London, Emirates Stadium live blog
Jun 02, 201223.02: And with that, it’s time to say goodnight. We’ll leave you with this photo of the band thanking the fans at the end of what was a very memorable show.
Thanks very much for reading, and for all your tweets.
Anchorman
22.57: And here’s how it looks now…
22.53: Here’s a photo of the crowd emptying out (they did an *amazing* rendition of Viva as they went….)
22.50: Thanks for all the kind tweets to #coldplayblog. Glad you’ve enjoyed the blog. Sorry we couldn’t respond once the show got going.
22.42: And here’s a traditional post-match photo of Will and Jonny (who were both a bit exhausted, but very clearly buzzing).
22.38: And we’re done. Here’s some photos of the slightly rain-soaked, but very pleased band coming off stage…
22.23: Tonight’s final song, Every Teardrop Is A Waterfall, is just about to begin. We’re going to try and get some photos of the band coming off stage. Back soon…
22.21: The climactic fireworks for Fix You, going up just behind where Roadie #42 is kindly letting us park our laptop for the evening.
22.14: Just made it all the way to the back of the stadium for the C-stage performance. As you’ll gather, it’s pretty wet out there.
21.56: We’ve belted back up to our room to take some pictures of the audience during Paradise and Charlie Brown (with the wristbands glowing, they really are the star of the show)
Is that lightning joining in the fun?!
21.42: These are from the X-stage during Princess of China and Up In Flames. It’s raining quite hard out there now. But nobody seems to mind much.
21.36: More pics incoming….
21.27: These are from Violet Hill. It wouldn’t be a great surprise if the Emirates Stadium actually took off soon. Crowd is incredibly up for it.
21.17: Off to take some more photos….
21.09: These are all from during In My Place, which was tonight’s second song. As we type, there’s an incredible crowd singalong to The Scientist going on.
21.07: And here’s the traditional pre-show huddle, seconds before they went on.
21.04: Right, the band are on stage and we’re sitting on a flight case next to Roadie #42’s control centre under/left of the stage. Here’s some photos of the band on their way to the stage…
20.41: Lots of you have been asking for a picture of Coldplay’s all-important fifth member, Mr Phil Harvey. Here he is, with Chris.
20.30: Fifteen minutes to go. Wristband on. The band are heading down soon, so we’ll go and take some photos. We’ll be back once they’re on stage. (Good time for you to go and make a cup of tea.)
20.25: Twenty minutes until stage time. It sure is busy out there….
20.17: Just found Will, Jonny and Guy in the warm-up room…
20.12: Robyn has finished her very enjoyable set. Coldplay stage time in 33 minutes. Off to see what’s happening in the dressing room…
19.59: Ooh, Roadie #42’s panorama shot from before last night’s Emirates show has just turned up! Click it for the high-res version. Way cool.
19.50: Robyn’s electropop is sounding really great out there. If you haven’t heard her, do check her out. Here’s some photos…
19.48: And we’re back (the front of the stage is several long corridors and many flights of stairs away…). Pictures coming…
19.35: It’s getting pretty busy out there now. Tonight’s second support act, Robyn, is just about to take to the stage, so we’re off to take some photos of her. Back soon…
19.28: aspiring musician just tweeted: "hey, could you ask Chris if he has a favorite pianist? #coldplayblog". So we popped into the dressing room to ask. But Chris wasn’t there. Jonny was, and his answer was "Elton John". Jonny then said that his dad is reading the live blog today – and wrote this note for him….
🙂
19.19: Daniela Morrongiello tweets: "Hey boys, "Blue Is The Colour" is the Chelsea FC anthem, not Manchester City. Manchester City anthem is "Blue Moon" #coldplayblog" That’s a very good point. Sorry. Ignore the earlier City reference. Whoever was playing that was clearly a Chelsea fan. Probably even cheekier, given they’re London rivals.
19.17: Eloïse Brown asks "Are they filming all of the shows or just the ones in London for the film? #coldplayblog" Not all of the shows. But the film definitely won’t just be based around London.
19.15: Azra Qothrunnada has tweeted to ask "how’s the crowd? #coldplayblog". Well, Rita Ora has definitely got them warmed up. There’s a real buzz of anticipation out there now. They look poised to party…
19.14: Bram Versyck has tweeted #coldplayblog, "Wondering if @coldplay will release a live film from the current tour." Yes indeed. Watch this space.
19.08: Here’s Rita Ora, giving it some serious welly – and warming the Emirates up very nicely indeed.
19.02: Photos incoming…
18:49: Right, just popping off to take some photos of Rita Ora, who’s just come on. Back soon….
18.38: And here are those exclusive photos from the Princess Of China video (which premieres on Monday).
18.34: We have some news for you. THE PRINCESS OF CHINA VIDEO WILL PREMIERE ON MONDAY MORNING. And we’re about to post some exclusive photos from it….
18.24: Chris Martin in da house. Or, indeed, the Emirates.
(He’s busy signing a bunch of photos, which have been laid out in the dressing room)
18.13: And we’re back, after a very tasty dinner where we sat with Jonny and Will watching the football (great goal from Welbeck). Here’s what was on the menu…
Pretty good, right? The fishcakes were certainly pretty darn good. As, indeed, is this tart which we brought back with us…
17.45: Right, with one hour to go until Rita Ora kicks off tonight’s show, we’re gonna head to catering for a spot of dinner. Back soon….
17.44: It’s filling up pretty quickly!
17.36: Here’s a slightly better quality video of Will and Jonny watching the crowd arrive just now (it might be better quality but it’s not, of course, live!).
17.28: Here are some photos of Will and Jonny watching the crowd coming in. As you’ll gather from the second one, they’re in good spirits today.
17.24: And there you have it. A slightly lo-tech live stream of the crowd running in to the Emirates to try and get a good position to watch the show (or, as Will put it, "in front of where Guy stands").
17.17: It’s a shaky, long-distance live stream of the crowd running in to get their places!
17.10: OK, live stream is go!
17.00: Hmm, we’re stuggling with this new hi-tech thing we were trying to do. And Will and Jonny are laughing at us.
16:43: For the first time in Coldplay live blog history, we actually now have a wired connection (thanks to the nice chap from Arsenal’s tech team). Which means we might be able to try something a bit different in a few minutes…
16.40: And we have our first band member photo of the day! Here’s Guy, who’s just arrived and is chilling out in the dressing room.
16.39: A pot of wristbands in the friends and family room (where the band’s personal guests will be before the show).
16:36: As per earlier point on soundchecking, the Charlie Brown performance from last night is now blasting out over the PA (you can tell it’s last night’s, because Chris mentions Highbury, which is the area of London we’re in, and the name of Arsenal’s old stadium).
16.21: Wow, Jo – who’s outside the Emirates at Turnstile 1 – has just tweeted us at #coldplayblog to show us how many Coldplay concerts she and her friends have been to recently, with her multiple wristbands providing the evidence. Good going!
16.18: Evelien Coolens has tweeted #coldplayblog to ask "Will the boys be watching England- Belgium later on? What’s your score prediction?" There’s a good chance that some of them will (Jonny and Will, most likely). The official Coldplay.com score prediction is 2-0 to England.
16.15: Here are some pictures from the warm-up room, where the band get ready for the show.
16.06: Aladeen of Wadiya has tweeted #coldplayblog asking: "how far are unreserved seating from the stage? want the best view but whether to stand or sit". We made you a diagram…
In short, some of it is really quite near the stage, but some of it is further away.
15.57: The view from the back of the Emirates. It’s a big ol’ place.
15.47: Coldplay are not using the dressing rooms which Arsenal football players (the dressing rooms are in corporate boxes behind the stage), but we did pop out heads into the real dressing rooms to take a couple of snaps…
Amazing to imagine the buzz in there at five to three on a Saturday afternoon….
15.41: Here’s the tunnel which Arsenal’s players run in and out of on match days.
15:34: An abandoned heart we saw down by the seats…
15.31: BREAKING NEWS FROM THE EMIRATES! The sun has just poked its head out of the clouds for the first time today…
15.29: And here’s the view from the B-stage at the end of the runway thingy.
15.20: The view which Chris will have from the stage later (only with 58,000 people filling the space).
15.19: Charlotte East has tweeted #coldplayblog: "What time did peope get there to start queuing for unreserved seats/standing?! Going Monday and want a rough estimate :D" We got here at around 1pm this afternoon and there were already quite a lot of people here (they looked like they’d come well prepared with picnics and rugs and wotnot).
15.16: Claudia Bowman has tweeted #coldplayblog to ask, "whens the panorama from last night going up?" Well, Roadie #42 didn’t get home until 3.15am last night (!) but we spoke to him earlier and he said he should be able to get it sorted this afternoon. We’ll post it as soon as we have it.
15.11: OK, so here’s the view from behind the stage, on the route that the band will take to it later on…
15.06: And we’re back. Photos incoming…
14.43: Right, here’s a photo of Chris’s wardrobe case from the band’s dressing room. And we’re going to leave you with that for a few minutes while we shoot of to take some photos inside the stadium. Back soon with lots of pics. Keep tweeting your thoughts / questions to #coldplayblog in the meantime…
14.39: Another couple of half decent photos from last night…
14:36: Kamilė just tweeted #coldplayblog to ask, "what exactly happen with Princess of China yesterday? that was confusing over the livestream". Kamilė is referring to Chris deciding to start the song again, after there was an issue with the video screens. It was worth it, though. The song second time round would’ve blown the roof off (if the Emirates had one).
14.33: Just going through the rest of our photos from last night’s show. Lots of them are *terrible*. But this one (from Lovers In Japan, if memory serves) is quite good.
14.30: Joshua Lutzno has tweeted #coldplayblog to ask, "When playing consecutive gigs in the same stadium, is there a need for soundcheck on the 2nd night?"
Well, the sound certainly will be checked – and has been just now – but the band don’t actually need to be here to do it today, as these days you can play out a top quality, multitrack recording of last night’s show over the PA, to recreate the show exactly. The instruments will, of course, also be checked. In fact, we just heard somebody playing a song called Blue Is The Colour, on an electric guitar – that song being the anthem of another English football team, Man City. Prime suspect is Matt McGinn.
14.26: Roadie #42 has just called. Turns out he’s got an internet connection at his workstation right down by the stage. Given that the room we’re in is at least a ten minute walk from the floor of the arena and we’re hoping to post photos during the show, this is Very Good News.
14.20: We should mention at this point that last night’s show here at the Emirates was an absolute belter – with an incredible crowd. Tonight’s audience will have to do well to beat them. Here’s a photo we tweeted during Charlie Brown (which has actually become one of our most popular tweets ever)
14.15: Letícia Barros has asked on Twitter (using #coldplayblog) where the band are now. Not actually sure, but we’d guess they’re probably still at home as it’s a London show. Would imagine they’ll be here in a couple of hours.
14.11: The band are not here at the Emirates yet, but we just popped into the dressing room to take some photos. Here’s the lounge / entertainment bit. (Notice the sports corner, complete with football, cricket bat and tennis ball.)
14.09: Ahmed Choudhury has tweeted #coldplayblog to ask when the Princess of China video will premiere. Good question. Not today. Not tomorrow. But very soon….
14.08: The room we’re based in today has Quite A Good View…
14.06: Apologies for the gap in service. Put it down to "wifi issues". All seems to be sorted now, though.
13:44: Joe Cerrell just tweeted us using #coldplayblog to ask what tonight’s stage times are. Here you go, Joe…
6.45pm: Rita Ora
7.30pm: Robyn
8.45pm: Coldplay
10.30pm: Curfew
(These are the same for Monday too)
13:42: It’s still more than three hours until doors open for tonight’s show, but there are already *lots* of fans sitting outside around the edge of the stadium, presumably hoping to get a spot near the front. That thing Chris says about Coldplay having the best fans in the world? True.
13:41: And here’s a picture of the outside of the Emirates Stadium, which Arsenal moved to for the start of the 2006 football season (for those of you who don’t follow football/soccer Arsenal are one of the biggest, best-supported teams in England).
13.34: As promised, a big hello to the first person to tweet us using the #coldplayblog hashtage. And that was Sarah Pring, who’s actually coming to the show tonight. Have a good ‘un Sarah!
13.32: Here’s a rather blurry photo of the nearest tube station to the Emirates, Arsenal tube. The station was originally named Gillespie Road, but was renamed in 1932 after Arsenal Football Club, who played nearby (at Highbury, which was a stone’s throw from the Emirates, where they now play). It is the only Tube station named directly after a football club.
13.29: Did you check out the terrific pictures which Roadie #42 blogged this morning, from the last few stadium shows? Well worth a look, here.
13.23: Hello and welcome to our live blog from the Emirates Stadium in London, where Coldplay will today play the second of three sold out shows. If you’d like to get in touch with us during the blog – which will continue right up until after tonight’s gig – then send us a tweet using the hashtage #coldplayblog (we’ll be keeping an eye on them). We’ll say a big hello to the very first person to send one…
