Coldplay - Wembley Arena. London, 16/8/2022

  by Shirley Procter

published: 8 / 11 / 2022

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Article

I’m at Wembley Stadium, it’s my birthday, and I’m about to see Coldplay live yet again. What a treat for my birthday! I recommend to anyone coming to Wembley for a gig to set off at least three hours before you think you need to - we set off in time to arrive for the opening act, but only got to our seats as the intro to Coldplay started, and that was after blagging our way into a car park! And we’re off! Coldplay open with the first track from ‘Music of the Spheres’ - I had said they would, as that’s what they did on their ‘Milo Xyloto’ tour! ‘Higher Power resonates around the stadium as the crowd go wild! We’re all wearing Coldplay pulsing wristbands, and the effect is incredible as the colours chase around the stadium. There are explosions of fireworks on the stage as confetti shoots out of cannons into the crowd at the front of the stage. Next up is ‘Adventure of a Lifetime’, with the song’s video playing on the screens. This time massive balloons roll out over the crowd on the pitch. I should explain about the pitch; the floor covering bounces as people jump and dance, and magically turns that kinetic energy into electricity that Coldplay harnesses to run equipment! Part way through the song, Chris Martin tells everybody to “get low”, so the whole audience crouches down, but keeps bouncing in time to the music, then we jump up for the chorus, “alive again!”. He tells us. “Hello everyone. It is great to see you all here! ‘Paradise’ is next! There's a huge disc shaped screen on stage that's showing each of the band in turn. I love ‘Paradise’; it reminds me of a lovely young man called Ayaz from Kerala in India, who was living with us when they released it as a single. He so loved this song! The camera pans around the crowd and finds someone wearing an elephant head from the video! Throughout the song, our wristbands flashlights sweeping through the stadium, changing colour. The effect is amazing. ‘Charlie Brown’ comes next. I first heard this at Glastonbury Festival and love it! Everyone is jumping up and down, as the wristbands flash multi-coloured throughout the stadium. Oh, the lights have gone out. There is just a spotlight on Chris Martin. The rest of the bard disappear immediately as he finishes the song. It segues into ‘The Scientist’. The screen is showing black and white images of Chris, singing and playing piano and the rest of the band join in. Our seats are brilliant- at the front of the second tier, and with a fantastic view of the stage! As well as the main stage, there are two side stages with one on either side, the usual runaway with a circular stage in the middle of the stadium, and a surprise small stage at the back of the pitch! As ‘The Scientist’ finishes, Chris tells us. “Thank you so much everybody and hello to all of you. In ‘The Guinness Book of Records’ it is going to say who was best crowd ever on a Tuesday evening, and it’s going to say tonight. Thank you for coming, everyone. Despite everything we’ve all been dealing with, we’re going do the best we can. You've come to see us and we’ve come to see you. You can sing it high or low”; he starts the chorus for ‘The Scientist’ and everyone joins in. The circle screen then plays the video in reverse! ‘Viva La Vida’ is next. It starts with drummer Will Champion singing the “Oh, oh, oh ,oh ohs”, before Chris then joins in with the lyrics. They're moved to the small stage in the centre of the pitch for this song. As it finishes the crowd carries on singing the “Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh” part for ages, as is the tradition with this song! ‘Hymn for the Weekend’ comes next. There are flames shooting up from the main stage! Then the confetti cannons explode again, and Chris dances through the confetti. Will is singing Beyoncé’s lines! He hits the high notes well, but I’d rather have Beyoncé there! As this finishes, the rest of band head back to the main stage, the stadium goes dark, then Chris asks if someone from the crowd knows the keyboard part for the next song, and if they'd like to sing with him. A bloke called Leo climbs up onto the stage, and they play/sing ‘Let Somebody Go’. Chris sings both parts, but gets the lyrics wrong a couple of times! All our wrist bands are flashing blue then white. The song ends, and Chris thanks Leo for playing with him, and asks him to play the opening notes of the next song. It’s ‘Politic’; the lighting is white, the stadium is completely dark and the circle screen shows the band in black and white. ‘In My Place’ follows next. Chris comes to our side of the stage for the first chorus, then moves to the other side to sing to them. As the song finishes, Chris introduces the rest of the band: “Will Champion; Jonny Buckland; please welcome from the planet perfection Guy Berryman.” Then all the wristband lights turn yellow, and. yes, the next song is ‘Yellow’! There are lights streaming along the edge of the stage, and, of course, they are all yellow. Chris stops singing, and we carry on. He then asks us to turn around and sing to each other, so we do. The stadium goes dark again, and the stage is lit with a red-orange semi-circle that looks like an African sunrise. There's no sign of the band, and a voiceover talks about what a wonderful world it would be if we gave it a chance - it’s Louis Armstrong. Chris then starts singing the acapella ‘Human Heart’. The semi-circle screen shows the lyrics. A girl puppet sings the woman’s lyrics. They're both standing on the small stage singing together. ‘People of the Pride’ is next. Everyone is clapping along. And, yes, Chris swears! He repeats the BBC concert. “There’s a man who walks around like he owns, he owns the lot.” but this time Chris Martin swears. Flames shoot up from the stage again the during the drumming/guitar part. The stage is flooded in green lights for ‘Clocks’. The crowd roar as soon as the piano starts. And the wristbands flash green as well. “Am I part of the cure, or am I part of the disease?” is one of my favourite lines in a song. The band are all in silhouette against the green lights. The song finishes, and the stadium cheers. Coldplay are all wearing light up helmets, as another song from ‘Music of the Spheres’ starts. The guitars are all lit up as well. It’s ‘Infinity Song’, which segues into ‘Something Just Like This’. They're wearing alien heads and have changed their T-shirts. Their T-shirts say "Everyone is alien somewhere”. Next from ‘Ghost Stories’ is my favourite song, ‘Midnight’ but with a techno beat. I've never heard it like this before. It sounds amazing! ‘My Universe’ follows! BTS are on the round screen, singing their parts. Chris can sing some of the Korean, but not the fast, rappy bits. There are more fireworks at the roof of the stadium. They start to play ‘Sky Full of Stars’, but then, just as he’s part way down the runaway, Chris stops the song, saying “Hold on!”, goes back to the rest of the band and has a confab with them. He tells us that he has a favour to ask us. “So, let’s try that again, but please, if we could just have one song with no cell phones, no cameras, no devices, nothing, just the power of people, people power.” I put my phone away, as does almost everyone else in the stadium. That is the last song of the night, apart from the encore, and the band leave the stage. The crowd stomps, cheers and claps, then we all start singing the chorus from ‘Viva la Vida’ as we want them to return onto the stage. The stadium echoes with people singing “Whoa, whoa.” A light appears, and everyone starts cheering and whistling, but they don't come back on. The wristbands light up in continuous waves around the stadium as we carry on singing. They come back on stage after a quick change, walk out back onto the stage, then walk down the runaway into the crowd, to go to the side of the stadium and end up at the back of the stadium on the tiny stage. Chris tells us. “This song we wrote 23 years ago. We want to thank you all for giving us this amazing life.” It's ‘Sparks’! This is one of my favourites of their old material, and I’ve never heard it live before. When ‘Sparks’ finishes, Chris then thanks so many people, “Thank you to everyone who has helped put this together, thank you to everyone who works here, thank you to the train drivers, tube drivers, bus drivers, anyone else who has helped.” “Thank you for being here, for being kind to each other. We're going to send love to everyone.” “When you give things you get things in return. What will give you Jacob? (Jacob Collier) the greatest musician ever?” Then Natalie Imbruglia joins them, and they play ‘Torn’, with Coldplay doing the backing vocals. Everyone sings along with her, and her voice is amazing! Chris then tells us. “We're going to do something we've just decided to do.” He then talked about Olivia Newton-John, how his dad was a massive fan and how Natalie arranged for them to meet her. He tells us, “We’ve decided to sing something. If you’re female, or identify as female, sing “ah”. If you’re male, or identify as male, sing “uh”. Now, I want you to practice “Tell me more, tell me more.”” And then they play ‘Summer Nights’. It is brilliant! They disappear from that stage, the screens go dark, but we can hear Chris playing his guitar. They appear on the small stage in the centre of the pitch and make their way their way back to the main stage with us all singing "I know, I know, I know!” The wrist bands light up again as they start to play ‘Humankind’. There are fireworks shooting from the front of the stage again. They are turquoise and yellow, then white, then pink. ‘Fix You’ is next; I first saw them perform this at Bolton Arena, when they recorded the video for it! Fireworks appear at the right time in the song, shooting from the roof of the stadium. He wrote this for his then wife, Gwyneth Paltrow, following the death of her father. Next up is ‘Biyutiful’ with the puppet singing as well. More confetti shoots out from the front of the stage, as fireworks explode from the roof of the stadium. At the end of the song streamers explode and the band say thank you, waving to everyone from the main stage. Then they all walk down the runaway to the small stage, saying thank you to as many people as possible, take a final bow, hug each other, and leave the stage. The circular screen then gives thanks to everyone involved in producing the show. The last section of the credits say “In loving memory of Ben Farrey and Steve Strange”. Ben was the band’s live visuals director, and Steve was their agent.

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