Oxfam UK Tour Blog: 3 December 2008
From WikiColdplay
From Intern to Roadie
Blog #1: Just in from our mystery guest blogger (Soha Yassine), who took the Oxfam reigns for the last three shows in US of 2008. 22nd November 2008. Salt Lake City. UT.
“… So come over, just be patient, and don’t worry” can be heard clearly enough that I forget for a moment that i’m standing in the middle of the concourse at Energy Solutions Arena. I take a peak inside, as the building-sized banner, that reads ‘VIVA’, drops behind Chris, Jonny, Guy, and Will. Audiences always seem to be moved by this moment, and the band does not at all seemed dwarfed by the towering banner.
Tonight Coldplay is in Salt Lake City, Utah, home of the first LDS Temple and the 2002 Olympics. When I arrived here last night to hop on the tour in place of my friend and colleague Pete, it was hard to resist reflecting on the prominent position Salt Lake City has in the mosaic of US history. Coldplay are making music history tonight by helping to bring music activism to heights Sir. Bob Geldoff could have only dreamed of in ‘85 when Live Aid drew in tens of thousands of rock and roll fans to rally around famine relief in Ethiopia. Coldplay have helped Oxfam mobilize an international resistance against hunger, poverty, and injustice. By inviting Oxfam America to tour with them, 600 volunteers have helped facilitate a global conversation about how active citizenship can eradicate poverty to over 100 thousand Coldplay fans that have sold out arenas across the US since July alone. Not bad for a quartet from London, not bad at all.
As the VIVA banner fell, another thought I couldn’t resist indulging was that it was only a handful of months ago that I was just a fan at a Coldplay concert in LA posing in front of this banner and hoping to work for Oxfam myself someday. It was the first stop of the Viva la Vida tour. When the show was over, I approached the Oxfam table that had been set up, to sing the praises of Oxfam and their Make Trade Fair campaign. I didn’t know that I was talking to Oxfam’s Senior Campaign Organizer, Brian, who urged me to look into internships at Oxfam, given my enthusiasm for their work. Two months later I was in Boston picking up where Brian and the intern before me, one Jack Carroll, had left off in running volunteer logistics for the Coldplay tour with Pete. Tonight, I’m representing the fight against hunger, poverty, and injustice on the Coldplay tour and I crack a smile as I think, “Not bad for a girl from San Gabriel, California, not bad at all.”
S
Ps. Shout out to Team Jen for coming all the way from Oklahoma City to volunteer with Oxfam tonight!
http://www.oxfamblogs.org/coldplay/?p=115
