And all the security guards in the MEN Arena were a bit Yellow.
Half of them was anyway. The security here really stand out, in their bright yellow blazers. It was an odd sight when they all took their positions just before the doors. All these organised yellow dots, covering the arena entrances. The biggest line of yellow, being by the stage barriers. The dots of yellow were far less organised a few hours later. As balloons were thrown in to the crowd by the roadies at the mix desk, by the stage and up in the rafters. Yellow bopped and popped all around the place. Most of them, seemed to gravitate towards the stage. By the end of the song, Chris Martin was beating them away with his guitar, surrounded by inflatables.
It all looks like chaos when that happens. But it’s very well organised really. The balloon-inflating session has become a regular fixture of the schedule for a few of the roadies in the afternoon. I came down to get some t-shirts from the Oxfam case earlier, only to find it covered in yellow balloons!
Not discouraged though, I battled through the balloons, got my volunteers t-shirts, dished them out, and they went out there talking to the fans. Another incredible night for Oxfam and the petition here. 1970 more people made the pledge for Health and Education For All. Those governments will have to take note of the number of people signing up just on this tour, let alone, around the world.
The band are in full flow at the moment. ‘Lost!’ is beating through the Manchester Evening News arena. It’s a massive place. 14′000 people here tonight. That means 1 in 7 of that huge number, signed Oxfam’s petition. That’s awesome. The last time I was here, I came to see the Foo Fighters on my 18th birthday. That was a brilliant day. Today has been too. I like this place.
I wonder if Peter Kay will be at one of the shows. He used to work in one of those yellow blazers and returned for his own stand-up show here. I talked to one of the blazer people here earlier, who said she was here when he started. He’s a very funny man.
The band just finished ‘Green Eyes’ up amongst the crowd, so I should get on with it and get back upstairs. I just want to add one more thing. I hear that Manchester is the home of Coldplaying.com. I also saw the names of Ian and Jenny Betley on our petition earlier. Thank you Coldplaying people!
This entry was posted on Thursday, December 11th, 2008 at 6:20 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Coldplay has invited Oxfam on their mammoth Viva La Vida World Tour. Throughout 2008 the band played huge shows across 3 continents and 18 countries. Oxfam volunteers were there every step of the way, talking to 100,000s of people about how they can take action to overcome poverty. Now in 2010, Coldplay continue this tour with shows across in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia and Mexico. Oxfam groups around the world will again join the tour, blogging as they go.
Mich December 11th, 2008 at 8:26 pm
Sounds like another successful night. Great news!