23:45. What. A. Night. I can remember hearing as far back as Viva that the crowds in Barcelona were among the best in the world, and they certainly lived up to their billing over these last two days. There was an amazing, life-affirming atmosphere out there this evening.
Coldplay are very lucky to have fans like you folks. Thank you to everyone for your support and for taking part in the live blog – we’ve had literally hundreds of emails from all around the world today.
To borrow the title of one of tonight’s songs, See You Soon. A
23:25: A Sky Full Of (Xyloband) Stars…
23:16: OK, it’s encore time – Amazing Day is on now – so we’re soon going to have to make a dash for the cars, as we leave straight after tonight’s show. But we’ll add any pictures later that we don’t get a chance to post.
23:14: And here are the photos from Trouble…
This one is called Jonny Be Blurred…
23:11: Photos incoming from the C Stage, where the band just did an incredible cover of Johnny B. Goode (and Jonny, indeed, be very good at the guitar parts).
23:01: Viva into Adventure Of A Lifetime. (Apologies for the lack of words. Been quite busy.)
22:49: Hymn For The Weekend…
22:43: Charlie Brown wristbands…
22:24: Over on the B Stage for Everglow…
Please file this one under “A little bit arty”…
22:15: Barcelona, glowing in the dark after Paradise…
22.05: Here are some pics from out front. This was during Birds. Amazing atmosphere out there…
21:45: The band is on! Here are a few pics we took just before the show began. Live pics coming up…
Mr Phil Harvey. Get ready, set…
Phil was also kind enough to protect me from the paparazzi attentions of Will Champion on the way to the stage. (Huge thanks to Cris from Brazil for the gift of the shirt. Very much appreciated.)
21:25: Chris has been warming up for the show by playing some table tennis with his son…
21:19: Fans in Serbia and Slovakia have joined the live blog party by emailing anchorman@coldplay.com. That must be 50 countries now. (Iceland, where are you?)
21:15: Fifteen minutes until stage time. Barcelona is ready…!
21:12: The view from the side of the stage…
(And hello to Stephen and everyone from Coldplaying, who are following the blog on their forums – thanks, as always, for the support!)
21:09: Just bumped into Coldplay’s super soaraway soundman / co-producer, Mr Dan Green.
20:49: Greetings to Gódor, our first Hungarian correspondent of the day, to anchorman@coldplay.com. Trying to think of a country we’ve not had anyone from yet. Iceland?
20:46: Here’s Jonny!* He’s reading a book called Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson, which he tells us is definitely worth reading.
* Anyone who’s read any of our live blogs over the last decade or so will know that joke is obligatory.
20:40: Slightly struggling to keep up with all your emails to anchorman@coldplay.com (but it’s lovely to get them). Hello to Eija from Finland – pretty sure that’s our first Finn of the day, to add to that enormous list of countries, which you can read further down below…
20:36: Lianne La Havas is warming up the crowd in some style right now. Sounding *really* good.
20:05: Here’s Guy, in the dressing room!
19:51: Apologies for the lengthy gap in service. This is down to two things. Firstly, going to take photos of opening act Alessia Cara – who is sounding superb. And secondly being thrashed (properly *thrashed*) at table tennis by Will Champion.
Let’s focus on #1 and try to forget about #2.
19:14: “Why is there a flag from a Belgian football club backstage?” asks Kevin. We asked that too. Apparently one of the crew is a big fan.
19:09: Here’s Mr Will Champion, currently engaged in a nailbitingly close table tennis match with a friend. (It looks like he just about has the edge.)
19:03: Catering was – as it always is – absolutely delicious. Even just managing to cater for a huge number of crew in a different place every few days must be tough. But to do that and make the food as good – and varied – as you’d get in a great restaurant is just astonishing.
18:36: Right, with three hours until show time and the internet being a bit of a diva, now seems a good time to grab a bite to eat. Back soon, with tales from catering…
18:27: Here’s the band’s Head of Security Frostie outside the dressing room. He tells us that his T-shirt is for an up and coming young boxer named Jason Quigley (and Frostie seems like the kind of man who’d be able to spot someone who’s talented at being tough).
18:15: Shreya from India emailed to ask what those things are that are getting ventilation. They’re, um… well… you see… in actual fact… let’s just say they’ll be useful when this evening’s male guests have consumed some liquid.
18:14: Someone emailed anchorman@coldplay.com and asked for a photo taken in the dressing room. Someone else asked for a photo of some of the band’s shoes. Two birds, one stone (and three pairs of shoes).
18:06: Doors are open!
17:50: Well, at least they’re well ventilated…
17:42: Mariano has emailed to ask who painted Mags’ bike. The answer is Richard and Laura from the set design team. (Who are wonderful.)
17:39: This view (in catering at lunchtime) is more expected, given that we’re in the home of the 1992 Olympics.
17:36: Unexpected flag in the production area behind the stage…
17:25: Fans from even more countries have emailed anchorman@coldplay.com: Croatia, Israel, Slovenia, Dominican Republic, Belarus, Czech Republic, Lebanon and, of course, Spain. That’s 40 countries! Just incredible. Thanks everyone. Oh, and thanks to Brazilian fansite vivacoldplay.com who are apparently translating the blog into Portuguese. And ColdplayCorner.com who are translating into French.
In other news, here’s a photo of the merch stand. (Lots of these available at the Coldplay Store.)
17:20: Big thanks to Tour Manager extraordinaire Marguerite for letting us share her office today. (She’s convinced we’ve caused the internet issues we’re still having…). Here’s a nice picture of Mags’ #AHFOD bike, which is very handy for getting around stadium venues, which are never short of a lonnnnng corridor or two.
17:17: A ping pong table on a warm-up running track. Tempting to try and hurdle it. Probably best not.
17:05: BREAKING! Today’s set times have just been updated:
Doors 6pm
Alessia Clara 7.30pm
Lianne La Havas 8.15pm
Coldplay 9.30pm
16:53: Balloons. Lots of big balloons. Could come in handy later.
16:49: Hello to the folks in Chile, Indonesia, Ecuador, Canada, South Africa, Turkey, Greece and Honduras who join our ever-growing list of people emailing anchorman@coldplay (with some very lovely emails). Thanks to all of you.
16:45: The band, incidentally, are not here at the venue yet. They’ve been enjoying a day in Barcelona. Which, frankly, isn’t hard (what a city!).
16:44: A big HELLO to the mother of Phil Sharp – one of the lighting crew – who is reading the blog back home in England. We’ve just embarrassed him on the crew radios by sending him your love. (He said “thanks!”).
16:39: The wonderful Alessia Cara is currently soundchecking in the sun, and sounding great.
16:30: Amazingly, we’ve already had more than 100 emails to anchorman@coldplay.com from fans reading the blog, all over the world. We have people in…
Netherlands, Mexico, France, India, USA, Brazil, Mongolia, UK, Belgium, Colombia, Italy, Dubai, Argentina, Sweden, Hong Kong, Germany, Peru, Philippines, Venezuela, Egypt, Denmark, Poland, Australia, Portugal.
And the views from your windows look a bit like this…
Amazing.
16:29: Ah, clearly the phone made the laptop jealous, because that’s started working again too. #phew
16:25: It looks like a phone still works. Hooray for a phone. And hooray for Tiff and Mandi from the band’s management who we’ve got a nice picture of in the corridor earlier…
16:22: Hmm. The Internet connection which was amazing all day yesterday seems to be having “a bit of a moment”. Standby…
15:52: Here’s today’s weather report, which they’ve very kindly put up in catering…
And here is B Stage proof that they’re not badly mistaken…
15:51: How did it get to 15:51 already? Clearly time flies when you’re trying to plug a blog on social media. And also, we stopped to say hello to the legend that is Roadie #42.
15:38: Apologies for the slight gap in service, we were outside taking a photo of this…
