[27-Oct-2011] BBC Radio 1's Student Tour, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK

[Mimixxx]

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



That’s just one side of the building!



The menu in the canteen

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





(Please note those pjs are not flattering at all and add like 10 pounds! )

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.



A very excited Chelsea

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 to follow

[Yeshe]

Their cover of We Found Love is amazing. They bring love from a hopeless place to a hopeful place .

EDIT: So great to see all the videos (Green Eyes!), pictures and read about everyone's experiences!

[Dan 6N]

Sounds like fun! Anyone got anymore videos?

[**Laura**]

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.

PS: Sorry I didn’t take any photos but I’m sure the others will add some nice ones

[PolitikClocks]

Ask and ye shall receive.

Coldplay - Us Against The World - YouTube

[LiONACiD]

Totally Amazing !
One of the best love songs ever.

Thanks for the great video.

[l0wxo2]

Thanks everyone for the reviews, pics, and videos. Sounds like it was an unforgettable gig.

[Li_cold]

Wowwww, thank you girls for the amazing reviews! It really seemed a special concert! Greend eyes, Parachutes and then Shiver? Oh my dear gosh!!!!! You girls are so lucky!!!

And sooooo nie your elephant costumes! Lovely idea!!!

How come people didn't know who Jonn was???? Really, that makes me really angry. Real fans don't get the opp to take pics and these random guys do? That's not fair...

[Mimixxx]

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 =
  
  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

[busybeeburns]

Thanks for all the mega reviews and pics and vids so far! You've excelled yourselves once again!

Is there a video of Shiver posted yet that I can link to in the main site?

[Dan 6N]

Thanks for the UATW video! Maybe we're being greedy but I'd love a Shiver video too

[MX&Yellow]

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Mimixxx;5057505


Part 2 to follow

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THANKS FOR SHARING THIS

GREEN EYES & UATW videos *LOVE IT*

Waiting for Part 2

(MAYBE SOMEONE as "Shiver"'s video... ???)

[viva la vida]

Great review, lucky you girl

[#42vera.inês]

Thank you so much for the reviews, pictures and video! It seems you girls had a really great time! I'm happy for you

[LauCH]

Quote:

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Originally Posted by chommy_16;5057136
Hmmm No Green Eyes and Shiver
but at least we have this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66G64oTu5z4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZI3glnCKcc

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I love HLH like that. Great version! And the Rihanna cover was good too. I love when Chris plays piano

So funny on Paradise when Chris fails

Thank you all for your reviews, it's so amazing that Chris played Green Eyes for the girl who asked. That's so nice of him. Wow!!!