30 January 2009: Chris Martin at Absolute Radio - WEBCAST - 1pm GMT
From WikiColdplay
Contents |
Setlist
- Viva La Vida (acoustic piano)
- Life in Technicolor ii (acoustic paino)
- The Scientist (acoustic piano)
- Violet Hill (acoustic guitar)
Photos
Photos from this show can be found at Coldplaying.com in the Gallery thread for Absolute. http://www.coldplaying.com/forum/gallery/showgallery.php/cat/1688
Videos
Videos from this show can be found in the first post of the Coldplaying forum live thread for this show at http://www.coldplaying.com/forum/showthread.php?t=53921
Discussion
All post-show discussion for this show at the forum thread: http://www.coldplaying.com/forum/showthread.php?t=53921
Fan Reviews
All fan reviews have been submitted to us by the members of Coldplaying.com[1], unless stated otherwise.
I've been mega excited for days now. Not just because I was going to be in the same room as Chris, but because we were going to see how this recording lark works!
Understandably, we didn't want to be late. We weren't too sure how long it would take us to walk to Absolute, so after breakfast and quick trips to Trafalgar Square, the National Gallery (I saw real Monet!!!!!!!), Downing Street & Westminster Abbey we hit the tube again and headed for the radio. We must have got to the square around 12ish, and there were already a few paparazzi hanging around. We went and sat on a bench in the square for a bit, and watched the paparazzi. We also saw Hoppy unloading stuff from a blue van with blacked out windows.
As we started to feel cold, we went for a walk up the street, and I grabbed a hot chocolate from Greggs. We stood outside, with the growing crowd, and observed all the activity. At about 13:10ish the crowds started to go in, so we headed in with them. Waiting outside to see Chris arrive wasn't an option. We wanted to see him perform, not walk down the road. We stood in reception with the rest of the people, and saw Chris walk through on his way in, with Phil following behind him. We stood around in reception for a while, whilst they did what ever they were doing upstairs.
Eventually they let us upstairs to the Zoo studio. Ian had managed to get us a space near the door, so were in the first few people heading upstairs. Ian ended up front row next to the camera man, and I was slightly to his left behind the camera man and someone else. We could see Phil stood near the back of the studio in the side, at what seemed to be some sort of control desk. Hoppy was on the floor sorting out the guitar, & piano.
Chris is hidden in a little room at the back of the studio. Christian O'Connell comes out to advise that we will shortly be linking live to the studio for part of the webcast. The radio comes over the speakers so we can hear the link. And you saw the next bit!!
Chris came out, some banter, and then Viva La Vida. Whilst Ian & I drove to London last night, we listened to a recording of yesterday's Edith Bowman show. That acoustic Viva La Vida was great, but actually being there in the room whilst it was played today was absolutely something else. I don't actually have the vocabulary to describe it right now. Amazing doesn't begin to describe it. Once we got rid of all you eavesdropping radio listeners, Chris played some more. There was some banter with a guy in the audience. Chris & Phil were checking we could hear, and some bright spark responded with "pardon?". Chris made him come to the front, and chatted to him for a few secs, found out he was also called Chris, before asking what song he should play. Someone near the back shouted "Strawberry Swing" and Ian shouted "Warning Sign". Chris said he wasn't asking anyone else, just the other Chris, who then requested The Scientist. Its one of my fav songs off AROBTTH, and again was superb!! There was none of the Take That at the end though I would say I was gutted, but that's a bit harsh seeing as though it was the most amazing experience, so a little bit disappointed will have to do.
Chris switched to the guitar for Violet Hill, and moved over to the other side of the room. I could actually see him much better because he was stood up, and there was no longer camera wires in my eyeline!! Loved it again.
LIT2 fitted in on the piano somewhere in the above. Somewhere between Piccadilly Circus & Wembley things have merged together a bit in my head.
After that, they finished recording the live songs. Chris returned into the little room at the back. Half the room emptied, but we hung around a little to see what was happening. We saw Ben so stopped him & said hi. Watched Hoppy & Phil walking around, and then Chris came back out. At this point they started clearing the room of everyone who didn't need to be there so they could record the interview with Chris.
I've come up with a few other, random, observations:
- Chris was wearing the Viva jacket, but it was way more vibrantly coloured than it seems in the media, or even from a distance at a concert. the coloured arm bands really stood out. he also had a white band on his right arm with a message about Obama on it (sorry, I'm rubbish and can't remember what it said )
- we got a black plastic wristband when we went in. I don't want to take it off yet but couldn't even if I wanted to!! Having fiddled with it, its going to be a scissors job and I don't have any in London with me. Have just spent a fun 5 mins trying to take a photo of my right wrist (with the logo the right way up) using my left hand!!!
- the sound quality in the studio itself is completely different. hearing LIT2 on Radio 6 just brought back the difference to me. in the studio its a lot more raw feeling. I was also intrigued by how quiet it was when Chris was playing. it was so still, you literally could have heard a pin drop!
- thought I might as well describe the Zoo studio to you to try and give you an idea of how cozy it was! Its a rectangular room, which is split pretty much in half. the back wall was black, with a door in it. this is the door Chris came out of in the webcast. on the left wall (as you're facing the back), is a screen which had the Absolute logo on it for most of the recording. on the right wall is a kind of screened off area, which is where Phil & Ben were during the recording. In the middle of that was the piano where Chris played. that's the back half of the room. You've then got a divide created by the camera peeps. there was one camera man in the middle with a camera on the stand (you might have seen him in the front of the pic that is allegedly me!!). to the left was a camera man with a portable camera. He was taking footage of Chris whilst he was playing, and then kept turning round to take shot of the crowd cheering & applauding (its his fault we were spotted ). there was another guy to the left doing the same thing, and then there was a woman sat on the floor near Ian's feet with a camcorder.
Behind this were crammed in about 40/50 people (the audience!!). It was very cozy & very warm, and very fun
- As Chris came into reception, there was someone following him with a camcorder. I don't remember seeing that person in the camera crew in the studio.
- I also have to share the reception area with you because its pretty cool. the front wall is glass and looks out onto the street. one of the side walls has the most amazing wallpaper!! its black with a bright pastel pattern on it. (I want some for my house, its so funky!). The other interesting thing was a big screen they had in reception. Its basically flicking through pages about the radio station. so there's a page with stats about Absolute, like how many people are listening online; a page which shows what's on the front page of the website; a page showing you the webcams (which is how we knew Ben was definitely in the building, and kept an eye out for him ); and most importantly a page about the Absolute VIPS. For those of you who haven't taken a trip to the Absolute website yet, if you sign up to Absolute you become a VIP, and you get emails teling you about various things coming up, you can blog, and you can make VIP friends, update your status etc. the reason the page in reception caught my eye was because it was showing updates of what the VIPS were upto. on the left side is a list of recently updated blogs, and on the right it was showing updated statuses, and who had just made friends etc.
[Jenjie]
Media Reviews
Eno means no, Chris
COLDPLAY frontman CHRIS MARTIN might have lost the day job — thanks to rock legend BRIAN ENO. Chris told fans at a lunchtime gig yesterday: “The rest of the band are in the studio. Brian Eno has been producing our music — which is why we’ve got better.
“He wrote to us and said he thought the last album was OK but it could have been better. He said he still wanted to work with us but I was banned from the studio! He said it would be better without me for the first two weeks — ‘You can do better without the singer!’”
I don’t think Chris needs to go busking just yet. But he worked up a right sweat singing hits including The Scientist and Violet Hill in the Absolute Radio Zoo.
DJ CHRISTIAN O’CONNELL joked: “We’ve got a lunchbox for you. Do you want a Capri Sun?”
Chris replied: “I’m more an Um Bongo man.”
Um Bongo? I’ll get em in, Big Man.
![[Main Page]](http://www.coldplaying.com/images/wikicoldplay.png)