Soundcheck in Washington gets cancelled in the name of a little more time in NYC in the morning. Whilst this is a right result for all, it does mean that we land at Dulles just after 5pm. Of course, as we get on the road, it becomes clear that we’re in for a slow trip. One of the reasons to run away and join a tour is to escape the 9 to 5 and here we are sat in rush hour traffic. I’ll wager though, that we’re the only ones here on our way IN to work…

I’m fairly sure that Coldplay have never done a show on Halloween in the US before. Certainly not whilst I’ve been with them. We’ve also got a higher percentage of Americans in the crew this time out, so we’re celebrating in full this year. As you can see below, tonight saw a very rare stage invasion. Somehow, it would appear that keyboard tech Neil Lambert got possessed partway through the day. Despite several drumsticks through the heart, he still managed to make his way onstage to try to take out Mr. Martin. Somewhere in the blackout, Chris prevailed and we’ve put Neill away in one of the spare piano cases for now. I’m not sure what the international laws are about transportation of the undead across borders, but we’ll let the freight company deal with that…

The ride home is notable for the fact that lovely Janice, our flight fairy and all of the cabin crew had decked out the plane with cobwebs, spiders and bats. Excellent work folks!

Driving back in to NYC in the wee hours of the morning always gives you a chance to see the more colourful characters on the streets. Tonight being Halloween however, means that it’s somewhat tricky to determine who is a crackhead, who is a hooker and who is a party-goer on the way back home still in costume. This bookends our commute rather nicely. We started this afternoon sat in traffic with some of the country’s most powerful and important folks in Washington DC and here we are amongst a freakshow the like of which I’ve never seen. No prizes for guessing where we’re the most comfortable…