Coldplay: Crystal Palace National Sports Centre, London 28 Jun 2005

There have been lonely nights spent looking at my mobile willing it to ring but to now avail but things always seem to happen when you least expect it. Then the unexpected happened, “do you want to go and see Coldplay on Tuesday, got spare ticket, 30 quid.” Well, when something like this arrives it is extremely difficult to say no.
Now I believe that Coldplay have come into a lot of undeserved stick of late. There was all the hype about the new album and Chris Martin's depression due to the pressure he felt to write another world conquering album (it must be tough at the top!!). I feel, however, that Coldplay's material is unmatched in its epic world sound. What I've heard of the new album is impressive although critics are taking great pleasure in picking holes in it. I would love to see them do better.
So it was with great excitement that I headed off to the Crystal Palace National Sports Centre. The fire inside which was my excitement was soon put out by the torrent of rain that fell from the heavens soaking all revellers who had chosen a slightly more summer-influenced wardrobe. Now where did I put that spare bin bag to put over my head?
There were two support bands on which I unfortunately missed but from what I could hear on the approach they wouldn't have impressed. I wanted to see the organ grinder, not the guitar-playing monkeys.
When Coldplay took to the stage the rain relented and the band took the stage with the confidence that comes from playing to thousands of people at Glastonbury. The launched into the 'beautiful verse, epic chorus' formula which I'm sure they have got the copyright on and the crowd lapped it up. The first track was their new single, which was impressive, but my heart sang as they launched into such classics as ‘Politik’, ‘Yellow’ and others from their first two albums. There was something magical about watching them play with storms visible on the London horizon with fork lightning smashing down as thousands stood and sung Martin's words with vigour. Probably one of the most bizarre moments of the evening was when Martin sang his lyric “God gave me style” and God then proceeded to give us rain. Some stayed and took on the rain, many took to stands for shelter. Martin admitted he now wished he had penned Travis' classic weather based anthem, ‘Why Does It Always Rain On Me?’

The rest of the night took much of the same feeling. There was brief change when they brought their drummer to the front of the stage to play piano for a song he wrote for Johnny Cash, which the Man in Black never lived to perform. This song had a real Cash feel to it with lyrics like “The wheels keep on turning, the drummer keeps on drumming”. Classic. They then returned to their rightful places and gave an electrifying performance of ‘Clocks’ that, with the light show, makes your hairs stand on end. They then left the stage with false statements such as “that's it folks. Goodnight” but unbelievably people took this as gospel and left. Have these people never been informed about the age-old gig format? Band goes off, crowd shouts for more, band comes back on. For crying out loud, we paid £30 quid for these, I'm going nowhere. True to the unwritten law Chris Martin hopped back on stage with the ridiculous dance that he does and the band saw the evening out with an absolutely show stopping performance of ‘In My Place'.
Coming home I decided, maybe Coldplay are developing a Marmite factor. You either love it or hate it but I know where I stand. I love their stuff and they also play it well. What more can you ask for? Perhaps an umbrella when you're standing in the queue for the train station at 11 o'clock at night. But hey, you can't have everything.

words: Chris Moriarty

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