14 April 2003: Manchester Evening News Arena, Manchester, England

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After waiting for almost 4 ½ hours from the doors opening to Chris and the gang walking on stage, here is a blow by blow account of the evening (including the argy bargy in the ‘pit’).

The MEN arena is a funny place. They have outside doors, inside doors, even further inside barriers, and then when you get to see the staging you’re making your way towards, you get told not to run. It was a good 30 minutes before I sat cramped on the third row of bodies right in the middle section, knowing Chris would be bouncing somewhere close later on.

First band up (at the request of Chris I believe) was Ian McCulloch (Echo & The Bunnymen fame) with a few songs including one I’ve not heard of in a while ‘Nothing Lasts Forever’ which can’t have been recognised by many of the younger generation in the crowd. I don’t think Ian means to look or act like Liam Gallagher, but the way he swaggered on to stage with a fag and a bottle of beer certainly gave that impression, especially being on the biggest stage in Manchester.

Feeder finally arrived just after 8pm. You could tell who the Feeder fans were at the front, screaming for the leader singer (who’s name escapes me and the girl next to me was screaming too high a frequency for me to distinguish the name she was calling out to). Their set lasted for about 45 mins to an hour, and included new singles and old first album tracks like “High”.

The loudest cheer (amongst the Coldplay fans at least) of the night so far was reserved for the groupies, all four of them who carried Chris Martin’s piano into place. It seemed to take an age for the stage to be set up, and yet they seemed to have the least equipment of the three bands. Quality, not quantity as they say.

The lights subsided and familiar intro music finally arrived at approx 9.30pm, and the two new big screens either side of the stage (ALA Glastonbury) flashed into action. You couldn’t see them but you knew they were here as the cameras flashed nothingness and the shouting got louder. Finally Will, Guy and Jonny arrived on stage and grabbed their equipment instinctively, but Chris had to be different and bounce his way right to the front of the stage, before getting to the piano just in time to start Politik with the rest of the band.

Politik was the usual opener with simple white strobe light lighting up the whole arena and Chris bouncing off his stool (well ok he never does but you wish he would). God Put A Smile… was energetic as ever and I remember Chris managed to get the first line of Spies right for once unlike some of the sets I’ve heard.

Daylight was my highlight of the opening songs as the orange and yellow colours swirled around the stage. The Scientist was introduced by Chris as a ‘semi-hit’ but he played it like an age-old classic. It was about now where he dedicated one of the songs to Liam Gallagher, “The second best singer in the world”.

I was not expecting ‘A Rush Of Blood To The Head’ to appear on the setlist, but pleased was I when I heard the first few chords. There was something different about this song, Jonny had been given a free role to use his slider whenever he felt the need, and replaced some of Chris’s o-o-o-oh’s to good effect. Yeah ok, this was the best version I’ve heard yet, and it was right on my doorstep.

The two next songs could never be parted, Don’t Panic and Everything’s Not Lost. During the latter song, Chris sang a rendition of the Cheeky Girls in a teenybopper voice, to the amusement of the arena. Maybe he could give them a lesson in singing as well as how to play their ‘song’ on the piano

The final part of ENL was opened up to the whole crowd, especially “those who were here for S Club 7 but came on the wrong night, and those sat down the side who didn’t like Coldplay and were reading a book because they’d been dragged along by the person next to them.” Everyone got into the act and it made for a rousing finale.

Poor Me was the song that most people wouldn’t have recognised but it didn’t stop people enjoying it, especially the solo piano finish by Chris, while he lay his guitar on his lap.

The next two songs, Yellow and Trouble need no introduction, and Chris is now relying upon the other three to make the sounds as he dances around without guitar during yellow. Lighting was ‘all yellow’ and at least three people had fainted up to this point, and a couple had been ‘removed’ for crowd surfing and sitting on shoulders. Someone even had the balls to throw water forward which caught the whole front three rows including the cameraman and to be honest it did me good because it was getting quite stuffy!

Coldplay came back on following the encore to launch straight into Clocks, with green lasers filling up the whole arena, right up to the uppermost tier at the back. In My Place gave Chris free reign of the stage, ensuring no part of the crowd were left out as he got everyone to their feet.

The final song was my highlight of the whole night. Jonny, Will and Guy all left backstage, the lights to the whole arena came back on, but Chris made his way to the piano. I was expecting Life is for Living, but what we actually got was a solo performance of Amsterdam. The other guys slowly moved round backstage to join him after a couple of minutes to complete the song.

Coldplay as a group came to the front near the end to bow for the arena in a cheesy little thankyou for supporting the “lads from down south, except for Jonny” as Chris put it.. The full setlist is like this:

politik god put a smile upon your face spies daylight the scientist one i love rush of blood to the head don't panic everythings not lost poor me yellow trouble

clocks in my place amsterdam

~Ian Betley (www.coldplaying.com)

[edit]

Media Reviews

Boys behaving impeccably

By Alexia Loundras Friday, 18 April 2003

Coldplay are not cool. And they never have been. Famously derided by the former Creation Records boss, Alan McGee, as "bedwetters, they have never enjoyed the kudos once heaped on his most famous signing, Oasis. Yet, despite never having been hyped by the music press or wooed as style-mag darlings, the four impeccably behaved middle-class boys without a drug-addled tale of rock excess to tell arrive for the first night of the UK leg of their arena tour as the biggest band in Britain.

They have certainly come a long way from their humble, Radiohead-aping beginnings. Their infinitely (almost tediously) polite, teetotal front man, Chris Martin, now even has the ultimate rock-star-calibre girlfriend – the Oscar-winning actress Gwyneth Paltrow. The band have sold more than 13 million copies of their two albums worldwide, and the BBC's adoption of the driving piano chords from the band's new single, "Clocks", as its theme tune of choice has helped to ensure that Coldplay have not only hit the big time but slammed, head on, into the mainstream.

That overexposure may not have endeared the band to their critics, but it has not dampened the enthusiasm of the 13,000-strong crowd. The roar of anticipation is deafening as Martin and his three bandmates step on to the spartan, aqua-lit black stage. The soulless horseshoe of the MEN Arena becomes a writhing mess of screaming, hugging fans, arms waving as they sing along to every song.

From the pleading and intense set-opener, "Politik", Martin, too, is incapable of standing still. He exudes confidence as he mauls his instrument while bouncing about like a deranged undertaker, dressed in a black suit and blood-red T-shirt.

Despite his thrashings and the venue's massive size, the intimacy of the songs – their sweeping, anthemic melodies and Martin's soul-exposing lyrics – is not lost. Diamond-strong and dagger-sharp, Martin's voice tears through the beautiful, raw ballad "The Scientist" and the lovelorn breakthrough single, "Yellow", as though he were opening his heart for the very first time.

Chris Martin is Coldplay – the band's other members fade back into the dark. He has slain his shyness and no longer compulsively thanks the crowd for its support, as he did in the past. Instead, his banter takes the form of self-effacing jokes. The audience is entirely under his spell by the time he comes to the yearning "Trouble", the last song before the band return for their three-track encore. "Better than snorting coke off the back of a hooker," he says triumphantly – his giddy grin mirroring those in front of him – before qualifying that with: "which we don't do." Here, we have witnessed the coming-of-age of a true rock'n'roll star. Well, almost.

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/reviews/coldplay-manchester-evening-news-arena-manchester-594791.html

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