Chris Martin is talking and the crowd are cheering.
It must be such a strange thing to be in that position. I’m sure most of you have been at a concert before, where the lead singer stops between songs to talk to the crowd. Due to the buzz of 15′000 (or however many thousand people), and the fuzz of a microphone.. it can all become a bit of a blur. Now Chris Martin is a very clearly spoken fella. I understand the things he says from stage, a whole lot better than some artists I have seen slurring into the mic. No slurring for Coldplay at all. Still. I never catch it all. It always amuses me when a singer stops to speak and everyone just cheers anyway. When they stop talking, it’s like the crowd collectively thinks (*oh.. erm.. it’s our turn to say something.. umm.. what should we say?.. umm.. WHOOOP! YEAH! (or just a general screaming noise of appreciation). You know who you are. I’m not saying I mind it. Quite the opposite. I mean it’s not like the band can stop the momentum and have a talking shop about how everyone is finding it so far.. no round tables, no half time analysis. No time for discussions in the Coldplay show. So no wonder, the general feeling of
“Yes. We’re fine thanks. Doing great. Loving it in fact.” (becomes a general roaring cheering noise. I doubt the band mind that at all. In fact. It’s probably exactly what they are looking for.
It does just make me wonder, whether a singer could try to mumble something random and see if people were listening.. like.. “does everyone here hate giraffes?” Would they still get a cheer? I hope not. Surely at least some people would be exaggerating by cheering. Crikey. I’m going way off track. Apologies for my ramble.
Coldplay just played ‘Green Eyes’ again followed by ‘Postcards from far away’. Two nights in a row. It seems to be going down well. They also stuck in ‘Glass of Water’ from ‘Prospekts March’ earlier, for what I think was the first time, since Albert Hammond Jr joined them for it in Belgium. It’s a great song. I hope we will be hearing more of it from now on. The cheering continues right now. They just finished off ‘Viva’ and ‘Lost!’ and are now heading out to the ‘C-stage’ to change where the lucky front row seat holders are. Just for a little while.
I met a great bunch of people tonight. The crowd coming through. A couple of very kind Coldplayers. 18 awesome volunteers from the Oxfam Kansas City Action group. It’s a first experience of volunteering for a lot of them. They kept going to the end. So great to meet so many people keen to make a difference with their Thursday night. Wait a minute.. is it Thursday? I’ve forgotten. That’s not good. Tour days blurring into one again. Travel days disappearing before my eyes..
It’s a starting point for so many fans. The first chance to learn what Oxfam actually stands for. What we do. Why we’re here. That’s so valuable. Hopefully it will grow into so much more. When people are done cheering from the seats, hopefully they will go home and sign petitions, donate, buy a goat, drink some tea.. Fairtrade of course.
From Pete. (Oxfam Coordinator. Blogger. Roadie #31. Person who likes giraffes.)
This entry was posted on Friday, November 14th, 2008 at 12:36 am 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.
Paul Bateman November 14th, 2008 at 4:53 am
I was going to say, you don’t hate giraffes?