Wed 4.29pm: A little later than planned, here’s the promised Viva singalong from Monday night. It is ALL about the kid dancing on the top floor..
11.02pm: And that, folks, is good night.
That was a really great show. Thanks very much for joining us for our photoblog marathon. It’s been lovely getting all your emails (we’d tipped well over 1,000 last time we looked). Have a great Christmas y’all. And look out for a rather amazing Christmas Lights live video here on the site very soon…
10.45pm: The last song was, of course, Christmas Lights, for which the band were joined by Ant and Dec. Great crowd singalong for the "woah-ohhh-ohhh-ohhhhh!’ bit too.
10.30pm: Well, that was quite a moment. A man called Simon just came on stage to ask a woman called Ruth to marry him. And to huge applause and wide, wide grins, she said yes.
And now Coldplay are playing The Scientist which, as Chris just pointed out, perhaps isn’t the most appropriate song for the moment. 🙂 Congrats to the happy couple, though. That was lovely.
Oh, by the way, the internet is soooo slow here that we had to turn off email. Which means we haven’t read your emails for a little while. But we will.
10.24pm: Fix You was the last song of the main set. Here’s Chris saying a very heartfelt thanks for what’s been an amazing crowd tonight.
10.15pm: Viva La Vida from the balcony. The singalong was really quite something (we’ll get a video of that up on the site soon too).
And the crowd have kept the singing going for Fix You, which is literally sending shivers down our spine as we’re typing this. Ace.
10.05pm: Looks like the video won’t be ready until the morning. So you’ve got us for the duration of the show (woot!)
9.57pm: This is what’s technically known as the "YEAHHH" moment in In My Place.
And now they’re playing Lovers In Japan, which they didn’t play last night. Quick! Someone make some butterfly confetti!
9.49pm: Here’s some shots from Til Kingdom Come, with Will on the piano, Guy on the harmonica and Chris on the pre-song laughs. It’s really been a great show so far.
9.28pm: And here’s how it looked during the first song, which was Yellow…
9.20pm: Coldplay are on! Here they are, shortly before taking to the stage, while Ant and Dec were being very funny.
8.58pm: This is how tonight’s crowd is looking (17 minutes until stage time…)
(As yet, we are still in the building, waiting for the call to dash and upload this video. Until then, normal service will continue….)
8.45pm: Right. The thing is. It’s looking like I might have to pop away for a little bit shortly in order to dash to a hotel to upload the live video of Christmas Lights from last night, which Roadie #42 has been working on all day. It can’t be done here at the venue because the internet connection is really, really slow. It takes several minutes to upload a picture, so a video would take many, many hours. This, obviously, is not the best news from a live blog point of view. But it’s got to be either me or Roadie #42. And if Roadie #42 isn’t here the gig won’t happen. So it’s me. Rest assured I’ll be back as soon as I possibly can. (See how we dropped the "we" for this important, personal message?)
8.33pm: We’re *really* like the Choir With No Name’s version of Politik. The band are too.
8.28pm: Woot! Dressing room picture! Thanks Jonny…
8.21pm: Here’s the Choir With No Name…
8.10pm: Jonny just told us that his mum and dad will be reading the live blog. He’d like us to say hello to them. Hello Mr and Mrs Buckland!
8.08pm: Dinner was a really nice piece of sea bass. Yum. The Choir With No Name are on now – they opened with a really wonderful performance of Fairytale of New York. We’ll go and take some pics, in the meantime go check out their website…
7.36pm: Here’s a picture from today’s soundcheck which we didn’t post yet…
7.16pm: Right, we’re taking a wee break to have some dinner. Back soon…
7.14pm: Quite a few of you have also asked about the outfits which the band are wearing at these shows. They were put together for the Christmas Lights video and Will tells us they’re aiming to capture the vibe of "travelling theatre performers". The plan is only to use them around Christmas Lights and these shows. Here’s some close-up pics of them…
6.53pm: Lots of you emailing asking what the band are up to at the moment. They’re all just chilling out, ahead of the show. They’ve let us point a camera at them quite a lot in the last 24 hours, so we’re giving them a little break.
6.45pm: We’re trying to find out who tonight’s Elvises are. Nobody seems to know yet. Watch this space…
6.39pm: A few of you have asked if tonight’s setlist is different from last night’s. The answer is, yes. There is at least one new addition that we’re aware of.
6.28pm: Here’s how it’s looking from Chris’s mic…
6.23pm: Is the flower real or fake that Chris wears in his vest pocket? asks Christina. That was a real one.
6.18pm: Check out this lovely painting which the venue have had made for this evening. The band are also very impressed with it (they’ve been given a framed one).
6.02pm: Here’s a nice picture of Jonny from yesterday which, for some reason, we haven’t posted yet…
5.52pm: The sound of one crew member hitting one snare drum over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again begins to get a bit testing after a while.
5.50pm: Just bumped into these folks. No idea who they are or what they’re doing, but great costumes, eh?
5.35pm: OK, let’s delve into some of the questions you’ve been emailing to anchorman@coldplay.com…
– The capacity tonight is about 1,000, Juan.
– Stena, to pass the time on the way here, we mainly played Pro Evolution on the XBox with Jonny. Sadly, Jonny won 6 games to our 2.
– My favourite Coldplay song. Ooh, that’s a tough one Evelien. Fix You was certainly pretty immense last night. And Christmas Lights is definitely a high new entry into our Top 10 Coldplay songs.
– Not sure about a Special Guest yet, Raphaele. There could be a suprise or two, we genuinely don’t know yet.
– It’s actually a bit warmer inside today’s venue, Melisa. But *really* cold outside.
– We’ll ask about the special T-shirts, Lisa – don’t know if they’ll be available online or not.
– Yes, Léa, the band are really enjoying playing in these smaller venues. There was an incredible atmosphere last night. Did you see the Guardian’s 5-star review?
– Will is in the dressing room, Noelia. He actually travelled up a bit earlier than the rest of us to visit some family who live near Newcastle.
– Yes, Deshani, we’re ready to be showered with questions. Bring. It. On.
5.16pm: OK, we’ve found the guitar you were asking about – the one Chris used for Yellow. We just went to look for it and happened to find Jonny’s guitar tech, Matt McGinn (he of the Roadie book fame) near it. He tells us that, actually, it’s far from a new guitar, as Chris has actually started using guitars from the era of the song he’s playing. So, for Yellow, it’s this guitar dating back to the Parachutes days, which has lots of old song titles and tunings scrawled all over it. See what you can make out…
5.03pm: Right, lots of you have been emailing asking for a picture of Chris’s new guitar. We’re off to see if we can find it to take a picture…
4.50pm: Apologies for the gaps between updates, we’ve been busy working on a certain video from last night which we’ll (hopefully) be uploading later today…
4.41pm: Here’s some pictures from the soundcheck which is sounding great, but looking very dark (none of the spotlights are on). Makes it a bit (very) tricky when you’re trying to take pictures…
4.12pm: Don’t forget, you can drop us a line on anchorman@coldplay.com. Soundcheck’s about to start, we’ll nip down and get some pictures…
4.10pm: Here’s some pictures of tonight’s venue, the Journal Tyne Theatre, which, like the Royal Court last night, currently has a pantomime on. It’s a beautiful old place.
And here’s a shot from the bus, which brought us here from Liverpool.
3:38pm: Hello! We’ve made it to Newcastle. We’re in the dressing room. And we’re ready for some bloggin’…