16 June 2008: Free Show, Brixton Academy, London, UK

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Coldplay, Brixton Academy

1 Setlist
2 Photos
3 Fan Reviews
4 Media Reviews
5 Videos

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Setlist

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Photos

Photos from this show can be found at Coldplaying.com in the Gallery thread for Brixton. http://www.coldplaying.com/forum/gallery/showgallery.php/cat/1500

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Fan Reviews

All fan reviews have been submitted to us by the members of Coldplaying.com[1], unless stated otherwise.

Anyway brilliant night all round, I was a bit worried about going on my own but the people sitting around me were really friendly. I thought the boys played a great selection of songs last night and I was thrilled to hear Square One followed by Trouble, what a treat!! Will taking up lead vocal duties on that new song If death Will Ever Conquer Me (Is that right?!) was a lovely surprise as well. Don't know about everybody else on here but i'm not convinced with Life In Technicolor as the opener, even though i love it on the album. It just doesn't have the same punch as Politik or Square One. That's just a minor thing though, as it was an amazing night, oh and let me just add how impressed with how Raw Jonny's guitar playing sounded at times last night. The best example of this was during God Put A Smile when the whole band really rocked out before Chris broke his guitar, does anybody on here know the lucky sod in the crowd who he gave it to?

Fantastic, bring on Wednesday now!

[politik*]

crazyduckette and sandi102

Back from Brixton!!

I got there at about 4...later than I was originally planning, but the queue was not that long really! I was in the first 25 people.....we got a little booklet titled 'Politik'...full of writing and wisdom, heh. I met Sandi in the queue, lovely lady, nice to meet you! Also found out that Pete (Kimchi) had got tickets... and saw him and Aakash when they arrived

The tickets went smoother than I thought! and everyone found it weird that I didn't have an extra person.....hey ho! Quick-footed it to the front of Brixton (my fave venue) and grabbed the perfect spot right in front of Jonny! WOOOOOO!

Thought that the support guy was cool...Im interested in animation and that stuff was just crazy!!! It seemed like a weird but nice decision for him as support.

Yeaaaah when Coldplay came on, it was crazy to be seeing them in Brixton. I had to blink really.....make sure I was seeing correctly...ahaha! My favourites of the set were, GPASUYF, the unexpected but truly awesome Square One....the long awaited Trouble for myself, the impromptu balcony rendition of Yellow, Lovers in Japan with the falling u.v butterflies! Being in front of Jonny and seeming like the only one taking notice of him was a bit sad....everyone was just all eyes on Chris Jonny was amaaaazing. William was soo so powerful and his solo was so cool! Guy.....smouldering, sorry can't help myself! Chris--hilarious and such a joker, haha.

Oh....and I got Jonny's setlist. WOOHOOOOO!!!

[crazyduckette]

When i arrived and asked people whether they were from the Coldplay forum (just realised, that sounds as if we live here!!!) they all said no so i was a little disappointed. Then we went across the road for lunch and who do i pass as I'm crossing the road?? Guy Berryman!!!!!!!!! and i'm like "Hey Guy, looking forward to tonight", and then I regret not stopping him for a pic, but the beefy security guy looked scary!!

AND THEN...as i'm waiting by the backstage door, i noticed a figure walking from the top, with a green hat and because of the T-shirt he's wearing i know straightaway that's its Chris. We were asked not to run up to him, but he was happy to stand and take pics with us, which was awesome. Its not the most flattering pic of me tho, so i don't like it, but Chris looks gr8. he has such piercing blue eyes.

what an amazing performance! Loved every second of every performance and the set list was spot on, incl. Girls aloud's 'Call the shots now'. At that moment me and Kara looked at each other and the expressions on both of our faces was priceless. I think we were expecting some surprises or stunts and the balcony acoustic performance of yellow just topped off what was an inspring night. Just incredibly mind blowing.

[sandi102]

What a gig, ranks alongside the best I've seen them (6 or so times, stretching back to the Rush tour)

No Politik (really missed that!) very little X&Y. No SoS thank the stars, Sqaure One was a revelation mid-set. The other highlights for me were Yellow (Acoustic) - was a bit iffy at first but to be honest by the end I was stunned, it's incredible and Lovers in Japan (of course!) with the confetti. Cheesy on MTV, wicked in person!

42 was AMAZING live till Chris messed up the end lol. Clocks was slightly understated, which was fine. VLV not my fave so I made a break for the bar and missed it really talikng about extortionate water prices with the great staff

The crowd were rotten, far too many people who obviously got there tickets online for a huge sum. The exceptions were the guys I met from here who were all stellar, especially my dance partner (he knows who he is!) and some other guys dotted around who were obviously huge fans (and they were probably from here too hehe).

Guys, we have one hell of a tour to look forward to

[kimchi baka]

Had lost all hope of going to Brixton, but yesterday a small miracle happened! having woken up now I'm slowly realizing, that yes. That did just happen.

Last night was awesome even without the gig, I Truly met the nicest person in the world and hopefully made a couple of friends

I think i was still in shock for the first half hour of the set , for me it really picked up during Lost!, from then it was the usual Coldplay experience of being pelted with one great song after another. for me the new songs sounded better than the older ones (apart from the acoustic yellow which was probably the highlight). I think the new songs sounded better because they were fresh. I have to admit coldplay were a bit rusty, but that could have something to do with me standing next to the side of the speaker?

did anyone hear chris sneak in 3peat by lil wayne and also some girls aloud? that too was great.

[aakashnaik]

Well, that was awesome.

Got there around 3pm, 6th in the queue so was happy with that. There was this american guy who got there before us and had sat on a needle and it pierced his skin! People were so worried for him and he was told to go to hospital. We all felt so sorry for him BUT he made it back before doors after having some injection at the hospital .

TOUTS!!!........are so stupid lol. The amount of them that came upto us asking how the tickets worked and walked off in a strop coz they realised they were beaten was a joke. However just about all of them came back asking for any tickets they could buy....

Anyways, also got one of them politik books which was random but something for the people who got there early. Oh and Chris martin just happened to walk off the street, past the queue and nobody realised until he had gone passed lol. I saw him come round the corner, hat on and head down i just thought it was a randomer, so annoyed! The viva la vida artwork that was on the wall was interesting....while they were putting it up the guy whos wall it was came along and got a lil stressy but they guy said he'll fill in the holes they drilled before they leave lol. It didn't actually have viva la vida on it until fairly late on when a guy came and painted it.

Moving on, doors finally opened a little after 6.30pm and security were confused by the 1st people, turns out that guy wasnt at the briefing he was supposed to be at and got in trouble haha. Into the venue, headed straight down to the barrier and got in just left of centre which was exactly where i wanted to be . Seemed to take a long time to fill up, persumably due to the ID checks although speaking to people later they were just randomly checking peoples ID later on.

Support wasnt bad, not exactly what i would listen to but the screen was kool and at the end of the day, he's dam good at what he does but then it was time for a real band to come on .

I like LIT as an opener but i dont like the way they did it. To have the song already playing and then just come out and play along with it surely causes doubts? Still brilliant anyhow, Violet hill was great and then i was so surprised by Clocks coming then and followed by In My Place! Actually like everyone i didn't have a clue what to expect which was good tbh. Square one was possibly the biggest surprise being played when it was and it was great apart from at the end...i dont like it when chris changes lyrics and that kinda thing . Then when they went upstairs to play everyone was just . It made it feel as though they were including everyone, except the people who were right underneath them so they couldn't see lol. Wills vocals were great btw.

Back down to the stage and Fix you was great, pleased it didn't close as Lovers in Japan worked really well and all the confetti was cool and kinda different. There was so much of it! The girl working one of the machines couldnt do it properly so a security guy helped her, lol. I have a perfect condition, bright green butterfly

Btw the broken guitar....chris handed it to the people on the middle of the barrier, several hands were all over it including that american dude and then it was immediately taken away by security. I still cant believe it actually broke, he didn't exactly throw it he just dropped it (purposly though). Think it was actually Johnny's guitar coz chris said sorry mate to him after.

Came out after only to meet james corden (the chubby guy from gavin and stacey). Got a nice pic with him! Hung about afterwards for a bit, saw will in the window above a door so waited there and then suddenly 2 of the band came out the door at the far end. One person told me it was guy and chris and another person told me it was guy and johnny . Waited a bit longer but nothing happened so i left leaving me enough time to get back to the station car park which closes at 1:30am. Got to rickmansworth at 0:45am only for the car park to be locked already. Nice hour stroll home for me and my mate which was a tad annoying.

However was still an awesome night, got my car back now and i will be complaining to the car park people

[BigSteve]

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Media Reviews

Coldplay review: the old ones are still the best

At the end of a gig heralding the comeback of Coldplay, the anointed heirs of U2 for the title best band in the world - a group on whose slender shoulders rest the hopes of ailing record company EMI; singer Chris Martin enthusiastically announces the unveiling of "something super extra double special".

This turns out not to be a duet with Gwyneth Paltrow or a version of Let It Be with Paul McCartney on bass but drummer Will Champion offering a fragile vocal to an obscure acoustic ditty.

For a 30 million selling supergroup, there is something endearingly gauche about Coldplay.

The 5,000 capacity Brixton Academy may qualify as a small venue for an arena band with stadium ambitions, but they tackle it with the slightly gormless enthusiasm of a college group playing for friends in a student bar (albeit with a better light show).

When not playing keyboards or guitar, Martin hops around on one leg and waves his arms about, like a cross between an over-excited child and a bad mime.

He forgets lyrics, tells jokes punchline first, hits bum notes and makes the cardinal showbiz sin of drawing attention to mistakes by apologising for them. Even when he does pull off a seamless segue into Trouble, he is so pleased he interrupts the song to boast about it, thus ruining its seamlesness.

All of this is to their benefit. Coldplay have a strength of character – friendly, excitable, charming and passionate – that success cannot erase.

It is one of the reasons their audience feels so connected to them, reacting warmly to their unstarry anti-charisma. The other (and more significant) reason lies in Martin's songs, carrying noble, passionate sentiment on waves of melody and monster choruses.

Wisely, despite having a new album to promote, they deliver most of their big hits, albeit not always as the audience might expect to hear them.

Taunted by critics for their soft rock comfort zone, Coldplay are in a bit of an experimental phase, which stretches to playing Yellow as a country ditty on banjo and harmonica.

But as long as the audience can sing along, these songs carry the day.

The new material is not always so effective. A few songs (notably Lost and Viva La Vida) have tunes that will break through any layer of sonic obfuscation but others just feel like self regarding padding.

Concluding with the childlike African influenced ditty Strawberry Swing is distinctly underwhelming and the mood was only restored by an exultant singalong version of their hit Fix You.

This is a set that is rough around the edges and has some way to go before it will be ready to take around the world but it was impossible to escape the conclusion that the old ones are still the best.

I suspect the new album may come to feel a little thin on repeated play. Coldplay have all the tools to be the biggest band in the world but they will have to decide whom they serve: their muse, the critics or an audience that, on this evidence, just want big songs they can sing along to.

Coldplay need to realise there is absolutely nothing wrong with that and stop trying to fix what ain't broke.

Neil McCormick http://www.telegraph.co.uk

Coldplay, Brixton Academy

Coldplay make their live return

Coldplay have marked their live return with a free gig in London.

The band played to Radio 1 competition winners at the 5000 capacity Brixton Academy.

On top of new material like latest single Violet Hill, Coldplay's set included some of their biggest hits like Trouble, Clocks and Yellow.

Coldplay's new album, Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends topped the charts at the weekend after being on sale for just four days.

Between the day of release on 12 June and Sunday 15 June, it sold 302,000 copies, outselling the top five biggest selling albums of the week, combined.

The figures make Viva La Vida Coldplay's fastest-selling album to date.

Viva La Vida

The gig was a fairly short and sweet affair.

Coming in at just over an hour long, it was a mix of material from the band's four studio albums.

Dressed in their new military style jackets, the band kicked things off with the opening track from the new album, Life In Technicolour.

A particularly boisterous Chris Martin dedicated the album's title track Viva La Vida to "anyone who felt like they were going to lose".

Its football terrace chant raised the roof as Martin bounded around the stage.

25 year old Rosie from Cheshire said: "I've never seen him as such a performer before, he was going wild.

"It's more experimental the new stuff.

"I think the more I hear it, the more I'll like it, I'm just so pleased they're back"

At one point, the band, having disappeared from the stage, re-appeared on the balcony where they launched into an acoustic version of Yellow.

Drummer Will Champion then took lead vocals for a cover of The Pogues' If I Should Fall From Grace With God.

18 year old Ed from Stafford said: "I thought they were brilliant, new stuff and old stuff as well.

His mate, 18 year old Chris, also from Stafford continued: "I think I preferred the old classics.

"The new ones aren't quite up there with the old ones."

By the time Coldplay were back on stage for the encore of Fix You, a huge flag bearing the word VIDA had unfurled behind them.

During the last song of the night, Lovers In Japan, two cannons showered the audience with red, white and blue paper butterflies.

26 year old Catherine from London said: "There were a lot more drums and it's a lot more more rocky.

"I'm up for it. It was brilliant."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/

Coldplay, Brixton Academy

Coldplay, Brixton Academy, London

As soon as they begin their show, we know that everything we had expected of a Coldplay gig, we are going to get. It's this predictability that has made Coldplay at once so loved by the masses and so rejected by everyone else who errs from the mainstream.

By Coldplay's standards, this is a tiny gig – so accustomed to the arenas and even stadiums are the fourpiece. Tickets for this show were won by fans on the band's website and in a piece of promotion, broadcast live on Radio 1, Martin makes sure we recognise just how generous he and the band have been, with self-congratulatory jokes throughout – "no refunds".

Coldplay may have helped guitar music into the charts in 2000, but their instant commercial success spawned the onslaught of bands Keane, Athlete and Embrace, simulating their brand of inoffensive indie rock, thus steering British rock straight down the middle of the road.

While their answer to Radiohead's earlier indie-rock was to remove their interesting sharp turns in direction and the disarming quality of Thom Yorke's angst-ridden vocals and lyrics, Coldplay have nailed a formula for the heart-tugging epic anthem of the masses.

It's early days for the new music, as seen by the crowd's varying reactions. "Violet Hill" is a success tonight, and one to join their line of hits which include "Clocks", whose emotive piano chords and Martin's falsetto has the crowd erupting.

"When you think you're going to lose, just sing this song," Martin says earnestly "singing can do the power of good," he says, introducing the title song of their new album "Vida La Vida". It's just one of the many moments in the gig that turns the crowd into a hug-athon.

"Trouble" is disappointingly dirge-like. But new song "Lost!", its organ chords of epic proportion, actually creates a ripple of emotion.

For the first encore they disappear up to the balcony to play a couple of acoustic songs, brilliant for the portion of fans at front left of the stage, perplexing for the rest of us following the spotlight. The effect, half comedic, especially with one well-timed heckle "Go on Chris, jump!" and emotive at the same time, as they played their first hit "Yellow". Martin unveils a new acoustic country song sung by drummer Will Champion, adding variety to their set.

"Fix You" is flawlessly performed, and is the best example of the band's ability to manipulate the strings of their audience's heart. This they follow up with the solid new track "Lovers in Japan" as colourful confetti butterflies start showering the crowd. It's a tasteful way to end the night and shows that Coldplay continue to do what they do predictably brilliantly.

Elisa Bray http://www.independent.co.uk

Coldplay, Brixton Academy

Coldplay at the Brixton Academy

With new album Viva La Vida or Death And All His Friends sitting atop the charts after just three days and 300,000 sales, you would think Chris Martin might finally relax. But after a month which has seen Coldplay’s frontman walk out of two interviews in the face of the most gentle of interrogations, it’s best to assume nothing. He may have befriended high-rolling rap tycoons such as Jay-Z and Kanye West, but their sense of entitlement has yet to rub off on the man who, in this month’s Q, preemptively referred to his group as “the world’s biggest bland”.

Perhaps coming back to the live arena with a free show – tickets “won” on a raffle basis – was a further lowering of the stakes, easing Martin into a role with which his modest ego seems to struggle.

“I know there’s been complaints about the ticket price,” he joked prior to the cathartic squall of Chinese Sleep Chant. Usually when a band returns with product to flog, trusted hits are spaced out in order to rack up goodwill for the new, less familiar stuff. Coldplay ought to take pride in the fact that the evening’s most exciting moments came with songs that the assembled throng were only just getting to know.

Switching from piano to guitar for 42, Martin bobbed about in his customarily awkward legs-apart manner before guitarist Jonny Buckland lit the touch-paper on the song’s propulsive middle section.

Next to that and the instrumental opener, Life In Technicolour, 2003 hit Clocks sounded like a half-formed idea that – under the current regime – would be lucky to fill 30 seconds of a new number. Similarly, the seismic current single Violet Hill sounded like a song with enough going on to sustain its creators a year down the line when they have had to sing it in five continents.

That the same couldn’t be said of Coldplay’s last album X&Y perhaps accounted for its almost entire absence from the setlist. Only Fix You made its way into the set – a mawkish memento of a period when creative complacency seemed to render Coldplay irrelevant. [That said, some things remain unchanged. Martin couldn’t resist a deferential allusion to Radiohead – a band whose continued envelope-pushing serves merely to compound his own insecurities.] Three years on, Coldplay sounded like a band who may have finally found an acre of sonic terrain to call their own. The journey travelled to this point was elegantly marked by an acoustic version of their maiden hit Yellow. If the ovation that greeted it doesn’t silence the voices in Martin’s head, only a psychiatrist or, maybe, hearing specialist can help him now.

Pete Paphides http://www.timesonline.co.uk

Super-Coldplay base-their-show-on-Poppins, how precocious

A SPOONFUL of MARY POPPINS is all that’s needed to help COLDPLAY’s live shows go down a storm, according to CHRIS MARTIN and Co.

For the brolly-wielding supernanny is the secret inspiration for the band’s spectacular concerts, I can reveal.

Before I caught up with the lads at London's Brixton Academy last night, I got to witness the final rehearsal at Wembley for their Viva La Vida tour, the UK leg of which kicks off in December.

And it was there that I caught a glimpse of some of the magic dust that Chris, JONNY BUCKLAND, GUY BERRYMAN and WILL CHAMPION plan to sprinkle on their superb set.

The show will be incredible, but frontman Chris reckons it still isn’t a patch on MUSE.

Chris – who we’ve mocked up as the brolly-wielding nanny– told me: “We grew up with Mary Poppins and all those sorts of things.

“We love making big shows up and trying to work out what lights will look cool. We get very nerdy about it because we can’t believe we’re allowed to do it.

“But we will never get as extreme as Muse. We’ll let them do the biggest thing and then think, ‘OK, how did they do it?’

“We have always been a step behind Muse. They’re so great live.”

Coldplay – who performed at Brixton last night and begin the UK leg of their tour in December – have splashed out £900k on six giant video orbs dangling from the ceiling. And the band will play at different positions all round the venues.

One highlight will be a different version of their first massive hit, Yellow, which the lads play as if they are busking in a Tube station. Chris added: “I think our concert will be really cool and a good balance between old and new. Because that’s the danger at this point – to not play Yellow.

“When people say we have moved on and shouldn’t play old hits like Yellow, I laugh.

“It’s like growing your hair and then wearing a hat. What’s the point of growing it? That’s how I feel about hits.”

Gordon Smart http://www.thesun.co.uk

Coldplay make live return with free London show

Coldplay made their live return tonight (June 16) playing tracks from new album ’Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends’ at London’s Brixton Academy.

The show, which was broadcast live on Radio 1, is the first of three free shows the band are playing following their fourth album's release last week (June 12), with gigs set to take place in Barcelona on June 17 and New York on June 23.

Taking to the stage at 8.45pm (BST) the band kicked off with the new album's instrumental opener 'Life In Technicolor', before launching to former NME covermount track, single 'Violet Hill'.

Without pausing to talk the band, wearing the French revolutionary-inspired jackets they wore on NME's recent cover, then dipped into their back catalogue playing the likes of 'Clocks' and 'In My Place'.

Finally before 'Viva La Vida' frontman Chris Martin addressed the crowd as tymphany drums were being set up.

"We were in Germany the other day and an interviewer said to us 'what does an English person do when they've won the World Cup and the European Championships? Turn off their Playstation'," recounted the singer. "We said that's true but we've written this song which you sing when you know you're going to lose, or maybe 'We Are The Champions', to get yourself through."

Ahead of fellow new track 'Chinese Sleep Chant' the singer joked about the fact the band's live return had been a free ticket give away.

"I know there have been complaints about the ticket price," he dead panned. "What can I say we're money grabbing whores!"

A trumpet-free version of 'God Put A Smile Upon Your Face' followed with Martin suggesting the intro sounded like Radiohead's '2+2=5'.

"Sorry you shouldn't talk about plagiarism when you're live on Radio 1," he joked. "Ignore that!"

Later on Martin paused 'Trouble' mid-song to ponder his future.

"Wasn't that a seamless crossover?" he asked the crowd of the switch between songs. "In years to come when the band split up and I'm doing a piano turn on a cross channel ferry you can say to me 'Chris I remember when you used to be a pop star, you used to do great crossovers between songs' and I'll say thank you! What a ferry journey that will be!"

Wrapping up their set with 'Strawberry Swing', Martin declared, "You're the most intelligent crowd in the world, thank you, see you in 35 seconds!"

Coldplay duly returned for their encore performing from the venue's balcony, playing an acoustic version of 'Yellow'.

Next Martin declared: "We're going to do something super extra double special which I've been looking forward to, please welcome to sing lead vocals our drummer Will Champion.

After the sticksman fronted an acoustic version of The Pogues' 'If I Should Fall From Grace With God', the band returned to Brixton's stage to play 'Fix You'.

They then wrapped up the show firing red, white and blue confetti into the crowd during 'Lovers In Japan'.

http://www.nme.com

Three songs into their set, Coldplay launch into their old single In My Place. The audience demonstrate their approval by singing along en masse, not to the lyrics, but to the song's guitar riff. Chris Martin breaks into a delighted grin, disrupts the song's mood of lambent despair by excitedly yelling "thanks for coming to see us after such a long time!" then literally skips across the stage. Whatever else you make of Coldplay's frontman, at least you could never accuse him of trying to win over crowds with arch displays of studied cool.

At least he appears to be enjoying himself, untroubled by the fact that that the morning's papers brought with them the news that Johnny Rotten had called Coldplay "a gang of poncy little masturbators" and added: "I pity the poor bastards who have to watch them". Even before Rotten's outburst, it was hard to think of a band in Coldplay's position - globe-straddling, arena-packing fame, cumulative album sales of 30m - who have ever approached the release of a new album with quite the trepidation that the quartet have lavished on Viva La Vida.

Martin's idea of promoting the thing seems to involve staging angry walk-outs with a frequency that would have impressed a mid-70s shop steward. First, he excused himself from a newspaper interview so innocuous that it was tempting to wonder why, unless the skin on his buttocks had become uncomfortably irritated through prolonged contact with the journalist's tongue. Then last week, with Viva La Vida already a huge commercial success (in Britain, it went platinum in three days) and enjoying a degree of critical acclaim he hurriedly departed from an interview with Radio Four's Front Row.

Watching Coldplay onstage it's hard to see exactly what Martin is so concerned about. Evidence of the new material's mildly investigational edge is demonstrated by the onstage appearance of some timpani during the album's title track, and the muted audience response afforded Chinese Sleep Chant's loving homage to late-80s indie experimentalists My Bloody Valentine.

Far more striking is the way new songs such as 42 and Lost! fit seamlessly alongside the tried-and-tested stuff - God Put A Smile On Your Face, Clocks, Trouble - thanks to Martin's unerring ability to write the kind of melodies that feel weirdly familiar on first listen.

Coldplay have always been a band who come into their own live - even the most platitudinous songs off X And Y sounded less aggravating when floating out over a sodden Glastonbury - and so it proves tonight. Brixton Academy is a venue that has been known to swamp artists , but by the standards of Coldplay, a band whose forthcoming world tour calls at such cosy sounding venues as the St Paul Xcel Energy Centre it counts as up close and personal.

Alexis Petridis http://musicguardian.co.uk

Coldplay Showcase “Viva La Vida” at First Free Show in London

“No refunds,” joked Chris Martin to the 5,000 lucky lottery winners jammed into London’s Brixton Academy last night for the first proper live gig from Coldplay in more than two years. Playing in front of flashing stadium lights that illuminated the ecstatic crowd, Coldplay opened with “Life in Technicolor” and “Violet Hill,” cuts from their new Viva La Vida, before rocking the crowd with classic hits “Clocks” and “In My Place.”

Basking in Viva’s stellar opening sales — the album moved 300,000 copies during its first three days of U.K. release — and playing for millions of less fortunate fans who listened to the show on the BBC’s Radio One, Coldplay worked through a set list that included new songs “42,” “Lost!” and the title track, interspersed with old favorites “Trouble” and “God Put a Smile Upon Your Face.” Playing in England for the first time since 2005, Martin thanked “the most encouraging fans in the world” as the band closed their set with “Strawberry Swing.”

A tireless Martin then grabbed an acoustic guitar, perched himself on the balcony of the venerable theatre and serenaded the audience with Coldplay’s first hit “Yellow” before introducing “something super extra double special” as drummer Will Champion joined Martin on the balcony to sing a version of the Pogues’ “If I Should Ever Fall From Grace With God.” The first stage in this new chapter for Coldplay came to a close with “Fix You” and the new “Lovers in Japan” as confetti exploded over the crowd.

The trio of free concerts continues tonight in Barcelona and wraps up on June 23rd at Madison Square Garden. Coldplay’s Viva La Vida tour launches July 14th in Los Angeles at the Forum and will take the band through Japan, Europe and North America.

http://www.rollingstone.com/rockdaily/index.php/2008/06/17/coldplay-showcase-viva-la-vida-at-first-free-show-in-london/

Coldplay triumph at Brixton Academy live gig return

Gavin & Stacey star James Corden, Kelly Osbourne, Stella McCartney and Robbie Williams' songwriter Guy Chambers pitched up to see Coldplay's first live gig proper debuting their new album Viva La Vida last night.

The free gig at London's Brixton Academy was packed out with fans and celebs who'd won a ballot to be one of the 4,000 people in the audience - and Mirror.co.uk is convinced we saw a tall, thin blonde woman and two young children on the upstairs balcony, but we can't be sure.

Regardless of whether frontman Chris Martin's wife Gwyneth Paltrow and kids Apple and Moses was there or not however, the singer put 100% effort into his performance, despite rumours of an injury to his knee.

Mirror.co.uk of course were there to see Steve Lamacq introduce the gig, which was broadcast live on Radio One.

We also witnessed singer Chris throw his guitar into the crowd for a fan to take home half way through the gig, to gasps of delight from the crowd - as well as cover Girls Aloud's hit single Call The Shots.

Naturally, Coldplay debuted tracks from their new album like Viva La Vida, Strawberry Swing, Chinese Sleep Chant, Lovers In Japan, Lost and 42 - but they also played old favourites like Yellow, In My Place, God Put A Smile On Your Face, Trouble and a fantastic encore of Fix You, complete with glitter cannons that showered the happy fans with confetti.

Dancing frenetically around the stage in his new military-style outfit, Martin worked the stage as the band made an assured performance which saw the packed crowd holding mobile phone cameras aloft throughout.

Even though current number one album Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends has only been on sale since last Thursday, the audience sang along every word of new tracks, including new single Violet Hill.

Chris also had a wry aside about the fact that gig was free to those lucky enough to win a ticket by joking that Coldplay were "money-grabbing whores!" as well as making a gag about the fact England hadn't qualified for the current Euro 2008 football tournament.

However, if you want to see the band in the UK soon, bad luck. According to their website, their next UK gig is not until December 1 at the Birmingham NIA.

Jody Thompson, http://Mirror.co.uk

Carling Brixton Academy, London, (June 17)

It’s tedious to keep talking about Coldplay’s tedium, when even the broadsheets and the most conservative of parents are casting them off, when even they start calling themselves bland. Really, though, they don’t give you a lot else to go on. Even the French Revolution get-up they bounce onstage in tonight seems like an ironic comment. What would be the do-or-die principles in Coldplay’s cultural coup? After all, no-one’s going to take lectures in fair trade and carbon efficiency from a man who’s recently taken Steve Jobs’ dollar to prance about like an MOR Gandalf in a field of luminescent smoke and nonsense.

Hence why it’s unfair to compare Coldplay to U2. For all their sins, Bono’s boys at their Brian Eno-produced peak really did strive for the transcendent. And yes, it got embarassing, but how much more weary is Coldplay’s tasteful restraint? Only a band with a comprehensive lack of scope, ideas or idiosyncracy could be produced by Eno and end up sounding so flat.

Sure, they can pen a great melody, but few get an airing tonight. There’s no ‘The Scientist’, surely the most lovely of their songs, and no drivetime-pleasant ‘Speed Of Sound’ or ‘Talk’ from the now-rejected ‘X&Y’ (though the mawkish ‘Fix You’ is present). Instead we’re left floundering in the doldrums of ‘Violet Hill’ and ‘Lovers In Japan’. Their strongest songs are still the simplest ones, so it’s a shame when Martin blows ‘Yellow’, probably the sweetest tune he’ll ever write, on a novelty ‘acoustic interlude’ from the balcony that renders the song weak and a quarter of the audience unable to see him. The strongest of the new tracks are the sultry shuffle of ‘Lost!’ and the almost-but-not-quite-epic surge of ‘Viva La Vida’, but you’d still happily curtail them two-thirds of the way through. For all Martin’s impassioned, need-a-slash writhing, there’s no real connection in the choruses, no rush in the dynamics. Maybe it’s just our wizened heart, but the most thrilling point of the evening is the tricolour-butterfly confetti canon at the end.

Nevertheless, it’s difficult to work up any real anger: Coldplay commit no real sin, except omission. They’re just there; like concrete or cornflakes, part of the everyday fabric of mundanity rather than something to lift you above it. As Martin asks, on the monotonous ‘Clocks’, “am I a part of the cure, or a part of the disease?” the answer is emphatically clear in our minds.

Emily Mackay

http://www.nme.com/reviews/coldplay/9777

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