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My son Oliver and I went to see Coldplay in concert last Friday at the O2 arena.

After the intimate and close up setting of the Little Noises Sessions last month, this was going to be totally different experience.  It was also Oli's very first concert.

I picked Oli up after school on Friday night, and negotiating lots of traffic outside his school, it would be today of all days, when a bus got STUCK down the road, causing mayhem.. but finally we got underway, and managed to find a nice parking space at the station for the car.  Unfortunately they've changed the parking now and it cost me a small fortune to park there.  Ah well, for Coldplay.

We bought our tickets - more money - and boarded a train into London Waterloo.  It takes about 40 minutes from where we live, and the journey went really fast.  We were both in high spirits.

Oli on the train.  We're going to see COLDPLAY!

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We reached Waterloo in good time, and caught a tube to Greenwich North, which is the tube station closest to The O2 arena.  Making our way to the arena, we passed HUGE pilars with COLDPLAY on them.. Oli posed for another photo!

 

We got inside, and it's huge in there, full of restaurants, every single one you can imagine.

We went straight to the trade stands and parted with even more money for two tour t-shirts and a tour programme.  I was temped by a mug too, but given the amount of money I had already spent, I thought better of it.

 

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Then it was off to find somewhere to eat.  We had a lovely meal in Garfunkles.

Then it was about time for the doors to open to the concert, so made our way to our queue point and joined our queue.. we were getting excited now!  We could see through the glass doors that there were stewards getting out glowbands!  Yay.. we're getting glowbands!  So excited now!

After about 20 minutes the doors opened and in we went.  We chose our glowbands, we got a choice of colours, Oli picked red, I picked pink.  All of them have the words Mylo Xyloto on the band and COLDPLAY stamped on the plastic part.

Up the escalators we went.. We had seats about as high up as it was possible to go!  Eventually we got to our entrance, and found our seats. about half way up the top tier.  On the left hand side of the stage, offset so we were on an angle.

An amazing view!  We took photos..  Although it seemed we were MILES and miles away from the stage.  People were starting to go into the standing area FAR FAR below.. however there weren't as many people inside as I imagined there would be by now.  Some people had been there since dawn, and I wondered how tired they must be by now?

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Eventually the first support act, came on, they were running pretty much to time.. and they started their set.  It lasted around 20 mins to half an hour, but it did seem a very long way off.  They were like little ants down there.  I was worried I wouldn't be able to see Coldplay at all..

Then we had an interval, and finally Emilie Sande came on.  She was Far far better amplified I felt than she had been accoustic the other week.  Oli and I quite enjoyed her set, it was better than the first act, she had more ompf somehow.  I think she is probably going to be quite big soon.  Some of her songs I recognised from two weeks ago.

During Emilie's set, my iphone, which I had been taking photos all evening on, decided to shut itself off and I couldn't work out how to turn it back on again, no matter how hard I tried.  We had Oli's small old digital camera however, but it's not as good as the iphone and sadly all my iphone photos and videos were lost as I had to re-install the operating system on Saturday.

After Emile finished, we had another interval, and I went out and bought two huge cokes for us. Which cost me £10!  Daylight robbery, but hey it's only money, at this point I had given up counting!

FINALLY.. the lights dimmed, Back to the Future came on.. and there was a huge roar, as we saw, Chris, Jonny, Will and Guy make their way onto the stage from right hand side of the stage.

With that wonderful tinkly sound starting the show.. MX came through,  followed closely by Hurts like Heaven.. and the GLOWBANDS went wild, as did the crowd!   Flashing madly in time to the song..  It was amazing to see the entire place lit up like a Christmas tree..

 

Sadly my tier, decided they wanted to watch the show from their seats and nobody stood up!  I was a bit surprised, as every other show I have ever been to, people stand up!  I considered doing it anyway, but my English reserve stopped me..  but It did seem wrong!  The next song was Yellow, and people were politely tapping their feet around me.. but the crowd below in the 'pit' as Oli called it were all going bonkers..  I wished I was down there. I really did.

 

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A few songs in and I decided enough was enough, so I stood up.  I tried to encourage Oli to join me, but being only 13, he was a little self conscious as nobody else was doing it.. but I thought.. oh what the heck.. and decided to enjoy myself    At this point I was the ONLY person in my entire row, standing up.  Nobody that I could see behind, or in front did either!  I did feel a bit billy no mates up there.. but I thought, I've come to see Coldplay not sit in front of the telly!

 

They did Lost and Major Minus, and there were the huge colourful balloons all over the place down in 'the pit'  I wished once more that I was downt here with them.. In my place was accompanied by the confetti but no butterflies this time.. all X's and M's.  Although from our height we couldn't yet tell what they were. 

A highlight for me was Violet Hill and GPASUYF, Chris took his guitar down to the X part of the stage at the end and launched it into the air for the final notes.. Poor guitar!  :roll: :D  Again nobody stood up.. what was the matter with these people?

Then they did some accoustic songs on the X part of the stage, one of them being 'Don't Panic'  There was a HUGE roar when this was announced.. and even some of the people around me seemed to get a bit excited..I wondered if some of them had actually come to the wrong place and were thinking it was a play or something?!  :roll:

At one point Chris stopped the song however, as he said we weren't making enough noise!  It had taken him a long time to perusade Jonny to sing, and if we didn't make enough noise, he'd never do it again!  A huge cheer accompanied Jonny as he sung the next verse!  On the big screens round the place, I could see he had a huge grin on his face as he sang.. which made me go all fangirly!

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After the accoustic set, they went back the main stage for The Scientist into Politik!  I love this song and it was the first time I had ever seen it live.. so my standing and dancing went into overdrive.. Oli got up at this point and joined me!  We were giving it our all.. even if nobody else was!  Then they went into Viva!!   The chant was immense it went all around the huge arena and it sent goosebumps down my spine.. FINALLY the rest of my section decided to wake up... and all got up onto their feet!  Hurrah!  At last It felt like a proper concert. Such a shame it had taken nearly the entire concert to do so..

 

Viva was amazing, as everyone in the place, 20,000 people sang along.  Then Charlie Brown took the roof off!  AMAZING AMAZING Live.. Glowbands, singing, clapping dancing.. and me attemtping to jump in a space of about 8 inches from a vertical drop!  what fun!  Then Paradise and the glowbands went bonkers!  I wasn't too keen on Paradise before seeing it live.. I didn't hate it, but live both times, I have loved it.. amped up and with 20,000 people singing para para paradise it is awesome..  I loved it! 

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But that was it.. they went off.. the chanting took over the arena.  My section were still on it's feet!  thank goodness..but unfortunately the impetus seemed to have worn off a bit.  When the band came back on to do the encore, it wasn't as electric as it had been in my section.. But Oli and I clapped and sang and waved our glowbands to Clocks as enthusiastically as we had before.  Clocks is another song I love.. so this was another highlight for me.  FInally they wound down with Fix you.. and at then it was time for just one more song..  Every Teardrop Is A Waterfall brought the concert to an end.  I had hoped and hoped that given how close to Christmas it was, we might get treated to Christmas Lights, but it wasn't to be.  No more encores, the lights came up and people started to leave.

Oli and I left with the others, and the Viva chant followed us all the way down the inside of the O2.. where Oli and I picked up X and M confettis from the floor, where people had trodden them..  We felt a bit like the poor relations, gathering someone elses rubbish.. but it's COLDPLAY so who cares!     Stowing the confetti inside our tour book, we made our way to the tube station.  It was madness.. hundreds of people all trying to get through one small doorway.. but we finally made it and got stuffed onto a tube, with more people chanting Viva around us.

I did wonder at the time, if there was anyone on the train who hadn't been to the concert, maybe coming home from work, and wondering what ON EARTH he was involved in?! 

We managed to get our connection straight away back home and got in at just after 12.. which wasn't too bad at all.

All in all a great concert, but I felt a little cheated that my section had probably spoiled the show a bit for me.  Oliver absolutely ADORED it however, and didn't stop talking about the concert for three days!  He is still wearing the glowband, as am I.  So I am thinking perhaps it's me?  Maybe I am forever spoiled by my closeness at the Little Noise Sessions?  Maybe I will always have to go front row from now on?

But I do feel that had my section got up and partied from the get go, I would have had JUST as much fun as the rest of the 'pit' below us.  Maybe they had vertigo?  Maybe they were shy?  Maybe.. I just know I wished they'd joined in from the start..

However I do know...Next time, we're going FRONT ROW!!

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Wonderful Memories.