9.53am, Monday: Good morning! As promised, here’s our traditional photoblog video of the crowd singing along to Viva La Vida. After all that practice at Anfield and Goodison Park, we thought the Liverpool crowd did a terrific job (actually, talking of Anfield, Liverpool FC captain Steven Gerrard was in the audience last night). See you at Newcastle for more live photoblogging later…
11.14pm, Sunday: And with that, we’ll say goodnight. See you back here tomorrow for more of the same from Newcastle (and we’ll post the Viva singalong from tonight too…)
11.06pm: Here’s the pics of Gary Barlow, singing Back For Good. At the end of the song, Peter Kay came back on, to throw chocolates into the crowd. And, oddly, bananas.
10.59pm: So, the gig has just finished, with an encore which included an amazing guest appearance from Take That frontman Gary Barlow, to join Coldplay for a rendition of their classic hit, Back For Good. Sounded fantastic. As did the closing number, Christmas Lights (complete with the three Elvises – who sadly we couldn’t see from the balcony we were standing on – sorry). Pics to follow…
10.32pm: The band are just back on for their encore. Here’s some more pics, from Viva and Shiver.
10.25pm: Tell you we’ve run up and down enough stairs tonight to get to the top of the Empire State Building. But the latest lot of pictures of are processing and Fix You is about to have its big kick-in moment… right… about….. NOW!
10.04pm: Another fan site shout-out – coldplayfrance.com are tranlating the blog into, yes, French. C’est vrai! They’re playing Shiver now. We’re rushing down to watch…
10.01pm: Here follows a lesson in how hard it is to take pictures of drummers, who 1) sit at the back, 2) aren’t terribly well lit and 3) move about very quickly.
9.52pm: From our little room up two flights of stairs and down a corridor, we can hear that the band are playing Trouble. Sounds blooming great, even through a bunch of walls. Really good crowd backing vocals for the "They spun a web for me" bit. We’re off to take some more pics…
9.50pm: And here’s some shots of the first couple of songs, which were In My Place and Yellow.
9.38pm: So, tonight’s first special guest was Peter Kay, the British comedian (who has actually had three Number One hit singles here). He introduced the band – after getting the crowd to make animals noises for a while. We also got a pic of the classic pre-gig Coldplay huddle…
9.35pm: They’re on stage. It’s ace. Pictures coming…
9.09pm: Oh, and it’s not the Steve Strange from 80s popsters Visage. It’s a different one.
8.57pm: Don’t think you’re going to guess it – the third Elvis is Coldplay’s live agent, Steve Strange. We will, of course, try to get pictures of this motley crew. 18 minutes til stage time…
8.49pm: It’s not me (Anchorman), Roadie #42, Matt McGinn, Simon Pegg or Bono.
8.46pm: Wow, Erin has correctly guessed that Chris’s Dad will be another of the Elvises. Didn’t expect that one to go so quickly. The last one is way tricky…
8.45pm: Esther is straight in there with a Phil guess. One down, two to go…
8.43pm: Right, who can guess who the three Elvises will be for the performance of Christmas Lights tonight? Email anchorman@coldplay.com with your guesses (put them in the subject, please)…
8.33pm: Lots of you asking for a clue about the special guests. There are actually two of them. And between them they’ve had a lot of number one singles.
8.28pm: "Waiting for Coldplay watching Choir With No Name," emails Anita, a fan who’s clearly in the venue, "what a fab choice of support, so upbeat it’s great!" We’ve just watched a bit of them and would definitely agree. They did a belting version of Politik, too. And this is what they look like…
8.25pm: A Very Famous Special Guest has just arrived.
8.08pm: And here’s Phil’s…
We’re getting hundreds and hundreds of emails to anchorman@coldplay.com from you folks, by the way. Sorry we can’t respond to all of them.
8.04pm: And here’s Guy’s favourite Christmas song…
7.58pm: What’s your favourite Christmas song? asks Raphaele. Will’s actually just popped in, so we asked him. The answer is this…
7.52pm: Brooke asks if the band are "getting dressed and such right now"? They’ve actually just finished a meet and greet with some fans, and now they’re chilling in the dressing rooms.
7.51pm: Julia asks if people were surprised to see the band on the train. Only Will and Jonny came on the train today, and people were busier joining the desperate scrum for a seat than they were bothering the guys.
7.46pm: Another email from another great Coldplay fan site – www.coldplayzone.it is following the blog and translating it into Italian.
7.39pm: This is the room Dan was popping into to say hello to us. It’s where the band’s rider is sitting. That and our laptop. Cosy, no?
7.35pm: Here’s Coldplay’s soundman Dan Green, who worked the desk here when Coldplay supported Gomez at the Royal Court in "2000, or maybe 2001, actually, no, I think it might’ve been 1999". Apparently they were amazed to be playing in a venue as big this.
7.30pm: Hello to Coldplay Brazilian fan site vivalacoldplay.com, who are following the blog (and translating it into Portuguese). Guessing they’re not quite as chilly as we are.
7.18pm: Dinner was "salt and pepper chicken" with chips (or fries) and roast veg. Which was very nice. Even better, we sat next to Roadie #42 and had a good old chinwag. Considering it took him 11 hours to drive the 175 miles from London to Liverpool last night, he’s in a very good mood.
6.40pm: Here are the stage times (oooh! special guest!!). CWNN is the Choir With No Name. We’re off to see if we can get some dinner…
6.38pm: Most of the band have gone to the hotel to get dinner. Doors open in 22 minutes…
6.24pm: "Why is everyone wearing coats and scarves in the dressing room? Is it cold there?" asks Lau to anchorman@coldplay.com. Yes. Blooming cold. It’s minus 3C outside, and doesn’t feel a whole lot warmer in here.
6.07pm: Lots of you have been emailing asking for a picture of Coldplay’s fifth member, Phil. Lots of you have been asking for a shout out for the terrific Coldplay fansite Coldplaying. Two birds, one stone.
5.52pm: Here’s Chris, in the dressing room just now. He’s in good spirits.
5.24pm: Laura’s emailed asking for a picture which shows what the venue looks like. Here you go…
5.16pm: Here’s Chris having a natter with the fans at the "soundcheck party". They seemed to enjoy their little private gig (Glass Of Water sounded particularly good)
5.06pm: Blimey, you’ve been sending a lot of emails to anchorman@coldplay.com. Some responses:
– Snow itself is great, Christina, it’s just a pity this country isn’t very good at dealing with it.
– Will is eating some crisps/potato chips in the picture, Deshani. Not sure what flavour.
– Brooke, we’re very pleased to be live blogging again. Always fun.
– Monica, the bottles are actually port, not wine (and they’re empty)
– Suhit, no the handprint is not Jonny’s. We’re not sure whose it is.
– No Christina, we like getting your emails 🙂
– Yes, Taameen, you can have a picture of Guy…
4.43pm: As promised, here are some pictures of the soundcheck – which is sounding jolly good. As you might gather from the surroundings. the Royal Court currently has a pantomime on. The folks at the front are the ones who won the VIP ticket auctions which raised big bucks for Crisis, tonight’s charity.
4.06pm: Soundcheck soon, so we’re off to take some pictures. Feel free to get in touch to anchorman@coldplay.com if you have any particular observations, questions or felicitations.
4.01pm: We’re typing from the dressing room at the Royal Court, a lovely old venue in the centre of Liverpool which has a capacity of about 1,000 and a very "lived in" feel, as these pictures from the really very tiny dressing room probably illustrate…
Yes, that seat Will’s sitting on is kind of inside a cupboard. (He’s only pretending to look annoyed.)
3.56pm: So, we came up from London today on a train which – because of the snow – was a) very late and b) very, very packed. But, hey, it got us here, so all good. Here are a couple of pics from the train:
(Jonny: "I’ve only just started it, but yeah, it’s good")
3.46pm: Hello! We’ve made it to Liverpool! When, thanks to the snow, we thought for a while we really wouldn’t! Let the live blogging commence…