Last night I was at La Cigale in Paris to see Coldplay perform to an intimate audience. What a night!
La Cigale is a small venue, holding only about a thousand people: quite different from the football stadiums and Glastonbury’s Pyramid Stage that Coldplay have got us used to. To make it even more unusual, the concert was private, organised by a French radio station and a mobile phone company for competition winners. After the success of the Viva la Vida tour, Oxfam is following Coldplay on tour again, and it was Oxfam France’s turn last night to bring five lovely volunteers to talk to people about Oxfam’s new campaign, GROW, as they entered the venue.
With no support band, the gig started on time and Coldplay squeezed in on the small stage, alternating old classics like ‘Yellow’ and ‘The Scientist’ with new songs from their new album, ‘Mylo Xyloto’. Among the multicoloured neon lights and bright lasers that crossed the venue, the stage background – inspired by the artwork of their new album – reserved a surprise: a graffiti-style Oxfam logo featured right at the centre, among scribbles and words such as ‘chaos’. If anyone had any doubts about Coldplay’s support of Oxfam, here’s the evidence. And a smaller version of our logo was also on Chris’s t-shirt.
Coldplay were in top form and Chris, apologising for his French, invited the audience to sing along and launched his guitar up in the air at the end of ‘God Put A Smile Upon My Face’.
The new single ‘Paradise’ went down a storm, although I think I’m not the only one that had hoped to see them wearing the elephant costumes from the official video! Thankfully one elephant head came out for the final greetings courtesy of Jonny. The encore featured two old favourites; ‘Clocks’ and ‘Fix You’ and then the grand finale that made everyone dance: ‘Every Tear Is A Waterfall’.
It’s been great to see them again and it’s even more exciting to know that Oxfam will accompany them on their adventures around the world. Many thanks to Clemence and her team at Oxfam France for coming along to help spread the word for a better world in which everyone has enough to eat – and they provided the photo, too.
An intimate gig at La Cigale in Paris
Posted by Giulia Biasibetti on 02 November 2011 in france, paris
Last night I was at La Cigale in Paris to see Coldplay perform to an intimate audience. What a night!
La Cigale is a small venue, holding only about a thousand people: quite different from the football stadiums and Glastonbury’s Pyramid Stage that Coldplay have got us used to. To make it even more unusual, the concert was private, organised by a French radio station and a mobile phone company for competition winners. After the success of the Viva la Vida tour, Oxfam is following Coldplay on tour again, and it was Oxfam France’s turn last night to bring five lovely volunteers to talk to people about Oxfam’s new campaign, GROW, as they entered the venue.
With no support band, the gig started on time and Coldplay squeezed in on the small stage, alternating old classics like ‘Yellow’ and ‘The Scientist’ with new songs from their new album, ‘Mylo Xyloto’. Among the multicoloured neon lights and bright lasers that crossed the venue, the stage background – inspired by the artwork of their new album – reserved a surprise: a graffiti-style Oxfam logo featured right at the centre, among scribbles and words such as ‘chaos’. If anyone had any doubts about Coldplay’s support of Oxfam, here’s the evidence. And a smaller version of our logo was also on Chris’s t-shirt.
Coldplay were in top form and Chris, apologising for his French, invited the audience to sing along and launched his guitar up in the air at the end of ‘God Put A Smile Upon My Face’.
The new single ‘Paradise’ went down a storm, although I think I’m not the only one that had hoped to see them wearing the elephant costumes from the official video! Thankfully one elephant head came out for the final greetings courtesy of Jonny. The encore featured two old favourites; ‘Clocks’ and ‘Fix You’ and then the grand finale that made everyone dance: ‘Every Tear Is A Waterfall’.
It’s been great to see them again and it’s even more exciting to know that Oxfam will accompany them on their adventures around the world. Many thanks to Clemence and her team at Oxfam France for coming along to help spread the word for a better world in which everyone has enough to eat – and they provided the photo, too.
Giulia
Watch Coldplay performing in Madrid (October 26, 2011). Directed by Anton Corbijn as part of UNSTAGED from American Express
Follow this blog on Twitter