Coldplay – Postcards From Glasgow (Godfather Records GR 445)

Postcards From Glasgow (Godfather Records GR 445)

Hampden Park, Glasgow, Scotland, UK – September 16th, 2009

(77:15):  Life In Technicolor, Clocks, In My Place, Yellow, Fix You, Strawberry Swing, The Hardest Part / Postcards From Far Away (Chris Martin piano), Viva La Vida, Lost+ (feat. Jay-Z), Billie Jean, Politik, The Scientist, Life in Technicolor ii, Shiver (backstage from Hampden Park for Jo Whiley’s Live Lounge Tour).  Bonus tracks, Jonathan Ross Show, London, England – January 31st, 2009:  Viva La Vida (Chris Martin piano), Live In Technicolor ii (Chris Martin piano), Back On TV (Chris Martin piano).  NRJ Music Awards, Midem de Cannes, France – January 17th, 2009:  Life In Technicolor ii (Chris Martin piano).  BBC Radio Theater, London, UK – August 30th, 2008:  The Hardest Part (Chris Martin piano)

Postcards From Glasgow features the Viva La Vida tour’s stop in Hampden Park in Glasgow in September.  Godfather use the Radio 1 broadcast which is excellent sound quality but incomplete since only about half of the show was broadcast.  The show was taped in front of a crowd of 50,000 people and compared to other shows on the tour there are no major changes to the setlist but the playing order of “Trouble” and “Death will Never Conquer” where switched.

The Scotsmanwrites:  “COLDPLAY may be noted for many things, but an adventurous streak is not one of them. And yet the decision to invite the world’s most respected rapper to be their stadium tourmate is both open-minded and risky. And, despite Jay-Z’s professed interest ADVERTISEMENT in indie music, his willingness to play second fiddle to a guitar band also appears to be out of character… The audience swayed to the mellifluous strains of The Blue Danube Waltz, heralding Coldplay’s arrival on stage, brandishing sparklers. Laser danced off the rim of the roof and the crowd created a lightshow of their own as mobile phones were duly held aloft.

“Coldplay opened their account with the momentous Violet Hill, but even their blandest songs, such as In My Place were boosted by the epic embellishment of massed voices, by frontman Chis Martin’s reserves of energy and no less than a galactic panorama emblazoned across the backdrop.  Suddenly, there were huge balloons bouncing around the crowd – and they were all yellow, as the song says. An obvious gambit, perhaps, but more effective than the cheesy X Factor-related routine which followed. Fix You required no gimmicks, again just relying on the emotional power of the 40,000-strong singalong.

“Jay-Z returned for a brief, mismatched cameo (it would have been rude not to rope him in), but sections of the audience were still singing along to the previous number, a mighty Viva La Vida. By this point, it was almost all over bar the butterfly-shaped ticker-tape shower.  Coldplay are new to this stadium business and could be forgiven for wanting to test out so many of the accepted conventions of such a show (the free CD on the way out was a particularly nice touch). But next time, they might want to try streamlining their surfeit of ideas.”

Godfather include several bonus tracks including Chris Martin’s appearance on the Jonathan Ross show, his appearance at Midem and a BBC session from August 2008.  The sound quality for all the bonus material is likewise excellent.  Postcards From Glasgow is an excellent one disc compilation of major media appearances made by Coldplay and is worth having.