acoustic gig in a church, then – part of Mencap's Little Noises Sessions – but it adds to the wit, warmth and intimacy of an enchanted evening. The casual Coldplay listener will claim they're the beigest band in Britain. Nonsense. Witness their album-based forays into krautrock and electronica, the ribbon-festooned revolutionary outfits of 2008 and some of the most dazzling stadium and festival sets in living memory. If the beige-sayers were right, a bog-standard, polished acoustic trawl through their big ballads tonight would illuminate their inherent blandness like a sea flare. Instead, a clearly underprepared Martin and Buckland conduct an open rehearsal on electric guitar and piano, full of bum chords and knockabout charm.
Crucially, the pair don't handle their songs like delicate relics but toss them about like stickle bricks, stopping to remember key changes, perform random beatboxing or get the boisterous crowd to sing backing vocals. Clocks gradually accelerates towards a key-smashing climax. What Yellow loses in bluster it makes up for in mournful import. If Viva la Vida and Violet Hill lack their usual tub-thumping dynamics, instead they're brim full of melodic enchantment and singalong pomp. And both The Scientist and Fix You, stripped bare and full of heart, give the walls goosebumps. "This whole concert's gone to shit," Martin chuckles to Buckland as Every Teardrop is a Waterfall breaks down amid more distraction from their tin-tapping nemesis. More nonsense; it's been like watching the magic happen. [2]
- Chris Martin & Jonny Buckland, St John-at-Hackney - review
"This," chuckled Chris Martin at the start of the major coup of Mencap's Little Noise Sessions 2011, "is going to be more enthusiastic than professional". He wasn't wrong. For one night only, the Coldplay machine was replaced by an intimate, chaotic, endearingly ramshackle affair featuring just Martin and guitarist Jonny Buckland, underneath a Hackney church's stained glass windows and even more stained ceiling.
Unquestionably, the under-rehearsed pair missed the engine room provided by their missing drummer and bassist. As if desperate for a beat, Martin initially welcomed the audience member who had brought her tambourine but both men were distracted by the rattling, and Martin halted Every Teardrop Is A Waterfall to beg her to desist. Still, Martin remained cheery, dismissing Coldplay as "the shit Radiohead"; musing on how successful arguably the world's most popular band would be "if we had great bodies" and stopping Paradise mid-song to orchestrate the crowd's backing vocals. Buckland's adventurous guitar work was often lost but The Scientist was given a broody makeover; Martin's stentorian piano added a new layer of fascination to Violet Hill and Fix You's combination of comfort and uplift made the flintiest hearts crumble. Even at half-strength, Coldplay still move mountains. [3]
- Mencap Little Noise Sessions: Chris Martin and Jonny Buckland; Emili Sande; Ben Howard, St John at Hackney Church
For Coldplay fans, this was a rare opportunity. To see one of the biggest bands on the planet (well, half of them), in the tiny surrounds of a church. For fans of the band this is about as good as it gets. Which makes one wonder then, what made one woman up on the balcony think that it was a good idea to bring a tambourine? Even in the O2 - where Coldplay play two dates next month - it would be rude. But here, where the acts are playing stripped down sets in aid of Mencap, it's an absolute menace.
Chris Martin, to his credit, let's her get away with it during "Viva La Vida", where the audiences' "whoa-oh-oh-ahs" make up most of the noise. But when she starts tapping it during the opening chords of "The Scientist", he's forced to stop and ask her - very politely - to stop - "We've been playing it for ten years without a tambourine. I promise on the next song it's a tambourine frenzy," he laughs. It's a bizarre few minutes - but Martin does his best to soften the embrassment by ad-libbing a coda that pays tribute to the instrument. The rest of the set 10-song set, played just on neon-splattered piano and guitar, is charmingly shambolic for a band of Coldplay's stadium pedigree. Without a rhythm section, Buckland and Martin contrive to muck up "Yellow", a song that they must have played at every gig they've ever played. There are a few stop-start moments elsewhere (Martin gets the key for the chorus to "Clocks" wrong), but it gives a feeling of uniqueness to the show that their festival and arena sets don't offer.
You can't say the same for the rest of the bill; Devonian folky Ben Howard is pleasant but has the presence of park bench; while Emili Sandé - fresh from a number one single with Professor Green simply screams "fourth place in The X Factor". Even the vicar looks bored. There's a lot to like and dislike about Coldplay, but dressed in all-black, Martin is still pleasingly humble, he even refers to his own band as "the shit Radiohead" at one point. Having your gig sabotaged by a rogue percussionist probably helps keep one's ego in check. But this is a sweet evening though, at no point more than when Martin shuffles his mic stand over next to Buckland's so the two can play "Shiver" from 2000's Parachutes. All it needed was a bit of tambourine... [4]
- Coldplay’s Chris Martin is bang on at gig
Chris Martin halted a gig midway through — when a fan began accompanying him on the TAMBOURINE. The star, 34, was playing The Scientist on piano at an intimate charity concert when the female audience member joined in. He interrupted his performance and politely asked the woman to stop. Chris said: "This is not a tambourine song — I don't mean to be rude. Let me be honest with you, we tried tambourine on the recording and had to scrap it — so we have been playing it for ten years with no tambourine. It probably sounds great, but I'm just used to it without tambourine. Don't take it personally. I can't see what you look like, but you look lovely and sound fantastic. Don't take this to be some kind of anti-tambourine rally or rant against the tambourine. It's one of my favourite instruments."
Chris's comments drew cheers from the crowd at the Mencap gig in Hackney, East London. He added: "I promise the next song is a tambourine frenzy, you can go crazy." [5]
- A 'rapturously received' Jonny Buckland and Chris Martin of Coldplay perform at St John-at-Hackney
The various members of Radiohead frequently perform independently from the band. It is very rare, though, to find Coldplay ("The shit Radiohead, as some people call us," quips Chris Martin) cleaved in two. Tonight's one-off gig in aid of Mencap finds Coldplay's frontman and guitarist cut adrift from bass and drums, playing a 45-minute demi-acoustic set for the charity's annual Little Noise Sessions. We are in the roomy Georgian splendour of the church of St John-at-Hackney, the churchyard of which was used as a thoroughfare during the riots last summer. Although St John's is vast compared with the Little Noise Sessions' former home, the Union Chapel, this gig still counts as an invasion of personal space by this big, big band. Next month, Coldplay are playing sold-out arenas in support of their most recent album, Mylo Xyloto, and stadiums next summer.
They open tonight's rapturously received hits-and-newbies set with a roomy, nuanced take on "Yellow", a song that is, by most reckonings, leisurely. All the while, Martin makes like a puppy in need of a walk. He is more honky-tonk than many give him credit for, soaking his shirt through with exertion. The housey piano riff that opens Mylo Xyloto's single, "Every Teardrop is a Waterfall", meanwhile, finds Coldplay spinning surprising influences to rousing effect. It's worth hearing Robyn's version to hear how close to dance music Coldplay sail here. For a band known for their anthemic bombast, tonight's duo set shows how immediate, even offhand, they can still sound. Buckland takes advantage of the sonic possibilities by adding ghostly washes of guitar to Martin's enthusiastically plonked piano. And then there's the girl with the tambourine. It's not clear who Tambourine Girl is, but she is stood upstairs rattling away, and the acoustics mean that every mild susurration of her instrument during songs such as "Paradise" or a scrappy rendition of "Viva La Vida" is magnified tenfold. You can tell that the nicely brought-up Martin – apparently in the running to be godfather to Jay-Z and Beyoncé's first-born – doesn't want to be rude to her. "This is not an anti-tambourine rant! Don't take it personally!" he enjoins. But he successfully negotiates a percussive ceasefire for "The Scientist".
If you were being sniffy, Tambourine Girl really disrupts the evening, stopping songs in their tracks while a distracted Martin pleads with her. In fact, all the stopping, restarting, swearing and routine self-deprecation ("I'm in trouble with the vicar – eternal trouble," quips Martin) is the kind of carry-on that has fans purring with pleasure, especially those fans whose next date with the band is as distant ciphers at the Emirates Stadium. The only thing that might have improved the evening would have been if Chris Martin had actually played the church's massive organ. (According to the vicar, Father Rob Wickham, Martin expressed an interest.) It all ends in a predictable, but pleasurable sing-along for "Fix You", and the vicar grinning broadly.
A rather different duo took to the stage the previous night across town. Bluegrass-noir outfit Gillian Welch and David Rawlings have gone from being a connoisseur's delight to one of the year's most treasured returnees. Their The Harrow and the Harvest album finally closes an eight-year gap in recordings. Near-legendary live performers, Welch plays banjo, clog-dances in her cowboy boots and strums her guitar, while Rawlings plucks and prangs his way through their two sets, his dazzling playing enhancing rather than overwhelming each song. Songs such as "The Way it Goes" are burnished and lustrous, but surprises include an electrifying third encore cover of "White Rabbit". Then there's the shock of the attendees – Tory MP Louise Mensch (married to Welch's, and indeed Metallica's, manager, Peter Mensch) and her surprise date, the prime minister. [6]
Twitter Updates
- cartoonheart_ - Queuiiiiiing @akukas @johkujii @LdnMich http://yfrog.com/gy90istj
- cartoonheart_ - Think we just indirectly got called nutters by a security guard/roadie/whatever :( #Whatever
- cartoonheart_ @coldplaying Pizza party in the queue! No band members yet (that we've seen) http://yfrog.com/nwepiusyj
- LdnMich - Miller just took our pic for twitter! @coldplaying
- LdnMich - Hoppy is still hopping @coldplaying
- Coldplay - These lovely loonies have been here since 7am queuing for tonight's Little Noise Sessions. Amazing! R42. http://twitpic.com/7ivfqf
- LdnMich - @coldplaying squeeeeeeee http://twitpic.com/7iz7x4
- el_hill 2nd row for half of @coldplaying http://pic.twitter.com/SNL2WFc8
- oakleyneil - St John At Hackney.. Wicked little venue. Looking forward to the gig now #littlenoisesessions #coldplay http://instagr.am/p/VnzU6/
