Our day started at 4am when the alarm went off. 

It was my son, Oliver’s 14th Birthday, and he was awake too!  He’s a teenager, so you can imagine my surprise.  But I think we were both quite excited. 

Andy my husband, and I gave him his present, which was an apple iphone and shortly after we left for the station. 

It was just getting light when we left.  We parked our car at Osterley Tube station,and got a train directly to Arsenal Station, which is a mere five minute walk to the stadium.  We found it pretty quickly, you can’t really hide a stadium!  And after some minutes worked out where our queue station was. 

We arrived at around 7am. Possibly just before.  We wanted to be in the front row.
A couple of other people were already in our queue.  We subsequently found out that they had been there since 4am that morning!  That’s dedication for you!

Adjoining our queue was, was queue R, and we discovered my friends from the Little Noises; Mich, Anna, Jo, Laura and Chelsea, who I hadn’t met before, were in the front of the queue there.  We all re-introduced ourselves and I was pleased we would all be close by for the long wait.

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The day went along without too much incident.  I had brought far too much food and drink for the three of us, so I ended up attempting to give it away during the course of the day, sharing chocolate and cake and sausages to all comers!

It was supposed to be June, so we hadn’t worn winter clothes, but it was, quite frankly cold. Although I don’t think it was quite as cold as it had been in November.

I took a trip to MacDonalds to use the loo and stock up on coffee and to get warm, I also popped into the local Sainbsburys and bought us a picnic blanket to starve off hypothermia, whilst Andy and Oli sat in our ‘space’in the queue.  Which was really just a place by the wall! A little later on two other girls joined our queue, and we all mostly intermingled with both queues, R and P.

Chelsea was also in our queue, which was handy as we could take it in turns to queue sit more frequently.
A short while later, the world famous Tash joined us, and I introduced myself to her.

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Around Midday, they started sound checking whilst Chelsea, Tash and myself were over in MacDonalds, making use of their facilities.  We could hear them quite clearly from what was around half a mile away.  I wonder what it must be like to live around there and get a ‘free Coldplay soundtrack’ two nights in a row.

Lunchtime, and we broke out the meal, but I was getting a bit nervous and excited now, particularly hearing the sound check coming out of the stadium, and couldn’t really eat a lot.  I did however make sure I drank, this time!

At around 1pm Oli and I went over to the merchandise stand and bought two t-shirts one for him and one for me, spent a small fortune again, but hey it’s Coldplay and it WAS Cold.. so we needed an extra layer.. honestly!

Shortly after I went for a walk and took some photos and was dumbfounded at just how many people had seemingly magically appeared in our queue. I counted them.  38.  Not huge yet but more than 6, which is how few we had been when we arrived.

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Just around then a miracle arrived, in the form of the SUN!  At last.. we all started stripping off the many layers and feeling a lot more relaxed.

The people in front of us in the queue, two girls and a boy,

who had been there since 4am, were getting out paints

and making a banner, and then started painting

themselves! Oli joined in and got some yellow paint

on his face and arms as reward..I also got a

yellow stripe across my nose! Very stylish!

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The place started very quickly to fill up, the queues started snaking away into the distance and we started to get excited…

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Then finally we went into the countdown for the beginning of the entrance.  At this point the security started organising us into a line.  We were all getting nervous, this was it! 

At this point a man and woman attempted to join our queue from nowhere!  They were attempting to push in basically.  I told them that wasn’t on!  The man just pointedly ignored me!  I was getting quite irate, but nothing was happening, when another guy from a little further down the queue joined me, and then several others too!  Sometimes people in England are just TOO polite, and maybe he hoped we’d all just let him in! But not in this case!  We were all really shouting at him that it wasn’t on, we really had been there since 7am and so on.. but he JUST was not getting it, so rude and arrogant!  We eventually had to get security involved and they made him leave and go down to the end of the queue!  Huzzah!

Then we started to count down to 5pm.. only 10 hours queuing!  Nothing 

At this point a lady and her son joined the front of our queue, the lady was blind, so we were all happy because the security guy told us that he would let them in before everyone else.  But what we didn’t realise is they were intent on letting them in BEFORE us, but at the same TIME as all the other queues, and holding our queue up!  Nightmare!!

Consequently when we finally got to go in, racing down the stadium steps and round a corner to our chosen spot it was too late!  I managed somehow to get second row, due to sprinting like a greyhound and passing people like Linford Christie, which is no mean feat at my age,  and also managed to pull Andy and Oli in with me, they had got separated in the rush, and stopped from running by security!  We were in.. sadly not the front as we had so desperately hoped, after our incredibly early start, but better than the back.

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The support acts started on time.  Rita Ora, was not really my cup of tea.  Followed mostly on time by Robin.  Who also wasn’t my cup of tea, she reminded me of a slightly manic Christmas elf!  But at least her dancing was rather amusing.  But sadly the bass on both support acts was turned up SO high it was actually physically painful.  So I spent most of their sets with my fingers in my ears and could barely even HEAR them sing above the ridiculously heavy bass.

Then the time we were waiting for arrived.  99 Problems started and we knew that the time was imminent,  followed closely by the Back to the Future theme song… Excitement central!

Then the band came onto the stage. Amazing.  I was again, after my Little Noises adventure, made forcefully aware of just how amazingly good looking they are.  They look younger and thinner in real life, and it does take some adjusting to just how close they are. They are REALLY in front of you. 

The stage is incredibly high, far above my head.. so we did have to crane our necks a bit to see anything. Also the gig was being filmed, maybe for Coldplay’s new DVD which is apparently being made, or maybe just for the big screens, so there was a camera RIGHT in front of where we stood, so every single time Chris stood at his microphone to play the guitar, I could only see half of him, so frustrating!  Andy says he couldn’t see him at all, so I did better than he did!   We could see the ramp to our left, but we were not in the front for that either, so it was hard, when you had tall people in front of you to see properly.  I am 5’3, but apparently most of the rest of the audience is 7’12”, so I was a bit frustrated when someone pushed in front of me.  But tried to get over it, after all I had spent 7 months waiting for this hour and a half.. nobody was going to spoil it for me now!
Then the gig started.. it was incredible.. 

This is my stream of consciousness to friends this morning..

My head aches, throat is sore, my legs hurt, my ears HURT.. The bass in the bloody strange support acts was so loud it physically hurt...
But all in all amazing.
Just want to state, in case none of you is aware.

Christopher Martin is THE best looking person on the planet. Period.

They came out and It took my breath away seriously..   He did one of his 1000 yard stares at our section.. and I swear I was in direct eyeline.. LOL but it may have been my imagination, I was kind of buried in the ‘mosh pit’! Being short is SO not fun in there, but I did have a BRIGHT YELLOW stripe across my nose and under my eyes! A glow in the dark one! Courtesy of our fellow queuees.. Oli looked awesome! OMG a full bright yellow florescent hand print on his face, glow in the darkglasses and about 10 glowbands on his arms! See R42 photo. 

Here

The rain came down in BUCKETS.. We all got soaked to the skin, but it didn't matter
He dedicated yellow to 'My wife Gwyneth' ....

Other points.. we didn't see ANY Of the C stage stuff.. wrong side and too faraway buried into people.. so I watched it on the screens.. which were amazingly big.

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High points.. Jumping to Charlie Brown.. balloons.. confetti... Warning sign.. Oh my.. that was beautiful.. then when they had finished, the others all went back to the main stage, but Chris stayed at the piano in the frankly power-shower like rain, and played.. I could see him lit up from behind with the rain coming down and bouncing off the piano, wow.. Heart exploding time.

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Clocks!!  Some of you know how I feel about this song.. but suffice it to say, it's probably one of my favourites!  At the end when they go all bonkers.. Chris started wildly hitting the keys with the flats of his hands! LOL! hilarious but actually IN TUNE! HOW?! then he did the famous backwards fall off the stool..  They had turned the piano around during the C stage things, and now he was facing the piano our side, so we could see him better.
Other thoughts….Fix you.. Chris came down the ramp around parallel to us, dropped to his knees, opened his arms and we all sang to HIM… amazing, incredible.. probably the high point of the entire gig.  But there were so many..  Paradise.. singing so loudly that I thought my head may come off! LOL.. Viva..Charlie Brown.. all amazing.. Jumping, the rain, the confetti on the floor, in my hair, in Olivers hoodie.. the mess of soggy confetti in the rain.. the glowbands.. the awesomeness.. apologies to anyone’s feet I trod on during the jumping.. !

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Finally every tear drop… sung to the cascading heavens around us. 

Then the show was over.

We hung about a little to say goodbye to friends.. Laura got a pick and Tash got a set list. Sadly I lost everyone again after that, so I am sorry I would have loved to have said goodbye.

The place was a mess!  COATED in discarded beer and soft drink bottles, not to mention the soggy, confetti draped over EVERYTHING!   The poor crew started taking down kit whilst a virtual waa waa waterfall of water fell onto them from above.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Then it was time to leave, but as we were going, out onto the stage came Apple, Gwyneth and Moses, and a few other kids.  They walked along to the middle of the Xstage.. stood for a bit talking, then Apple set off along the stage alone smiling shyly to people who were all taking her photo and gave us all a little wave. What a cutie she is, and so like her Dad. 

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Then we joined the almost zombie like train of people attempting to get home.  London transport in it’s wisdom, (they said they had power issues) shut two tube stations, and we passed around three stations with queues longer than a mile to get into them! 

We must have walked for around four miles before we found one we could use, I can’t even remember which one it was.. I was SO tired by then!  Finally the long long train journey home and I fell asleep..  However the train got stuck at one stop, they gave some excuse, that my tired brain refuses to remember, but they left the doors open for what felt like ten minutes!  It was freezing, especially as we were all soaked to the skin, so by the time we got back to our car, we were all shivering so much!

Finally home around 2am..

What a day… night and morning! 

 

Next stop Holland! 

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