27 October 2011: BBC Radio 1's Student Tour, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK

From WikiColdplay

Setlist

Photos

Photos from this show can be found at Coldplaying.com in the Gallery thread for Norwich. http://www.coldplaying.com/forum/gallery/showgallery.php/cat/1882

Videos

Videos from this show can be found in the first post of the Coldplaying forum live thread for this show at http://www.coldplaying.com/forum/showthread.php?t=89079

Discussion

All post-show discussion for this show at the forum thread http://www.coldplaying.com/forum/showthread.php?t=89079

Fan Reviews

All fan reviews have been submitted to us by the members of Coldplaying.com[1], unless stated otherwise.

Part 1

So cold, so cooold...

We're in the queue now, it's 05:38. We've already been offered food by a janitor/something or other and gotten a few strange looks by security "You do know it's tonight? You already have tickets?"

We have a bit of a surprise for tonight, we'll see if you get to see it somehow

Anyway, I'm so happy to be here with four of my best friends (although it's just Josie, Mich and I atm, waiting for a jetlagged Chelsea and a working Laura)

Can't believe we got tickets

We'll try to keep you updated on what's going on (not even sure if we're in the right place to queue, haha)

Part 2

This was the best Coldplay concert I have ever been to. Holy effing crap (please excuse my language ) It was absolutely perfect. They were in such a good mood all of them and they really gave it their all. So much interaction on stage! And the setlist The fact that I got to see it with four of my best friends didn't hurt either (). Elephants

We're on the bus back home to London now but I'll write a proper review when I get home from work tonight!

The Review

It all sort of started for me on the Tuesday when Mich and I called my sis Josie (johkujii) at around 4pm to let her know she had a ticket for the gig two days later. The sobbing (happy sobbing) from her over the phone made me so freaking excited for what was to come. I was going to see my favourite band with my favourite people in a super small venue - how could I not be excited?!

Anyway, the next day had us getting up quite early and going into town to try and find the surprise elephant costumes as thought of by miss Mich . It was so difficult to find some (especially with such short notice and limited budget ) but we did succeed in the end. Josie got her phone stolen which put a damper on all our moods for a bit Stupid people.

We went to Victoria coach station, said goodbye to my brother (who had been visiting in the midst of all the Coldplay excitement, poor brother) and waited anxiously for Josie (who had gone to buy a camera after we found the elephant costumes).

I rarely get stressed apart from when there's a vehicle waiting that's going to leave without you if you don't get on it in time. Needless to say, with five minutes to go before departure, Mich and I started to get a bit fidgety when Josie wasn't there yet.

We were just about to get on the bus and beg the driver to actually wait a few more minutes when an out of breath Josie came sprinting up to us (she had run all the way from Victoria railway station - good girl!)

We could now calmly get on the bus and start making our way to Norwich

Relatively uneventful busride, won't bore you with details of our silliness.

We arrived to Norwich and went inside the waiting room to wait for a jetlagged Chelsea. We put on our elephant hats for shits and giggles - it worked!! I'll never forget the face she made when she saw us through the window, haha! It was soooo nice to see Chelsea again!! I hadn't seen her since the Crisis gig in Liverpool (and even then it was very brief) so lots of hugging

We used Chelsea as our tour guide and was expertly led to the bus stop that would take us to our hotel. Josie tried to steal a homeless man's blanket. Very nice of her

Dumped our stuff in the hotel and went to the UEA. IT WAS SO SMALL. Oh, goodness. I was a bit surprised at the lack of queue (especially after the craziness that took place when tickets were being released) but that gave us a chance to thoroughly take a look around, which was very nice indeed!

After a very nice dinner with the girls () that made us go to sleep a bit too late (I wouldn't trade spending time with them for sleep anyway so whatever ) and a few hours sleep it was time to get up. COLDPLAY DAY!

It was the ungodly hour of 4am. Three girls stood outside of a weird, receptionless hotel. Their taxi didn't show up so they called another one.

The taxi driver played indian music. Nice way to start ones... Night/morning/whatever

We went up to the area we thought we were queuing up in and sat down like a handful of losers No one was there, not even security! After a few minutes a janitor showed up and asked what we were doing.

[tbc]

[AnnaElisabeth]

Hi guys Quite new on here, but saw Coldplay yesterday at UEA so thought I'd share my experience:

My Mum won a competition on Wednesday night for the UEA show on Thursday. So you can imagine my excitement when I found out... especially as the majority of the fans had queued up for 2 nights the week before in order to make sure they got tickets! I was stunned and couldn't sleep all night... I am an absolutely massive Coldplay fan (as are all of you) so it truly felt like Christmas Eve!

We were told our names would be on the guestlist, so as we arrived to collect our tickets we explained that we had won a competition. The man at the door said 'Sorry, you've missed that competition. It was for this mornings acoustic session, not this evening'. My heart completely sank and I felt really shaky - we'd driven for over 2 and a half hours to get there! We asked them to check again, as we knew that we'd won a competition for the evening. After a bit of waiting around, the man at the door realised that he'd been thinking of the wrong competition, checked our names and we were given our lovely blue Coldplay wristbands! It was the biggest relief, and after that, we were completely elated, as after being told that we wouldn't get the tickets - we did!

We then started queuing in the rain at around 5pm, to get in for when the doors opened for 6pm. Everyone was in high spirits singing along to Viva La Vida's classic 'oooo-ooooo's. A camera crew were there with a presenter saying 'Coldplay have come to Norwich!' which was then followed by lots of cheers from the crowd. While waiting in the queue, I was listening to some girls chatting in front of me (as you do...) and one girl was excitedly showing the others her picture of Chris Martin from earlier in the day as well as her autographs from the band. She had then asked the band 'Can you please play Green Eyes tonight?' and Chris said 'Yes sure we will'. I was a bit gutted that I hadn't waited around earlier to try and get some autographs and request a song from the band after hearing that!

As we went in, Zane Lowe did his DJ set for around an hour. I'm not a massive fan of DJ's etc (I was only there for Coldplay!!!), however it was nice to see Fearne Cotton onstage. I didn't want to start shouting and losing my voice just yet (that was saved for when Coldplay came on stage). What I found strange was that a massive group of boys in front of us were going crazy jumping up and down... but when Coldplay came on, they didn't seem very excited. I found that very strange, particularly with how they had queued up for at least a night in order to get the Coldplay tickets in the first place! 'Come on guys' I thought 'This is Coldplay!'

Then there was the countdown '10 minutes to go until Coldplay'. I started to psych myself up and found myself grinning from ear to ear in anticipation. Then as Zane Low made his exit, there was the lovely sound of MX beginning, as the boys made their way onto the stage. They then burst into an energetic (as Coldplay's style) Hurts Like Heaven. Their setlist after that was very similar to their previous summer festivals, with the notable exception of the removal of Lost and Politik and the addition of Paradise and Up In Flames. I am not a huge fan of Up In Flames... not even sure why to be honest, it just doesn't grab me like their other songs and on the album almost seems like a filler. However it seemed like a good break in between the energetic hit songs one after another. At which point Chris said 'Ok guys you can relax and take a break now' before starting the song. Just after singing Paradise Chris thanked the crowd 'Thank you so much, that was the first time we've sung this song to a crowd in England. So that was really special, thank you' The other songs played included Yellow, In My Place, Major Minus, Charlie Brown, Violet Hill and Viva La Vida.

Instead of going off-stage before being cheered back on to begin their usual 3 song encore of Clocks, Fix You and ETIAW, the boys stayed on-stage and continued into these songs (I think for the sake of the radio show). Before beginning Rehab/ Fix You, I saw Will hand Chris a piece of paper, and Chris then said 'This song is dedicated to Jordan, wherever you are'. Three boys standing directly in front of me then cheered and the boy in front said 'That's me! Oh my gosh, I've got a song dedicated to me'. The boys were very chuffed with themselves and Jordan looked stunned. Chris then started to sing a part of Rehab (which I personally thought was a waste of time... who wants to hear that when they have so many superb songs?) before leading into the classic Fix You. Before Chris even started singing the song, the crowd had started the lines of 'When you try you best but you don't succeed...', Chris waited for us to finish our huge chant before properly starting the song.

Chris then asked the crowd 'Have you got time for one more?' with everyone cheering back 'Yesss!' and ETIAW began. Chris then put an elephant costume head on and danced around, before lifting it up slightly in order to sing the song! They then were cheered and did their three bows before walking off-stage.

I really thought that was it, and they wouldn't return to the stage, as they almost always do their bows right at the end at their shows, and finish with ETIAW. But after they left the stage the crowd cheered 'ONE MORE SONG! ONE MORE SONG!' over and over. It continued for a while, and I was sure that they wouldn't return. However Chris then appeared again on-stage and said 'Thank you so much. We are now officially off-air'. He said everyone was allowed to swear again now (hence everyone swore as loud as they could).

Then they sang Green Eyes (as requested by the girl I mentioned before). After that, Chris then said (along the lines of) 'Now this next song, was written in Johnny's bedroom'. There was lots of wolf whistles from the crowd. Chris then assured the crowd 'No, trust us it wasn't as romantic as it sounds.' Johnny then walked over to Chris and kissed him on the cheek. It was absolutely hilarious, and such a comedic moment. This was naturally followed by lots of cheering from the crowd. I think they then wanted to play Parachutes... but accidentally both Chris and Johnny I think started strumming the chords to Shiver. So Chris then said something like 'Oh well, lets do Shiver!' and then they played that. I was so happy, as I'd been waiting for Shiver all night. After Shiver, Chris closed by saying (along the lines) 'Thank you so much for singing so incredibly, and making this quite frankly sh**** square block feel like Wembley'. They then finished on the fantastic Us Against The World.

After the show, I overheard a boy saying 'If only Rihanna was there as a surprise tonight as well!'. And I suddenly remembered what Fearne had said earlier in the Radio 1 Show. Fearne promised that there would be a big surprise in the evening, when Coldplay were going to perform. She said 'I don't know how much I can give away' but promised there would be something special. However, I didn't notice anything that was particularly considered a 'surprise'. Maybe they meant to do something and it didn't work out? Or she was just saying that...? I'm not sure. But nevertheless, an amazing night that I will never ever forget.

[mel16]

Hoooly shit, best day ever! Phil Harvey remembers my name *fangirl*. I'll write up a story once I've gotten some sleep and will also upload pictures and oh man, my epic IMP vid, I love it haha. Also filmed Green Eyes, haven't watched it yet but should be good cos my camera takes really good videos! Such a fucking incredible day! My elephant hat is just hanging on the door now, sad sight

[johkujii]

Okay, will split my review into pre-gig and gig since some people might just want the juicy stuff

Part 1 - Pre-gig I’m soooo tired, I think I’ve gotten about 8 hours sleep in the last 4 days all for Coldplay related reasons (Tuesday up at 6am for Absolute, Wednesday up at 6am for travel to Norwich, Thursday up at 3.30am to queue, Today up at 6am to travel home to London) but I want to get this down before I sleep for a week and forget.

So, Anna (AnnaElisabeth), Jo (johkujii) and I set off for Norwich early on Wednesday as we planned to queue v.early on the day of the gig (hey these students proved themselves to be crazy with the 48 hour queuing just for tickets) and met the lovely Chelsea (ApproximatelyInfinate) there. After checking into our weird, yet awesome hotel (no reception which was great since there were 5 of us bunking in a room for two ) we headed to UEA to check the situation. Chelsea (who is a UEA alumni) took us to the LCR and showed us all the possible entrances and likely queuing places, there were a lot which worried us, but we decided we’d just get there the next day early enough to be able to scope the scene first. Next she showed us the room Coldplay would be playing in, which was SO small The barrier was also insanely close to the stage. Excited squees ensued

After a lovely meal, where we sat talking about life and Coldplay for far longer than we should have given we had such an early start the next morning, we headed to bed (or floor in some cases ) and set our alarms for the ghastly time of 3.30am

So after a quickly gathering everything we needed Anna, Jo and I grumpily headed out the door the next morning (obviously jetlagged Chelsea stayed in bed, she would join us once she’d had a decent nights sleep) We jumped in a taxi and got to UEA at 4.00am. We kinda knew there would be no-one there, but we figured we wouldn’t be able to sleep worrying there would be so we might as well get down there early as possible. We headed to the door we had been told would be the entrance to queue at and made ourselves “comfortable”

It wasn’t long until security/maintenance staff started milling around and we got a fair few funny looks, snarky remarks “You do know the gig isn’t until tonight right?” Oh no shit Sherlock, we thought it was at 7am

It did start to get to us after a while, however our spirits were lifted by the arrival of another girl just before 6am (I forget her name now) who told us all her friends had said they were coming at 7am so she decided to beat them by an hour. We had a few issues with a security guard who kept telling us to move and who we thought was a big meanie But later discovered was actually lovely

They roped off the entrance for access for the BBC for the Live Lounge and for Coldplay’s crew to load in. However thankfully a queue formed behind us as more people arrived and as we all got talking there was quite a jovial atmosphere.

At around 11am three blacked out vans appeared signaling the arrival of the band, by this point the lovely Laura (**Laura**) and Chelsesa had joined us. We just watched and waved from afar as Jonny and Guy clambered out, however as soon as Chris came into view everyone else in the queue screamed his name. Surprisingly (since he looked so very tired and they were late for the Live Lounge soundcheck) he came over. Immediately everyone started making demands of him. We opened our mouths to greet him since he was standing in front of us, only to have someone nearby shove a camera in his face and demand a picture without so much of a “hi, nice to meet you” And on it went like that for the duration of his stay. Without going into too much detail Chris told everyone that the gig would be slightly shorter than planned thanks to a personal issue (I know there’s rumours floating around but I’m not going to repeat what he said, sorry) however instead of people backing off as you would expect they continued undeterred, barking demands for autographs and pictures. It left a pretty sour taste in our mouths to be honest I know the biggest band in the world walking around a university campus is a very very rare occurrence, however I kinda think that doesn’t mean people should forget how to be respectful.

Anyway after he thanked everyone and left the security guard who we though was mean came over to us and pulled us away from the rest of the queue and said “look I have some bad news, you have to leave the queue to collect your writsbands, but since you’ve been here since 4am I’m telling you girls now so some of you can go and some of you can stay, we’re going to tier it so the queue remains in tact as is”

Once we had them we all relaxed slightly, and chilled out, eating, telling jokes, singing, sheltering from the rain and generally having a great time. It really was the most awesome group of Coldplayers Seeing people clambering up the sides of the pub they were doing the Live Lounge in was quite a site

Once it had stopped raining we decided to reveal our surprise and elephant up We had sat in those PJ’s all day without the hats so people must have thought we were right chavs up until that

After the live lounge was over Coldplay left to go back to their hotel for a few hours. We saw Jonny hanging by one of the cars, he was with security so someone in the queue asked who it was and I made the mistake of saying it was Jonny she then screamed at the top of her voice "JOOOOOONNNNNNNNNNNYYYYYYYYYYYYYY" Haha. Was actually really funny and embarrassing at the same time. He came over though and we even managed to get his attention long enough to show him our tattoos since we hadn't at Absolute. He said they looked "really awesome" and I don't remember saying this at all but apparently I said "but do they though?" Chelsea said she burst out laughing and so did he! Haha, obviously I'm subconsciously desperate for Jonny's approval. Continuing the idiot mouth theme I asked him if he knew which songs the symbols represented and he laughed and guiltily said "er no" Then as he was walking away he said "only joking" Yeah yeah likely story J.

We didn't get a pic with him since we had only met him the other day and didn't want to be greedy.

Will came over too Thankfully Chelsea said something embarrassing to him, so it wasn't only me making a fool of myself I'll let her tell you about that though As Chris appeared obviously everyone screamed for him again, he was accompanied by Phil and Kelly. But only stayed long enough to fling his arm around Will and sing his praises He explained that they were very late and had to go.

The rest of the time in the queue passed quite quickly, we could hear the roadies doing a soundcheck inside, when the band returned to the UEA a few hours later the queue had tripled in size and the arrival of Chris Martin caused CHAOS. People went MENTAL! People running across campus and clambering over each other to get to him. We stayed where we were but the scene was hilarious!

We could hear the band soundcheck too which included Glass of Water which they didn't play later on. Perhaps Zane requested it We also hear Charlie Brown and Paradise about 1369604640 times! People had started to push forward really early, so we had a rubbish hour and a half before doors squashed up waiting to go in. But after a worrying moment where we though Anna and Chelsea were going to have to put their cameras into lockers before they were able to go in (thankfully the nice organiser man agreed to do it for them) we were in, front row, elephanted up and ready to go!!

Part 2 - The Gig

Let me start by saying I don't have any photos or videos cos I just wanted to actually get into it and enjoy the experience 100%. I know Jo and Chelsea too some though

Also I'm just gonna do bullet point type things for the broadcasted part of the gig a) You all heard it b) I'm tired and c) I have work soon. I'll go into more detail for the off air part of the show.

Zane Lowe was awesome at getting the crowd going however we were in big elephant hats so an hour of being made to jump and cheer was hard going!

Fearne Cotton gave us a shout out

Greg James = <3

The build up to them coming on was electric, I was almost in tears just at the sound of MX!

Jonny noticed our hats quite early on and gave us a big grin

During Yellow Chris gave Jonny such a filthy look that it caused a whole herd of fan girl elephants on the front row to literally scream, which made them giggle

During VLV I think, Chris fell to the floor rolled over and stood back up without missing a beat!

VLV into Charlie Brown in the hats was really hard work, it would've been without them though. That's the most aggressive (for lack of a better word, I don't mean that negatively) crowd I've ever encountered. Everyone was jumped and pushing and bouncing, it was so hot and painful. But fun! But during CB I was literally having to rest during the verses. TMI but I've never ever been so sweaty at a Coldplay gig before. The atmosphere was electric.

I hope it carried over to the radio but the singing on all the songs was FANTASTIC. Even the new ones. Everyone was singing every word. Was amazing to hear and the band were really touched by it

Chris annihilated his guitar during GPASUYF. He always throws it, I know, but it went with some force yesterday and landed not far from us.

Fix You was incredibly moving, more so than usual. UIF also had people in tears. It sounds much better live than on record and Chris sang it incredibly well.

We all quickly threw our hats back on for Paradise and Will noticed and laughed then smiled at us

Chris wore his own elephant head for ETIAW.

Jonny forgot to switch a switch on his guitar and Matt had to crawl on stage and try to flick it whilst he was playing, he kept missing, it was funny!

I've never seen Chris so drenched in sweat during a show before and he is always a sweaty boy. At the end of ETIAW he collapsed on the floor and was there for a fair while before getting up on his knees, Jonny asked if he was okay as he passed He got up and was fine but he looked like he was about to keel over!

After they went off stage the crowd were chanting 'ONE MORE SONG' really loudly

Okay so once we were off air Chris came on in a fresh tshirt () and said it was a miracle he'd "made it through a whole fucking live show without swearing" he then asked us all to swear on 3 Most people said f**k or s**t and he said it was good, but he wanted it to be an even worse word so I think we can all imagine what we shouted Then he said something like "and lots of people say that to us without us asking"

He then said that they weren't going to play for as long as they'd planned, so they'd only be playing three more songs but they'd put their everything in to them

The first was Green Eyes, with Chris on acoustic guitar, Jonny on electric, Will on tambourine and piano and Guy on the a small string instrument I don't know the name of It sounded amazing. Again tear inducing. Chris sang it with so much heart and emotion. The whole audience was just transfixed.

Next he sang the first verse of Parachutes Then he looked over at Guy who was giggling away so he stopped

They went into Shiver after that. Chris introduced it by saying "This is a song we wrote in Jonny's bedroom, it was a very sexy...sexy time" then Jonny leaned over and planted a big kiss on Chris's cheek! They looked over at us afterwards too! I think perhaps they realised we'd probably have enjoyed that I hope someone recorded it!! Guy looked his usual "I hate this song" self whilst they were playing it, but it was still awesome.

Finally they did UATW, the whole crowd sang along, well at least everyone around me, sounded really loud from where I was, which is great! Chris thanked us all from the bottom of his heart and said that they have the best fans in the whole world. He was really touched

They did another quick bow, by which time Chris was drenched in sweat again and as he turned to go a load flew off him and landed on me, Anna and Chelsea! Good job he'd just put on possible the best Coldplay show ever otherwise we might've complained

I'm unable to describe coherently the vibe of this show, I don't know if it was the small venue or the fact that the band seem so happy together right now, or the insanely awesome crowd or the fact I was with the most crazy, amazing Coldplayers in elephant hats or (most likely) the combination of them all, but it was hands down the best Coldplay gig I have ever been to. I went through every single possible emotion through it and it left me feeling completely and utterly drained, but happily so. Ecstatically so. We all looked at each other afterwards completely dumbfounded. It was just magical and I was so incredibly lucky to be there.

[Mimixxx]

Well…I’m not very good at writing reviews so I always leave it to the others to do it but last night was something really special so I feel like I have to write one. Be prepared it’s gonna be very long and detailed.

Ok,so here we go…

Last week a few of us, Coldplayers managed to get tickets through the website which was very very lucky and we got all super-excited about it, however, I was a bit worried as I was supposed to have a really busy week at work and was afraid my boss wasn’t going to let me take the day off. Finally, I made myself write an email to him explaining what was going on and it would be awesome if I could take the day off. That was Sunday early afternoon,we waited quite a few hours for the reply (me massively fighting with my nerves) with Anna and Mich. I was sure he was going to say no but there came the answer which said “We have to find a way. It's too good an opportunity for you. How exciting. “ Woohooooo,he said YES!!!Norwich,here I come! 

Anna,Mich,Jo and Chelsea travelled to Norwich on Wednesday and they got up VERY early the next day to secure our spot in the queue. I left London on Thursday early morning and joined them in the queue at around 10ish (btw Norwich is bigger than I thought but luckily Chelsea is awesome at giving directions so it was easy to find the university).The first couple of hours were a bit miserable as it was cold and everyone was tired.

I soon left for a couple of minutes to find the bathroom. When I got back,the girls told me that I’d just missed Chris (of course I had…wouldn’t have been me if I hadn’t). So probably it’d better if I left that part for them.

We reached 12 o’clock slowly (and I mean extremely slowly) when we got our awesome wristbands. That cheered everyone up a bit and made us enthusiastic again. After that I headed to the hotel the drop a few of our stuff which was needed for queuing and to get changed into my supercool elephant costume the girls bought. Got back to the uni in a bit and as I was walking back who did I see chatting to the fans? Mr Buckland himself. I just thought:”Soo f#cking typical that when I left again, someone came out” Fortunately, he stayed for a few more minutes but mostly he was taking photos with some people behind us (*here I have to mention that most of them hadn’t even had a clue who he was before we told them and they were very pushy and quite rude in my opinion). He then came up to us, had a short chat and then he walked back inside the building.

A few minutes later those people behind us shouted for Will and he came to take photos with them. Someone then spotted Chris and shouted for him to come over again which was very disrespectful as he was a bit down in the morning and he already came out once anyway (someone took a photo with him 3 times during the day and got them to sign all 4 of her albums! ).

During the afternoon, we saw some of the roadies working very busy to load the trucks and set everything. It felt a bit weird that we were the only ones who actually knew who they were by their names.(obsession?-might be)

As we were getting closer to the time the doors were supposed to open, nerves pushed in big time. They opened the doors around 6.15 and we all made it into front row and the stage was closer than ever. If I wanted to,I could have literally reached it. First Zane Lowe came on which was quite fun at the beginning but then it just went on for a bit too long in my opinion and most of us were trying to save our energy for Coldplay. Fearne Cotton came on stage in a bit and she gave us a shout out acknowledging our elephant costumes and Zane added :”Yes,there are a lot of elephants in the house tonight” That made us scream of course A bit later Greg James came on stage for a few minutes and it turned out that he was a student at UEA and he made the crowd have an UAE chant which sounded pretty cool.

At 8 o’clock,Zane presented Coldplay and the Back to the Future theme came on and they walked on stage. The set list was brilliant. Although we didn’t have Life is for living or Politik (which is my personal favourite), we did get quite a special treat. In the main setlist we had Paradise and Up in flames which was absolutely beautiful. After ETIAW, Chris came back on stage and told us that the official air-time was over so we could now swear. He counted 1-2-3 and we had to swear which was really funny and then he said: ‘Great but let’s try with sg worse’ and counted again we shouted and then laughed. The rest of the band came back on and they started singing Green eyes which was AMAZING!! Then they started Parachutes which turned into Shiver and Chris said: “This is a very special song. We wrote that in Jonny’s bedroom.” Of course that put us into a fangirl mode and we screamed. He started laughing and Jonny kissed him on the cheek which made us scream even louder. That was the cutest moment of the whole gig!(*sorry for being such a fangirl).

Finally, UATW came on which made me end up in tears and that gives a feeling how great that concert was as I’m really not the crying type, I very rarely cry but that night made me so emotional. I was incredibly happy and grateful that I could be there. That was the best night ever, most incredible gig I’ve ever been to, I will never forget it.

When the concert was over I even managed to get an MX guitar pick from Matt <3 and Anna has got a setlist.

After that we headed back to the hotel…bit tired and broke but soo happy and emotional. What an incredible, amazing,beautiful and unforgettable night that was!!! A really special treat.

[**Laura**]

Just like to say a big thank you to all who went to the uea gig last night. It was an amazing , epic, emotional and uplifting performance. The crowd played a big part in this, being a norwich boy it was great to see the crowd so up for it. Maybe its the fact we don't get any big big bands come here that made it a once in a lifetime moment . I just wish the ****s who say coldplay are dull and boring were there to see it.

[carrot cruncher]

Okay so I’m gonna ”review” the UEA gig now, really just writing down how I experienced it basically and this going to be really emotional as the whole experience was as well haha. This is maybe too long, sorry for that but I really want to write everything down. That was the most emotional two days, I cried so much that I probably won’t cry for like a month now haha (I get very emotional about things…). So I originally didn’t have a ticket cos we went up to Norwich from London on the friday before the tickets came on sale but when we got there all the tickets were already gone cos they gave numbers to the people in the queue so there was just no way of getting them anymore. So after asking a million people if there was ANY way that we could still get tickets, we decided to head back to London cos everyone we talked to kept repeating that there was NO WAY at all to get tickets anymore. I was completely devestated as this was the first time that I was close to getting to go to an intimate Coldplay thing (the smallest place I’ve seen them at before this was freaking Stockholm Olympic Stadium..). I was just completely heartbroken. Then there was the twist of them releasing 100 tickets online…I was in a seminar at uni when that happened so couldn’t get a ticket and even though I was happy for Anna and Mich who got tickets, I was extremely pissed off about the fact that they released more tickets though we had been told a million times that it wouldn’t happen. Oh well. That really made me sad that I couldn’t go, my favourite Coldplayers were going, I was for once in the country where this would be happening and just…I was just really depressed and sad all week cos of this. Was really happy though when Chelsea decided to come cos didn’t think I’d see her this soon after Oxegen and she’s one of my absolute favourite Coldplayers so it was great! Theeen there was a twist again..Anna and Mich saved my life at the Absolute Radio interview by getting me a ticket! Was probably the best moment of my life so far when I was just about to go for a nap when Anna tweeeted me ”answer your phone, it’s important! –Anna & Mich” and I was just trying not to get my hopes up and called her..She goes ”so..what are you going thursday night??” And I just FLIPPED OUT like just started sobbing uncontrollably and couldn’t say anything back and managed to ask her how it happened and when I heard the story I just sobbed even more and couldn’t say anything but ”oh my god”. She asked me if I wanted to meet them in the city and I basically ran for the train, trying to stop myself from crying in public haha. I was just ridiculously happy that evening, I owe Anna and Mich SO MUCH<3 We were gonna suprise Chelsea by not telling her that I got a ticket, just let her show up at Norwich and see me there haha but I deleted my tweets about it too late so she saw them haha.

So on wednesday I left the house at 6:30 to head to the city and after a hunt for elephant outfits and all that (and me getting my new phone stolen, that was a fun start to the trip..karma kicked me back haaaard), me, Mich and Anna headed to Norwich. We sat at the coach station at Norwich waiting for Chelsea and put our elephant hats on to suprise her and she totally flipped out when she saw us with those hats hahaha. We went to check out the venue that night and were all soooo excited cos it was so damn small and we’d be so fucking close to the stage! On thursday me, Mich and Anna got to the venue at 4AM and were all exhausted and cold but I couldn’t feel anything but excited about the day we had ahead of us. It had been only about 36 hours since I found out I had a ticket so I still couldn’t believe that I was there. We got some weird looks from security, they offered us food and were warning us that we’d have to move when they started loading stuff in and all. One girl arrived at 6AM (who turned out to be the most annoying, selfish person in the whole queue imo..) and some more people at around 9AM I think. Chelsea and Laura got there by about 10AM as well. The band arrived at the venue around 11AM I think? (I don’t know the times very well as I didn’t have a phone so never knew what the time was haha) Chris came over and me, being a huge crybaby, started weaping cos I was so touched by a certain thing that happened and was saying thank you to him. So after the annoying people got their signatures or whatever, Anna shouted Chris over to us and I got to thank him quickly though he wasn’t very focused as there was a personal issue which he told us about but that I won’t mention here. He also told us that they’d play a set that would be a bit shorter tonight cos of that problem. He had to go for the live lounge then though so didn’t stay there for very long.

After that the security guard who had been there from the beginning and was looking after us, came over, pulled us aside and told us that we’d have to leave the queue to get wristbanded so we should go NOW before he tells the rest of the queue (so we wouldn’t lose our spots on the queue). So the other four (Anna, Mich, Laura and Chelsea) went to get the wristbands and I was left totally alone in the queue cos EVERYONE in the queue went for the wristbands. I couldn’t go cos I was on the guestlist so didn’t know yet how I’d get my wristband and I had to look after our stuff.

SO what happened when I was left alone was that I turned around to look at what was going down by the bar where the band were doing the live lounge and oh what do you know, Mr Phil Harvey is standing right next to me! I just went ”HI PHIL” without even thinking about it, he gave me a huge grin and went ”Heeey! Can you hold on a sec, I’ll be right back!”, he went to one of the loading trucks or behind them and got a cup of tea, then came back to me. I felt like Chris hadn’t really heard me say thank you so when Phil came back for a chat, I told him that sorry I knew that it was a bad time but could you thank Chris for ..(the thing that I wanted to thank him for) and while I was saying this, I started crying AGAIN cos I was explaining to him how much it meant for me that I got to be there.. Really embarassed haha. He went ”Aw, of course! What was your name? I’ll tell Chris!”, I told him my name and he asked me ”Are you coming tonight then?”, haha, no I’m just queueing here for fun.. silly man He told me that he had to go back inside and that he’d tell Chris and said bye to me. Then this really nice old security guard who had been there and seen us queueing for a long time came over to ask if I was okay cos I was standing there alone and I told him the situation and he was super nice and told me that he could look after our stuff if I wanted to go ask about the guestlist at the box office! So I went but they said it wouldn’t arrive until about 6PM and the doors would open at 6:30PM which made me sooo fucking worried!

Well then we went back to queueing and a bit later on the band came back and all of them except Mr Berryman came over to talk to us. Jonny came over first and I made a fool of myself (AGAIN). He came over to us first and looked at us, kind of expecting us to go ”can I have a picture” or whatever and I just went ”Hey Jonny, WHAT’S UP?”….He gave me an awkward nod and a smile and moved on as the annoying girl was screaming for a photo. After he got through the crowd we shouted him over to us, Mich and Anna showed him the tattoos which was funny and I got a picture taken with him (which Anna has). Then Will and Chris came over as well but I didn’t even try to talk to them cos of the crowd and I went over to Phil to ask about the guestlist. He was SO sweet! I went over like ”sorry for bothering you again” and he said ”Don’t worry about it! Johanna, right? What’s up?” And I told him about my problem and he was soooo helpful, we talked for a while and he promised me that he’d sort it out by the time they came back for soundcheck, then they had to go again. After this the intense part of the queueing started, with all the stress about front row and all. Zane Lowe and Fern Cotton came over to talk to people, more or less (Zane was even taking pics with people).

I finally got my wristband as well! Went to check at the box office again and just as we got there, the list arrived and I got wristbanded, so relieved! Then it was all about the stress of front row, security check and all that..But we got front row easily, on Jonny’s side. Zane Lowe was fun (and Greg James is a baaaaaabe), kind of boring at some parts but the excitement of live radio was really great and he played A-Punk really close to the end which got me super excited cos it’s sort of my song (as it’s about Johanna and all) and oh good lord when they went all FIVE SECONDS and then he announced that it’s CP time and Back To The Future started…We just went craaaazy! I felt like I was gonna lose my voice already there! When MX started, I just started to cry (yes, again..) and couldn’t believe I was there! It was the most surreal thing when they came on stage and we were so damn close!

Well I’m not gonna do a random spaz about every song either. Hurts Like Heaven was fucking amazing as always though, probably my favourite song on the album and it’s sooooo goooood live! GPASUYF is possibly my favourite CP song and I fucking LOVE the new version so I just lost it when they started playing that, the best thing ever! Was so cute when they were huddled around Will for the build up and then Chris sort of turned his head for a sec to sort look at how the crowd was doing haha (or that’s what it looked like anyways). Charlie Brown is another favourite of mine so that was fucking amazing as well! The crowd was so good, jumping, singing along to every song, cheering, randomly chanting the UEA tune they have and just being generally awesome. The band seemed quite impressed by the crowd as well! I had soooo much fun during the show though I kept losing my voice as I’ve been really sick for like two weeks now and have an awful cough which was quite annoying but I tried not to let it bother me. Up In Flames was also great, was so nice to hear that live!

I thought the setlist was a bit boring to be honest, just so full of hits and all but that’s Coldplay for ya and I guess since it was on Radio 1 and all, it was a bit different. The encore was sooo brilliant though! First Chris told us to swear cos he’d just gone an hour on the radio without swearing, woo! So we were just shouting out swearwords at him haha. They started playing Green Eyes which suprise suprise made me cry again… After that Chris went ”this song was written probably before some of you were born” and started doing PARACHUTES. I couldn’t belieeeeve it! Parachutes is my favourite album and the little snippet is one of my absolute favourite things on it! They went into Shiver then which is not one of my favourites to be honest but this time it just really sounded bloody great! Before they played it Chris said something about how he and Jonny wrote it together in Jonny’s bedroom and the crowd started whistling suggestively haha and then Chris said something about how it was a sexy time and then Jonny kissed him on the cheek! It was so darn adorable! They ended it with Us Against The World which was amazing as always and then after a few bows they left the stage. Ugh we were all just blown away and out of words at that point! Anna got a setlist and I got one of Chris’ guitar picks which have the special ”sweat stopper” on it haha. We left the venue then, covered in Chris’ sweat and super happy (and exhausted)!

I loved the elephant costumes thing haha. We were on the liveblog, got mentioned on live radio by Fern and Zane, the band seemed to like it too! Will gave us a huuuge grin when they started playing Paradise and we rushed to fix out elephant hats haha. Guy kept staring at us, looking quite bored but that’s just what he’s like. Chris also put on his elephant head during ETIAW (?) haha. Fun times.

Can’t really put it into words what this night meant to me. Seeing this gig after such a struggle to get tickets, getting them in such an epic way, going with some of my favourite coldplayers who are crazy and amazing and so much fun, going from being really sad and worried about certain things to being at the top of the world was so tiring but also so incredible. Like Mich said yesterday, we really went through every possible emotion yesterday and in the end everything turned out so perfectly and we just had a blast! This was definitely the best gig I’ve ever been to (yep, tops Oxegen toootally) and was definitely one of the best days of my life! So thanks to Mich and Anna for getting me a ticket and for all the four girls for the company, you’re the best<3

[johkujii]

Pre Gig

So, to make the beginning of this short: the lovely Mich, my British Coldplay fairy godmother, offered me a ticket to the UEA show after getting one via Coldplay.com because I attended and graduated from UEA. It was a painful decision for me to decide to go, as I moved back to the US from Norwich only a few months ago and I'm an unemployed recent graduate, but in the end, I knew I simply couldn't pass up my favorite band EVER playing MY university. It was too good of a coincidence, and the girls I would be going with were too lovely to turn down. So I emptied my savings account two days before I was due to fly to England for this thing, when I thought I wouldn't see Norwich again for years.

I met Mich, Anna, and Jo at the Norwich bus station after my coach got in from Heathrow. I saw three loons through the window wearing absolutely fabulous elephant hats and I immediately knew I made the right decision to come. I'm not big on dressing up for things, or really trying to be noticed at gigs, but this was perfect, and I was completely on board. It was so amazing to see them all again, and I immediately was filled with this warm feeling of being understood--too many of my friends have admonished my decision to spend tons of money on a last-minute international flight for a BAND, a SINGLE SHOW at that, but these girls not only understood that, they would have done the same, probably. Even if Coldplay had sucked or we'd gotten shit places to watch from or something, the whole trip would have been worth it just to hang out with them. I'm not rolling in the good friends department these days, at least among ones I can see often, and even among my great friends that I've had all my life, none of them understand the things I'm interested in. To be able to be with ones that DO understand and moreover that feel the same way is invaluable, no matter the price tag.

We dropped off our stuff at our hotel (quite literally on the corner of the street my former house was on and next to my local Tesco, which was very Twilight-Zoney) and went to UEA to check out the scene. I figured there would be nothing to see, and I was right, but we'd have wondered if we didn't make sure there wasn't already a queue or something. So we just scoped out entrances and the actual venue itself (the LCR, which was being set up for a Diwali party thrown by the Asian Club...low-key Diwali party one night, balls-rocking set from one of the biggest acts in the world the next). The LCR itself is very, very small, for almost any artist that has any vaguely recognizable name, so to even imagine seeing COLDPLAY in a square box that looked like it could hold maybe 300 people (really it holds 1500, I don't know how) was just mindblowing. Even more mindblowing for me was that I knew this room like the back of my hand--I'd never seen a gig there myself because all the acts I wanted to see always sold out months and months in advance and it's more about getting drunk more than the music, but I'd walked through that room hundreds of times, hung out at the tables in there while making phonecalls and killing time between class, just...done mundane things in the room I'd eventually experience my favorite band giving the best show of my life in. Very strange.

We went to Nando's for dinner because it's my favorite and we don't have it in the US. I was an absolute zombie, up for about 34 hours or something at that point, but we still stayed at the restaurant for hours beyond the time it took us to finish our meals. We talked about everything: the band, the music, the new record, the board, the people we've met through this band. It's so wonderful to really sit down and reflect about how much impact this band, via this fan board, has had on my life. If I never got interested in Coldplay and therefore never joined Coldplaying, I honestly have no idea where I'd be right now. I think it's safe to say I might not have moved to England as I did, I wouldn't know hundreds of wonderful people I now know and crave spending time with, I wouldn't know as much about computers and the internet, and I wouldn't listen to half of the bands I was introduced to in the WoM section. I owe so much of my life as I now know it to this board and this band.

Anyway, we went to the hotel and tried to sleep. It was a kind of rough night for all of us (4 in a hotel room designed for two anyway, haha) since we were nervous about the next day and what it would bring. Even jet-lagged me had a horrible time trying to sleep--it didn't help that Jo whispered "OH SHIT" in her sleep right in my ear either! It was agreed that the other three would go to uni to queue around 4AM and would graciously allow me to join them later after I slept off the worst of the jetlag. I eventually fell asleep around 4:30-5 after they left and slept til 8:30, when I got up and got ready to join them.

Gig Day

So I left the hotel at like 9:45 and walked down the street I walked down every morning to the bus stop I waited at every morning and took the bus to uni like I did every morning...but this time, it was for a Coldplay gig. It probably seems like I'm making a big deal out of all that, but it was so wonderfully weird, I can't get over it. It was also advantageous, as I already knew exactly how to get where we needed to go and where the toilets were and where the food was. It would be weird to do this for any other band as well, to go to a gig of someone I liked and was a fan of at such a venue, but to do it for COLDPLAY was just incredible.

The mood was tense in queue, which was right outside the LCR and right next to Congregation Hall, where I graduated four months previously, so I tried to have something of a calming influence. Laura had arrived as well, and it was lovely to see her again. Jo and I asked at the box office about how wristbands would be given out at noon, and they told us they'd do it right in queue, which was a huge relief to us, because it meant we wouldn't have to queue twice at two different locations and potentially sacrifice our first-in-line position. When I arrived, there were maybe about 20 people behind us, which I was somewhat surprised by--I did think the craze was mostly for getting tickets rather than for positioning once in the LCR, but I thought more than 25 people would have been there for noon when it was wristband time.

I'm not sure what time it was when the band showed up in blacked-out people carriers, but I glimpsed them all walking into the LCR (COLDPLAY JUST WALKING AROUND ON MY CAMPUS LIKE IT'S NO BIG DEAL). Of course, everyone in queue screamed when they saw Chris, so he came over, which he didn't need to do. The first thing he asked us was if we were queuing for that evening, which I found endearing--he didn't seem to believe that we could possibly be there that early for him and his band. But besides that, he...didn't look great, and told us why. Even though it's on the board in other places, it's not my place to say what he told us, as it's very personal, but I'm including it in my story because I feel like it's an important part of the course of the day. He told us they'd be playing a shorter set due to the circumstances, and even though that kind of made me wince because of all it took to get me there for this show, I completely and wholly understood why that needed to be the case. Needless to say, the five of us felt terrible for him, and our worries about the day were immediately thrown into stark perspective. We backed off and didn't pester him for pictures or autographs, both because of the circumstances and because most of us had gotten our moments with the band at other times and didn't feel like we needed to do it all again so desperately. What really perturbed me, though, was that most of the other fans in queue didn't seem to even acknowledge what he said and simply begged for more pictures and autographs. I understand excitement about being around someone you admire and someone that's famous, but when they tell you something very personal and sad like Chris did, how can your first reaction be to just badger him more for photos and signatures? I'll never understand what went on in the minds of a lot of the people there at that moment.

So we were in sad moods for the next bit of queuing, but decided that we needed to buck up and still give it our all as fans for the band's sake. The LCR security/venue guys came over and told us that unfortunately, because load-in was taking longer than they thought, they wouldn't be giving us our wristbands in queue, but had to move the whole thing to the LCR cloakroom. Because they knew we'd been there since 4AM, they made sure our little group was at the very front of the new queue. All of us besides Jo (who got her fancy ass on the guest list ) got our wristbands, which really cheered me up. They not only were the nice plasticky kind, not just paper that disintegrates, they said "COLDPLAY MX" in the bubble font, as well as "Norwich UEA, 27 Oct 2011." Having both the band name and the venue and date on the wristband meant a lot to me, as dorky as it sounds. I STILL don't believe my favorite band played my uni, and every time I look down at the wristband and see my uni's name with my favorite band's name, I go into a bit of a spaz attack.

Queuing, queuing, queuing. I would have loved to see the band at Live Lounge (WHICH WAS IN MY PUB, OK), but it was crowded and I was more concerned about staying in line to ensure good places for that evening, as well as staying with the other girls. After Live Lounge, the guys were going to leave and go back to their hotel for a bit before coming back later that evening for soundcheck. As they were leaving, Jonny decided to come over to the queue to have a chat with us! Again, none of us really badgered him for autographs or photos because the other fans around us were having at it enough for all of us, but Jo got a photo, and Mich and Anna showed him their tattoos. Jonny said they were cool, and Mich then said "are they really?" which I just found hilarious (and still do), and so did Jonny. Mich asked if he knew what songs the symbols referred to, and he originally said "no" and laughed really hard. Then he said something like "nah, of course I know" and walked away before we could test that knowledge.

Will and Phil also came over a few minutes later, which really thrilled me because Will was my favorite of all of them when I met them last year. Once again, we didn't pester him for photos or autographs, but at one point I did let my fangirlyness come out in one big gush and I touched his arm and said "thank you SO MUCH for coming, this is my uni!" Obviously that's a really ineloquent, obvious thing to say, especially because I was wearing a UEA hoodie, but because I was excited I didn't really word what I wanted to say properly. What I meant was that most of the other people in queue weren't actual UEA students and I was (or formerly was), so it just meant a lot to me to be able to see them HERE, but I couldn't really get those words out with everyone else begging for his attention. At least the last time I met him I had an OK conversation!

Chris also came over a moment after Will did, and looked to be in much better spirits than earlier with lots of smiles, which was a huge relief. He was being very cute with Will, putting his arms around him and rubbing his back and stuff, and I just loved it. I didn't really talk to him much personally this time besides thanking him for coming over, and actually my best memory is of how new and clean his trainers were, which is weird. Also that his kung-fu/karate shirt had seen a few too many trips through the tumble dryer, because the picture was all cracked and faded when you saw it up close. At least I didn't tell him how badly I had to pee this time.

The rest of the queuing process was routine--nervousness, tiredness, coldness, chatting to others. It was obvious that we were the most diehard fans there that we could see: getting there at 4AM says a lot, anyway, and the people around us were impressed with how many times we've all seen them (I think over like 50 times between all of us) and how far we'd travelled for things like this. The fact that I came from New York impressed several people, I think. I really didn't want that to become a "wow, look at me, I came from NYC for this!" type of thing at all, but I feel like it kind of became that, unfortunately. Actually, once we were inside and in our places, I mentioned it once to one girl next us, and she kind of spread it to a bunch of people around us, which kind of embarrassed me, especially because I hate when people turn being a fan of something into a competition. Being a fangirl becomes with this weird mixture of pride and mortification.

The hour before the doors open is always the worst. By now we had our elephant gear on, and one of the LCR workers we made friends with held up an old ticket for Cage The Elephant up against the window to show us to make us laugh, which was hilarious. We also creepily gaped at Miller as he bought a soda from a vending machine on the other side of the glass, hedging bets about what he'd buy (he went with Lucozade). Coldplay came back from their hotel, and people went APESHIT, absolutely SPRINTING from their places in queue to the barrier to see them, fanboys climbing over each others' shoulders and getting on piggyback. It was kind of astonishing, actually, and also ridiculous to think that a lot of people thought they could simply get back to their old places in queue once they left them. We heard the real soundcheck with the band, and THEY DID GLASS OF WATER, which got me super excited as it's one of my all-time favorites. We were also very excited by the liveblog, which we followed as best we could via Anna's BlackBerry, and squeed our brains out when we found out we were on there in our elephant costumes.

Moments before the doors opened, there was a scare for Anna and me--the LCR put up signs saying NO PHOTOGRAPHY, and Anna and I both had SLR cameras. They were going to make us put them at coat check, sacrificing our places in line, but one of the LCR workers we befriended offered to take them off our hands for us, which was wonderful. Once they opened the doors, I think I might have been the first one in--leave it to the pushy American to be the first through the doors. We all got front row easily, on Jonny's side, and were finally able to completely relax. There was a great hand-painted backdrop on the stage, glowing in the blacklight, and Zane Lowe's mixing desk was set up right in front of us. A normal gig has you waiting around for ages before the opening act and then again before the band, but because this was a broadcast with a tight schedule, Zane came on right at 7 and the band came on right at 8. Zane was actually great fun (I love him anyway) and it was somehow ten times more exciting to be on radio, but I got a bit too excited for the first 10 minutes or so of his set and used up a lot of my fragile energy. Let me just say that being jetlagged and then queuing all day is very different from just simply queuing all day, even if it's at a festival where you're standing at one stage and can't leave to use the toilet or get food even once. I was absolutely exhausted by 7:15 and decided to cool it on the having-fun part of things until Coldplay came on. I lived up to that promise until Zane played "A-Punk," "Sex On Fire," and "Still Life" all in a row right before Coldplay came on, because I love all of those songs. I also screamed a lot when Zane mentioned our elephant costumes, and when everyone started doing the UEA cheer: "OH U-E-A IS WON-DER-FUL, OH UEA IS WONDERFULLLLL..." Oh, and when I saw how fricking adorable Greg James is in person. Good lord, I will be listening to his show.

And then they were on. I absolutely lost it, seeing them THERE, first of all so close (but as haughty as it sounds to say, I've seen them close before), but really because here we were at MY uni in MY city, seeing the loves of my life. I'm not a crier, but I thought I would cry at this. It turns out I didn't, but I did a lot more girly screaming than I normally do--usually I just whoop a few times and sing along to every word, but I was a little more fangirly that night, especially every time Chris said "UEA" or "Norwich," and I think I freaked Mich out a bit . "MX/Hurts Like Heaven" is my absolute favorite from this era, so to have that first almost made me wish I had brought diapers. The band also loved our elephant costumes--even GUY smiled at them, and when "Paradise" was starting, Will gave us the BIGGEST grin and head-nod. Despite everything, Chris was a maniac as usual, his usual self until the end, when I thought he looked much more exhausted than usual, completely wiped to the point of looking like he was just going to pass out. He was also SWEATIER than I've ever seen him--I obviously know he sweats a lot, but this time it literally looked like he took a shower in his clothes, or peed his pants or something. He flicked a huge spray of sweat on Mich, Anna, and me at one point, which was actually rather disgusting. He and Jonny were more bromantic than I've ever seen them as well, which was lovely to see. I think the other guys really helped Chris get through what he was dealing with earlier in the day--you could just see it between them all, I think, and Jonny really seemed to watch out for him. Another reason I will always love and admire this band: their tangible love and support for each other, when shit is great and when shit sucks. They really act like brothers, and it's so nice to really be able to sense it between them, even as a far-removed outsider.

I took a lot of photos with my small point-and-shoot, some of which came out pretty decently. I usually try to take fewer pictures than I did, and strike a balance between really living the gig and creating something to look back on, but this time I went crazy with the photos because I couldn't believe they were there, and I wanted as many photos as possible of them playing my uni. I also videoed "GPASYUF" (in which Chris still threw the guitar despite being on a small stage--I thought the thing was going to land ON us at one point) and "Green Eyes" because holy hell, I never thought I'd see that live. I'm really kicking myself for not recording "Shiver," though, both because it's my favorite song and because of the kiss Jonny gave Chris during it (and because they did "Parachutes" right before it!)

Every time I've seen them in 2010 and 2011, I've said that they're the best I've ever seen them. I don't think that's me becoming easier to impress--if anything, I think I'm much HARDER to impress than I ever have been, in terms of quality of live performances. I honestly just believe Coldplay are on the absolute top of their live show game. I'm trying not to conflate the significance of the venue and the loveliness of the company of this gig with the actual performance, but I really do believe that it was just as good as Oxegen was this year, which is the best they've ever sounded to me. I have to download the set now and re-listen, but I think they just rocked everyone's balls off. And the crowd was fantastic as well--when most everyone that's in the room literally had to sleep outside just to get tickets, you know everyone's there because they really want to be, not because their girlfriend dragged them or they got free tickets from work that they feel like they had to use to say that they saw one of the biggest bands in the world. That's another reason why this gig was special and different. And the group of fans directly behind me knew every word to even the new songs, which is so nice to hear.

They played for an hour and ended with ETIAW (which I LOVE still, but I see a lot of people saying that was a disappointing performance of it--I have to re-listen). I honestly believed that was it, both because that was pretty much a full set for a radio performance and because of what Chris had told us earlier in the day (and because they always end with ETIAW), but...they came back out. Chris said that because of his bad news, they only had time...for THREE more songs. I couldn't believe it--if I had somewhere I needed to be more, I wouldn't do even a single song in encore, let alone THREE. That boy is too nice for his own good. The first thing Chris asked us to do was collectively swear as loud as we could now that we were off-air, so the whole crowd screamed "FUCK!" and then "C-WORD!" (which I hate ) at his urging, and then he said that they usually don't even have to ask for people to say that to them. And then they started up "Green Eyes," which I'd never ever heard before live, and it killed me. Next, after a bit of "Parachutes" (WHAT? I COULDN'T BELIEVE IT) and the most adorable kiss from Jonny to Chris, was "Shiver," which is MY FAVORITE, and they ended the whole thing on "Us Against The World."

I will never, ever get over this gig: the location, the company, the performance, and how everything worked out better than expected despite it all. I've gotten a lot of flak from people I know for buying a plane ticket to another country two days before I was set to fly...for a BAND. But the bottom line is, no one besides people I know via this board will ever understand what this band means to me, and therefore how much it meant for me to have them play my uni. I actually hated university every single moment I was there, not because I hated UEA, but for a whole bunch of reasons that are too long to go into here. In this sense, it seems to be a bit silly for me to pile so much significance on a gig at a place I didn't really enjoy myself at, but I kind of see it as the opposite--this gig was a perfect kind of closure to an experience that was less than fantastic. But regardless of how much I did or didn't like uni, to be able to see and experience something that means so much to me at a place I once lived and learned and have a connection to in any sort of way is something that I feel so, so lucky to have had the opportunity to attend, especially when so many didn't have that chance when they so wanted it.

We all had to take an early coach from Norwich to London the next morning on Friday and had breakfast in Victoria Station together before saying goodbye. I saw Jo and Laura again that night for dinner in London, which was again lovely, but so hard to say goodbye the second time. I've never had post-gig depression like this. It's weird, because it's the START of a tour, and the chances to see them again are just going to get more plentiful, but I think the things that are really making me sad are that a) I don't know if any other gig will ever match the significance of this one for me, and b) more importantly, I had to fly back the US on my own and leave the other four behind. It sounds so dorky and stupid to say, but I was reminded just how lovely it is to have real live friends on this trip, ones that you don't have to hide your interests from and who you can actually talk about these things to without censorship. All I really want right now is to be able to hang out with Jo and Laura and Mich and Anna in London forever. And, you know. See Coldplay over and over again too.

[Approvimately Infinite]

Media Reviews

Twitter Updates

LdnMich: @coldplaying The stage Coldplay will on tomorrow twitpic.com/764685

cartoonheart_: Band has arrived. @coldplaying

LdnMich: @coldplaying Just heard band rehearsing HLH in room up above us.

acrossunvrs: Can hear them doing Live Lounge (in my pub!) from queue!

uniofeastanglia: Ooh @coldplay are in the house and warming up. We can hear Paradise! #uea #studenttour

acrossunvrs: Well the LCR people were very nice! Moved the queue while keeping it perfectly in tact.

nickyprice: Coldplay rehearsing now in the Blue Bar at UEA.. Playing three songs live on Radio One at midday. Many students peering into the bar!

jdbeeson16: Norwich bound to see coldplay and @jjbeeson

LdnMich: @coldplaying The scene outside where Coldplay are doing the live lounge twitpic.com/76gick

acrossunvrs: The wristbands say Coldplay UEA on them x.x twitpic.com/76goca

LdnMich: @coldplay @coldplaying The menu in the UEA cafeteria twitpic.com/76gosa

cartoonheart_: @coldplaying The bell went past, I repeat, the bell has arrived! #vivalavida

The Oracle on 27 October 2011: BBC Radio 1's Student Tour, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK

December 19, 2011 - submitted by Susan, United States of America
Q. Just got home from the club and I heard what I thought was a Coldplay song. Did Coldplay cover any Rhianna songs recently? Possible it was just the house mix.
Thanks, the one who knows everything!
The Oracle replies:
Coldplay did cover a Rihanna song recently but that was for BBC Radio 1's Live Lounge and was an acoustic version of We Found Love so it won't have been that - unless it's an unofficial remixed version that we know nothing about.
What you probably heard was a bootleg (that means totally unofficial) mix.
It was possibly Princess of China which is a Coldplay song on their new album, Mylo Xyloto, featuring Rihanna on vocals.
Without knowing though, it could have been any of their songs and hers in some kind of mash-up as those do the rounds also.

Live Blog

Norwich R1 show - live photoblog, 27 October 2011

27 October 2011: BBC Radio 1's Student Tour, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK

From WikiColdplay

Contents

Setlist

Photos

Videos

Discussion

Fan Reviews

Media Reviews

Twitter Updates

The Oracle on 27 October 2011: BBC Radio 1's Student Tour, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK

Live Blog

Views

Personal tools

wikiColdplay navigation

coldplaying.com

Search

Toolbox

Google ads