28 June 2005: Crystal Palace Athletics Stadium, London, England
From WikiColdplay
Setlist
- Square One
- Politik
- Yellow
- God Put A Smile Upon Your Face
- Speed Of Sound
- Low
- Warning Sign
- Everything’s Not Lost
- Talk
- White Shadows
- The Scientist
- Don’t Panic
- ’Til Kingdom Come
- Clocks
- Swallowed In The Sea
Encore
Reviews
Thousands of music fans flocked to Crystal Palace to see Coldplay kick off their UK tour. They wowed a sell-out crowd at the National Sports Centre for the past two nights. The concerts came during a packed week for the band, who headlined the Glastonbury festival on Saturday and will be taking part in the Live 8 gig in Hyde Park this weekend.
Fans descended on Crystal Palace from across the UK to watch the gigs and hear songs from the group's new album X&Y, which has topped the charts on both sides of the Atlantic. Tickets for both nights sold out within days of going on sale, bringing 30,000 capacity crowds to the venue. Wimbledon's teenage tennis sensation Andy Murray was among those expected to be there.
Thousands more people headed to Crystal Palace Park on Monday evening to listen to the gig from outside, enjoying picnics and barbecues in the sunshine. And restaurants, pubs and bars in Upper Norwood triangle were packed, with people spilling out onto the pavements before the gig.
Crystal Palace station was packed as concert-goers tried to make their way home by train. Crowd management arrangements were put in place, with different coloured channels telling people which way to go to catch trains to Croydon, London Bridge or Victoria.
Southern Trains diverted services from other routes to cope with demand but admitted they were unprepared for the extra passenger numbers. A spokesman said: "There were more people than we anticipated using the train but we still managed to get them all away by midnight."
The level of service was being reviewed yesterday (Tuesday) with the possibility of more trains being added for last night's concert.
Crystal Palace National Sports Centre was one of just three venues chosen by Coldplay for their short UK tour, which is also taking them as far afield as Bolton and Glasgow.
I didn't initially manage to get tickets for the Coldplay dates @ Crystal Palace, but a friend of mine got a ticket to Glastonbury at the last minute and therefore offered me two tickets to the Crystal Palace gig on the 28th because he was going to see them at Glasto.
I decided to take my girlfriend who has like me been a huge Coldplay fan for a long time. This was to be her 1st time watching Coldplay live; whereas I had previously enjoyed them immensely at the Scala, Kings Cross in June 2000 (when Chris had really curly hair haha), Brixton Academy 2001 and Nottingham Ice Arena in October 2002.
All these performances had been out of this world, from the intimacy at Scala demonstrating the understated raw talent of the band as they finished with 'You Only Live Twice', to the bigger stronger performance as they eased into the status of a stadium band when I saw them in Nottingham... the spine-tingling opening of 'Politik' through to probably my favourite track live: 'Daylight'. Obviously my girlfriend and I were soooo excited at the prospect of seeing them @ Crystal Palace.
We arrived at the venue around 7, it looked something like a Pompeii ampitheatre on a stormy day in South London, grand yet quirky. After standing near the front to the left of the stage in the rain listening to Interpol we were well ready for Coldplay to appear and blow us away.
'Square One' kicked off proceedings, which was expected and was one of the best songs of the night as the crowd immediately got into the atmosphere. Unfortunately however as the band continued Coldplaying, to my astonishment we started to lose interest. I was so disappointed with the fact that ultimately the set was more or less identical to Glastonbury, which I hugely enjoyed watching on the tele. It was mirrored even down to the things Chris was saying to the audience and the taking photos of the audience bit.
I can fully understand that with the release of 'X&Y' Coldplay have enough 'big' dare I say commercial songs that both hardcore fans and general, wider audiences are going to enjoy to fill a whole performance, but surely Glastonbury which thousands of people are going to watch at home should not be replicated for the remainder of the tour. Worse, I know people who went to Glastonbury to see them and also have tickets for Bolton Reebok Stadium. I only hope they mix it up a little bit for them.
Admittedly at the end of the Crystal Palace set Chris thanked the audience for helping them through a difficult performance. Coldplay are so good though that I would rather watch them at half their best than watch many other bands. It just seems to me that in the past Coldplay weren't adversed to throwing in a b-side or cover version, which can completely make a gig for some fans.
Of the new songs, 'What If', 'Fix You', 'Til Kingdom Come' and 'Square One' were awesome, but I would have liked to have heard 'X&Y'. 'Don't Panic' didn't sound as good as it used to, but 'Clocks' which is by no means my favourite track from 'Rush of Blood' was spot on, epic in its magnitude to build to a creshendo played live.
I will definitely see Coldplay again, but if I had a message it would be murder for them not to play a few alternative tracks next time around. I guess I'm just not as easy to please as I used to be.
[thanks Paul]
