Life In Technicolor ii
From WikiColdplay
Life In Technicolor ii (also written as "Life in Technicolor II"), is a song written during sessions for Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends. It was due to become the opening track for the album, but was later added to the album as an instrumental with most of the vocals stripped from it. The vocal version of the song later saw release as a single on the Prospekt's March EP. In essence, Life In Technicolor ii is the full, vocal version of the instrumental song Life In Technicolor.
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Background
The band reportedly chose to make the song an instrumental this in response to a comment that the song was "the obvious single". Chris Martin: “It’s nice to not have a singer on the first song come in and ruin it. This is our milkman song, the most whistleable thing. We took all the lyrics off because this song was our only safety net.”
The instrumental Life In Technicolor features a different, sampled intro that forms the basis for The Escapist, the closing song on the album. Both songs sample from "Light Through The Veins", a song by Jon Hopkins. Life In Technicolor ii however does not use the sample and bears no relation to The Escapist.
The instrumental was illegally leaked onto the internet over a month before the album's release, in the form of a flash video of the band playing the song in studio with producer Brian Eno. Both versions of the song came to be performed together live on the Viva La Vida Tour, with Life in Technicolor opening the concert and Life In Technicolor ii appearing in the encore as the closing song.
Life In Technicolor ii starts with a loop consisting of a santoor accompanied by tabla-like percussion. The loop is then repeated through the verses and part of the chorus. The music video, at the song's start, features a puppet santoor player and a puppet tabla player, before the band puppets enter the stage.
Release
A promo CD single for the song was released in December 2008. The Life In Technicolor ii single was made available to download on 2nd February 2009 on 7" vinyl and digital download, and was accompanied by a video which premiered on Channel 4 in the UK and via the official site on 12th January 2009.
The single includes the previously unreleased and unheard track The Goldrush, one of the few Coldplay songs featuring lead vocals by drummer Will Champion and also includes additional vocals by Brian Eno.
Tracklisting
7" vinyl
- A. Life In Technicolor ii
- B. The Goldrush
Digital download
- Life In Technicolor ii
- Life In Technicolor ii (Live @ The O2, London)
- The Goldrush
UK Promotional CD
- Life in Technicolor ii (Radio Edit) – 3:37
- Life in Technicolor ii (EP version) – 4:05
US Promotional CD
- Life In Technicolor ii (Radio Edit) - 3:37
- Life In Technicolor ii (EP Version) – 4:05
US Promotional CD - 2nd Version
- Life In Technicolor ii (Pop Edit) - 3:14
- Life In Technicolor ii (Radio Edit) - 3:37
- Life In Technicolor ii (Instrumental) - 4:07
US Radio CD
- Life in Technicolor ii (Radio Edit) - 3:12
Awards/Nominations
Life In Technicolor ii was nominated for two 2010 Grammy Awards for "Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal" and "Best Short Form Music Video".
The Life In Technicolor ii video was nominated in the Best Art Direction in a Video and Best Visual Effects in a Video categories at the UK Music Video Awards 2009.
References in popular culture
The instrumental version of this song (released on the Viva La Vida album) can be heard as the film Night at the Museum 2 ends during a scene with Ben Stiller and Amy Adams. It was also used on Sky Sports' "Ford Super Sunday" coverage during the 2008/2009 as well as "Match of the Day" during the same season.
This version was used at the beginning of the Great Yarmouth (UK) HIppodrome Circus show 2009. NFL Network also used it for their coverage of the 2009 NFL Scouting Combine and also for their coverage of the 2009 NFL Draft.
The song was also played during the opening montage of the 2009 ESPY Awards.
Music video
The video for "Life In Technicolor ii" was directed by Dougal Wilson. It features the band as 'Punch and Judy' style puppets performing at a village fair. Numerous children are watching a Punch and Judy show, which gives way to the musical performance. As the video progresses, the show gets more and more elaborate with the stage doubling in size, a large catwalk extending into the audience, and smoke, pyrotechnics and special effects. The performance appears to spoof Coldplay's concerts. Finally, the band members board a helicopter that exits the village hall smashing through a window. The video ends with Will Champion's puppet throwing his drumsticks out of the helicopter into the hands of one of the children.
As a result of the video, the puppets have been featured 'on tour' on Coldplay's official website. Photos of the puppets are taken at popular locations in various cities that the band visit on their 'Viva La Vida' Tour. The offical programme for the tour was also updated in 2009 with the puppets on the front cover.
A Coldplay source said: “The puppets were Chris’s idea. The band wanted to do something funny and light-hearted. The videos so far have been quite serious and performance-based. This time they wanted to do something that had a lot of humour in it and that slightly sent up the band too.”
On November 20th, The Oracle delved into the intricacies of Coldplay's 'Life In Technicolor ii' video:
November 20, 2009 - submitted by Karen, France
Q. Hi Oracle! I saw the pictures of the puppets and I wonder if it's only Chris's puppet that can "talk" because in the video of LiT ii, we just can see Guy's and Will's puppet singing "oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh" ... But on these pictures, they don't all seem that they can "talk"... So, do all the puppets move their mouth? Thanks =D
The Oracle replies:
Actually you are right Karen. The only puppet with a moving mouth is Chris. In the video it appears that Guy & Will are singing but that is an effect used to make it seem so as actually their mouths don't move at all.
Video reviews
Since the exclusive release of Coldplay's new video for 'Life In Technicolor ii', blogs and media sources watched and inwardly digested the puppet video and posted online reviews. Here are a few picks:
Coldplay have unveiled their new video for the Prospekt’s March EP track, “Life In Technicolor ii,” the sequel to Viva La Vida’s instrumental opener. The Dougal Wilson-directed clip begins with a Punch & Judy-esque show being performed for nursery schoolers, but soon a puppet version of Chris Martin and the rest of Coldplay take the stage. What follows is pyrotechnics, crowd-surfing and awesome stop-motion puppeteering. To complete the authenticity of what a Coldplay show would look like if the members were under a foot tall and made out of wood, there’s even puppet roadies. What’s up with the sudden renaissance of puppetry in music videos lately? (Insert “artists are puppets of the industry” joke here.) First Kanye West explored this lost art with his “Champion” video and planned comedy sketch show. It’s like the entire music industry sat down for a mandatory viewing of Being John Malkovich. Or Bride of Chucky. [goodclef.com]
Coldplay has just released a new video for their single “Life In Technicolor II”. The video shows the band in puppet form, as they perform at a child’s birthday party. It is rather charming, as it shows the bands over the top bombastics in puppet form (including a full on light show with fog and fireworks). How can one not be amused at the idea of Coldplay breaking through someones window in a helicopter? The song itself really should have been on Viva La Vida, as it is superior to it’s instrumental counterpart. Unfortunately, they decided to put LIT II it on their EP Prospekt’s March which came out last year. [onethirtybpm.com]
Now, despite someone inevitably proclaiming that i’m a music snob, I just want to say that though Coldplay are far from my favourite band, I’m nowhere near hating on them. They’re a good band, and definitely have their formula nailed. Besides, they’re supposed to write good music, no? And they do that in droves. Anyway, one of the major criticisms most people chuck towards them is that they take themselves too seriously (e.g Viva La Vida is a stadium album that purports to be more). I don’t know if they do - their musical aspirations do tend to point towards that to be fair - but this video shows that they’re more than willing to laugh at themselves. [asfand.wordpress.com]
Love 'em or hate 'em, there's no denying that the new Coldplay video for Life In Technicolor II is pretty great. The video makes for the coolest puppet show ever. We love the sound guy (er, puppet) manning the boards over at the snack table. The puppet show performance is complete with rock star indulgence (a toy helicopter picking up the band) and a "throw out" of the drumsticks to the room's biggest fan - the little girl in class with the "Playin' It Cool" Coldplay book. [mog.com]
As previewed, Coldplay have made a video for "Life In Technicolor II" that takes place in an elementary school classroom and stars puppets where the Coldplay would be, and also where the hammer dulcimer and tabla playing intro musicians would be. Sadly no puppet Eno, but no matter; the real stars are the school kids reacting confused and passing around the crowd surfing Martin doll. Aww! Bona fide bulletproof, check your sniping at the door, kids are cute and super snark shields. Class dismissed. [blogdig.net]
Directed by Dougal Wilson, the video for the English outfit’s latest single, “Life in Technicolor II”, is for a lack of better words, a puppet show. Set in a school in front of young children - after all, where else would you see a puppet show these days? - the video sees said children being entertained by some lame ass, run-of-the mill story about kings and dragons. Fortunately, for reasons still unknown, Jonny Buckland soon enters in puppet form, with two, yes two, accompanying Indian bongo players - again, why this is the case is the million dollar question. Within seconds, the rest of “puppetized” Coldplay takes the stage and then, well the fun really starts. The stage expands, Chris Martin starts doing back flips, and the audience - of real people - though shell shocked, still manages to find time to eat cupcakes and videotape. Oh yeah, and to end the performance, the stage explodes and the band boards a puppet sized helicopter. Seriously folks, you can’t make this stuff up! I’m not sure whether to be frighted or rolling on the floor laughter. Whatever the case, this video is a must see… [consequenceofsound.net]
The making of the Life In Technicolor ii video
There is now online at Coldplay.com [1] an interview with Dougal Wilson, the Life in Technicolor ii video director, who regails us with tales from the puppet video. Here is the pertinent parts of the interview:
Hello Dougal. How did you come to make the video for Life In Technicolor ii?
Well, I've been doing music videos for a while and Phil Harvey, Coldplay's mysterious fifth member, got in touch to ask if I'd like to pitch for their next single, and to see if I'd like to meet up with him to talk about it. It sounded a little more engaging than your average video commission. Usually you just get emailed the track as an MP3 and you don't know how many people will be pitching for it, or how much of a chance you stand.
Do you know which of your videos Phil had been inspired by?
I think he must've seen my showreel, which would've had Bat For Lashes, Dizzee Rascal, Basement Jaxx and The Streets on it. If you go on our website, you can see a bunch of them.
Perhaps the Benni Benassi one caught his attention.
Haha! They did mention that one, yeah. But I suppose they noticed that most of my ideas are quite light-hearted or affectionately take the piss out of the artist. Maybe they thought that was going to be good territory for them. I don't really know, to be honest.
So you met up with Phil?
I did. We had a chat and it sounded like they wanted something in the style of what I'd done before, with my kind of silly humour. They were originally going to release a song called Glass Of Water, so that was the one I came up with an idea for. But that idea turned out to be too expensive and would've involved the band, which was looking really tricky because they were on tour. So, then I had to think of another idea, but it was nice because they were committed to me doing it by that point. Meanwhile, the band had suggested that they could be puppets, possibly in a Thunderbirds style. I thought puppets was a great idea, but that the Thunderbirds look had been done, with Team America.
You had worked with puppets before though, right?
Yes, for a Dizzee Rascal video, which meant it was territory I was familiar with, technically. So, I had a think about what we could do with puppets and I thought about Punch and Judy. It's a British institution; quite creepy, funny and anarchic, but I hadn't seen them in a video before. So that's how we came up with that idea. Then they changed the single to Life In Technicolor ii and it seemed to still work with the idea.
What happened next?
Well, the idea was developed that it was a Punch and Judy show which was going to be taken over by a puppet rock band performance. I thought we could have a few jokes, if we attempted to do the kind of thing Van Halen or Motley Crue would do, with all the cliches of a massive rock concert, but on a puppet scale. So I got the song and storyboarded it bar by bar, thinking of all the gags we could put in. I thought it was quite important that everyone watching would be completely unprepared for it, so you're constantly contrasting the people watching with what's happening on the stage. That was the main repeated joke throughout; people looking at it in a mixture of bewilderment and fear. It wouldn't have been funny if they'd started getting into it.
Some of the looks are amazing, particularly the little boy at the start.
Yeah, that is a classic little moment. We couldn't have told him to do that. We had a second camera which we just kept rolling on the kids we'd cast. Basically my criteria for casting them was that they could do a good bewildered expression; I just chose the ones that looked funniest when they opened their mouth very slightly.
How did you pick where to film it?
That was quite tricky. I wanted it to be in a very unsuspecting English village hall, so I tried to find the kind of place where the local ladies guild would have their meetings. But it was quite hard to find places that weren't being used, because those sort of halls are always being used by the table tennis club, or something. We searched for ages and then that one became available. It's in a place called Aldenham which is near Watford. Interestingly it's the same village where they shot the TV adaptation of the Midwich Cuckoos by John Wyndham, called Village Of The Damned. So it's got some film heritage.
Is it a nice village?
Yes, it's very pleasant and picturesque, although opposite the hall there are these nice little cottages and outside one of them was a big sign saying "Bring back hanging"! We made sure we didn't make too much noise around that particular neighbour. But the locals we met were all really nice.
How did you go about making the puppets?
I've got a really good guy I've worked with before called Nonny Banks. He does prosthetics for feature films and that kind of thing. I did some research into Punch and Judy-style puppets, before trying to draw rough likenesses of the band in that style. Then Nonny sculpted them in clay and we rendered them in fibreglass, then gave them a wood look with paint. I don't think it really matters that they don't look precisely like them, it's more that we're supposed to know they look like them. That's why I thought it'd be funny to really spell it out with the girl and the Playin' It Cool biography.
Is it a nice village?
Yes, it's very pleasant and picturesque, although opposite the hall there are these nice little cottages and outside one of them was a big sign saying "Bring back hanging"! We made sure we didn't make too much noise around that particular neighbour. But the locals we met were all really nice.
How did you go about making the puppets?
I've got a really good guy I've worked with before called Nonny Banks. He does prosthetics for feature films and that kind of thing. I did some research into Punch and Judy-style puppets, before trying to draw rough likenesses of the band in that style. Then Nonny sculpted them in clay and we rendered them in fibreglass, then gave them a wood look with paint. I don't think it really matters that they don't look precisely like them, it's more that we're supposed to know they look like them. That's why I thought it'd be funny to really spell it out with the girl and the Playin' It Cool biography.
Who did the puppeteering?
These guys called Jonny and Will and a friend of theirs called Martin. And another friend of theirs whose name I can't remember.
Um, Guy?
Ha! No, it wasn't the band, despite the names. But Jonny and Will are fantastic puppeteers. I just did a music video-style film for the English National Opera which has also got puppets in it and they worked with me on that too.
You're becoming the puppet video man.
No, no, definitely not. Besides, the opera one was mostly live action.
So, did filming for the LITii video go well?
Yeah. We planned it out very precisely, because the video has a story so we were filming pieces of a jigsaw which had to fit together. It's especially tricky with children, because they're only allowed to be there for a certain number of hours. So we had to do it very, very fast; we probably averaged two takes per shot. With a big commercial you can easily do 30 takes per shot.
And Phil came along to make an appearance.
Indeed, he did.
It's good how he appears, then disappears, then re-appears. Even within the video, he's mysterious and elusive.
Exactly! That's because he was only there for an hour and you have to shoot things in a funny order. For example, you have to do all the shots facing the stage at the same time, and then all the ones looking towards the children. You have to draw it up on the storyboard and work out what you'll film when.
Of course the video climaxes with a helicopter smashing through a window.
Yes, that was actually shot in the middle of the night, at the end of the last day. So all the daylight is artificial - it's just a big light shining in.
Is there any reason Jonny isn't in the helicopter? If that was a Beatles video, people would think it meant he's dead or leaving the band, or something.
No, there was no meaning to that whatsoever. It's just that the helicopter was quite small inside and the puppets were quite big. We had to pull their legs off to get them into the helicopter and even then we could still only fit three in with the roadie. When we tried to put all four in, they were so crushed, they didn't look alive any more. So as it's only a very short shot, we thought nobody would notice if we left one out.
But why Jonny?
I think it was probably because he was the one that was flopping forward at the time, because he didn't have enough Blu-Tack on his torso. So I'm afraid I just pulled him out.
Did you have to smash a real window?
No, that's a trick of filming. It's actually some fire doors which we opened and inserted a fake window into. We made it at great expense with balsa wood and sugar glass. We'd had two built in anticipation of one of them going wrong, but we were so short of time that when we smashed the first one and it seemed to work, we left it at that.
How did you actually do it?
The helicopter was attached to a long broom handle, which was just walked through the window. It wasn't flying, it's on a big pole with two hefty blokes walking about two yards behind it until it smashes through. Then in post production we rubbed them out.
There's been a slight controversy over whether the man with the video camera swears. The BBC have said they can't put the LITii video on their website because he does.
Really? How funny! But, yes, he does swear. He says "effing 'ell". He was a featured extra guy called Davis and he was brilliant. The original idea was to cut in with DV footage, but we never used that. But his face was so funny that we thought we'd put him in. We were just improvising and I said, "Imagine something strange has just happened and maybe swear". And he did it brilliantly. I thought it'd be funny to have it after the motorbike scene, because that's pretty much what you'd think if you saw that. It was a spur of the moment thing because it was funny. It was like a moment of humanity coming in. It wasn't supposed to be gratuitous.
Were your roadie puppets based on anyone in particular?
There was talk of basing it on one of the band's long-standing guys, but that didn't happen in the end. So one of them was based on Saxondale, the Steve Coogan character. He's the one you don't see quite so much who pulls on one of the motorbike ramps and flies the helicopter. The other one, who picks the cymbal up and does the mixing desk, is just a classic roadie, with a ponytail and an ear-ring. We thought we should definitely give him a roadie's arse, too.
So, are you pleased with how the video turned out?
Well, you work on something so hard for so long that it's very hard to be objective about the finished thing. But what's really nice is when people start watching it and telling you they like it. That's very, very pleasing. And it seems to have happened quite a lot with this one.
What happens to the puppets now?
We've given them to Coldplay. But I've got one of the roadies on my shelf - the one with the arse. And I've got one of the Indian musician characters we invented for the start.
Do you think we'll ever see them all together on stage again?
Oh, it could happen. A reunion tour must surely be on the cards.
Lyrics
There's a wild wind blowing Down the corner of my street Every night there, the headlights are glowing There's a cold war coming On the radio, I heard Baby, it's a violent world Oh, love, don't let me go Won't you take me where the street lights glow? I can hear it coming I can hear the siren sound Now my feet won't touch the ground Time came-a-creeping Oh and time's a loaded gun Every road is a ray of light It goes o-o-o-o-o-o-on Time only can lead you on, still it's Such a beautiful night Oh, love, don't let me go Won't you take me where the street lights glow? I can hear it coming Like a serenade of sound Now my feet won't touch the ground Ohh, ohh, ohh Gravity, release me And don't ever hold me down Now my feet won't touch the ground...
| Violet Hill | Viva La Vida | Lost! | Lovers In Japan | Life In Technicolor ii | Strawberry Swing |
| Life In Technicolor | Cemeteries Of London | 42 | Reign Of Love | Yes | Chinese Sleep Chant | Death And All His Friends | The Escapist |
| Postcards From Far Away | Glass Of Water | Rainy Day | Prospekt's March/Poppyfields | Now My Feet Won't Touch The Ground |
| B-Sides/Other Releases |
| A Spell A Rebel Yell | Death Will Never Conquer | The Goldrush | Lhuna (ft. Kylie Minogue) |
| Unreleased Songs |
| LeftRightLeftRightLeft | Famous Old Painters | Lukas | School | The Dubliners |
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