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[EaglesBabe18]

Coldplay - Viva La Sheffield - 29/11/08

Freezing fog was the order of the night in the heart of the city, as cars and coaches of fans carefully navigated into the car parks around Sheffield Arena, and to the respective ticket concourses. Inside, the 14,000 something audience, ages ranging between 7-70, quickly filled out the seats as black veils suspended from ceiling platforms were rolled down in front of the stage set up for this opening night.

While the house lights were still up, a piped feed of the classical Blue Danube eased any doubts I had earlier about echoey acoustics, then at 9:30pm sharp, Chris Martin, Jonny Buckland on lead guitar, Guy Berryman on bass and Will Champion on drums took to the stage. They launched with a short instrumental, Life In Techicolor, jamming behind the veils which rose for Violet Hill, revealing all to the audience who gave the band a respectable standing ovation and remained that way for the rest of the evening. Chris alternatively added "If you are at the first England concert, won't you let me know" as the closing line to rapturous applause.

Clocks consisted of lasers shooting various beams across the arena, before a set of globes featuring a montage of colours were lowered from the lighting platforms, setting the scene for Speed Of Sound. Next, 2 numbers from the new Viva La Vida album, firstly introducing Cemetries Of London as an apology for the change of date (originally should have taken place the following Sunday) and to blame Chris or his haircut for f'king up anyone's plans including The X Factor! An excellent 42 followed with a 70's style television set centre stage projecting live images onto the big screen backdrop.

Chris encouraged the audience to sing along to Fix You but wasn't really necessary as a choir of Yorkshire voices were already in song. Boy, they were good!

Settling down at the piano on one of the extended stage walkways, Chris joked that "he had a spot on his forehead the size of the Isle Of Wight" before, perhaps appropriately, singing the opening words of The Hardest Part, then suddenly announcing " that he didn't want to play this and let's play Trouble, very quickly changing the pace! Remaining at the piano, techno versions of God Put A Smile Upon My Face and Talk followed.

At this point, those high up in the tiers had to watch from 2 large screens either side of the ceiling above the floor or looking down with binoculars at the stage, as the show stewards began 'sealing off' the floor sections from entering the aisles. I started to wonder whether this was some sort of restraint as the crowd were mostly well behaved from where I was standing with the exception of someone reprehanded for filming or standing on their chair.

Politik featured another alternative lyric acknowledging the "14,000 people from Yorkshire watching us" sang by Chris and Will Champion performing an energetic drum routine in sequence to the strobe lighting effects. All evening, his drum work was a joy to watch.

We were in for a surprise when the quartet unexpectedly hurried past us along the aisle (explaining the sealed off floor audience) and onto a platform in the middle of the crowd at the back, playing acoustically and slowing the evening down with The Scientist, changing the closing chords to lyrics from Take That's Back For Good. Introduced as the great tradition of singing drummers, Will Champion had a chance to showcase his vocal talents with the upbeat Death Will Never Conquer, to an appreciative audience.

Returning to the stage, millions of flourescent paper butterflies rained down from the ceiling during a rocking Lovers In Japan, then another set of veils unveiled VIVA as the backdrop for an excellent rendition of Death and All His Friends as the final number. An anticipatory foot stamping ovation commenced for the encore, as Chris came back on under the spotlight and asked "Is there anything we forgot to play?" Chores of Yellow echoed amongst the Yorkshire choir one more time, as he and the band launched it as the song that first brought them to Sheffield, and will eventually kick them out of there!


Coldplay continue the tour in Birmingham tonight, and several dates around the UK this month. Catch them if you can!


Set (approximate order)

Life In Technicolor
Violet Hill
Clocks
Speed Of Sound
In My Place
Cemetries Of London
42
Fix You
The Hardest Part - alternating to Trouble
God Put A Smile Upon My Face
Talk
Lost
Viva La Vida
Politik
The Scientist
Death Will Never Conquer

Lovers In Japan
Death and All His Friends

Encore

Yellow


Photos

The Quartet



Clocks laser beams



Live screen clips



Butterflies - Lovers In Japan



Death and All His Friends


_________________
You can take the girl out of Wales, but you can't take Wales out of the girl!

"Don't look back, you can never look back"

[EaglesBabe18]

These are some of the better quality clips from Sheffield currently on Youtube -

42

Fix You

Speed Of Sound

The Hardest Part/Trouble

Lovers In Japan

Death and All His Friends

Trouble

Yellow

You can't come all the way to Sheffield and not play the back of the arena!

The Scientist
_________________
You can take the girl out of Wales, but you can't take Wales out of the girl!

"Don't look back, you can never look back"

[Henley_Fan]

Wonderful review, Tania! :D
_________________
I tried being good, but I got bored.

I'll have a cafe, mocha, vodka, valium latte to go please.

I'm so busy, I don't know whether I found a rope, or lost my horse.

I have CDO. It's like OCD, but the letters are in order like they should be.

[winslowboy]

love the butterflies and the fact that the band played to the back of the stadium for a change
_________________
Taking one day at a time means not having to worry about all of next week!

[EaglesBabe18]

Will have to scan some of the butterflies I managed to get hold of.

Yes, it was interesting to see the band playing to the back of the stadium. Jonny slapped my hand in a high five gesture when he passed me heading up there. Have you seen The Scientist clip?
_________________
You can take the girl out of Wales, but you can't take Wales out of the girl!

"Don't look back, you can never look back"

[EaglesBabe18]

[Henley_Fan]

[mewsical]

[EaglesBabe18]

A few more photos - Chris Martin, and showered with butterflies!




_________________
You can take the girl out of Wales, but you can't take Wales out of the girl!

"Don't look back, you can never look back"

[Henley_Fan]

Nice! :D
_________________
I tried being good, but I got bored.

I'll have a cafe, mocha, vodka, valium latte to go please.

I'm so busy, I don't know whether I found a rope, or lost my horse.

I have CDO. It's like OCD, but the letters are in order like they should be.