Oxfam Europe Tour Blog: 18 September 2008
From WikiColdplay
Strawberry swing.. inside a giant golf ball.
Let me explain that title. I don’t want you to think that the tiredness and cool Scandinavian air has made me start to hallucinate. Coldplay are on stage now, playing ‘Strawberry Swing’, in Globen (The Globe), Stockholm, Sweden, which happens to look like a giant golf ball. See.. I wasn’t making it up.
It’s been a while since I wrote. So let me just say… ‘Wow!’
1426 more Coldplay fans, like you and I, have made Oxfam’s Health and Education For All pledge. That’s just tonight.. and the night is still young! This is the second night in Stockholm’s famous Globe arena (*golf ball). On the first night, Oxfam volunteers helped 905 people make the pledge. That was with only 9 volunteers! Amazing stuff. Incredibly, that gives Oxfam a total of 2401, in two nights in Sweden. 2401 people who care about giving everyone, everywhere, access to good quality health care. To well trained nurses. The chance to go to school and learn, for a more sustainable future. Access to clean water and sanitation. Basic things that people need to survive, to be free from poverty, and to prosper.
I think that’s truly inspiring. Coldplay are out there at the moment, inspiring people with their music (the walls are shaking, it must be ’Politik’). I want to thank them for inviting us to involve their fans in Oxfam’s work around the world.
So.. back to Berlin. I failed to mention that! On Monday, Berlin played host to Coldplay in the brand new O2 World Arena, which overlooks the old Berlin wall. The venue was only 3 concerts old. It was a new place to explore, and felt a bit like a clean airport in comparison to some of the more mature venues we are playing.. (one of our volunteers went to the opening of The Globe in 1989..). Oxfam Deutschland volunteers again did a great job. Catching people sitting down or standing up, waiting for their favourite band, and giving them a chance to take action that night.
After Berlin, we were whisked away to Sweden. Literally whisked away. At first, I stayed up on the bus talking to Steffan, our driver. I then went to take a nap, and intended to wake up when we crossed “the longest bridge in the world”. I then slept through a ferry crossing, that bridge, Denmark and half of Sweden. After the first show was over, the crew took the chance to let off steam half way into this trip around Europe. It was a fun night. It was also a late night. Making a football match between band and crew, at lunch time the following day, a little more difficult for a few tired legs. The score was 11-8. It would be disrespectful to say which way it went..
This venue really is unique. I got vertigo when I went up to the top. It’s been two great shows here. But after this encore, a few hundred more Oxfam actions, and a quick load out from The Globe, we will hit the road again, for Norway.. Oslo awaits.
http://www.oxfamblogs.org/coldplay/?p=58
