Coldplay played the first of two nights at London’s Royal Albert Hall last night (July 1), which singer Chris Martin said would be one of their “last shows for a while”.
Taking to the stage, moved from its usual position to a platform at the centre of the crowd, the band entered uniformly wearing all black after a lengthy build up of atmospheric warm-up music.
The ceiling above the performance area was covered with suspended silver stars and rainbow coloured lazers, with star-covered tree branches also placed at various points around the room.
PHOTOS: Coldplay’s London Albert Hall Show In Pictures
Kicking off with ‘Always In My Head’, the group had the crowd on their feet from the off. Declaring that he was “so happy to see you all”, singer Chris Martin then lead the band into ‘Charlie Brown’ before taking to the piano for ‘Paradise’ at the end of which he stated that his band have “the best fans in the world”.
Continuing with ‘Magic’ and old hits ‘Clocks’ and ‘The Scientist’, which provoked a mass singalong from the crowd with people holding their phones up in place of lighters, Martin then finished the track with a line from Adele’s ‘Someone Like You’.
Telling the crowd that this was one of their last concerts for a while, the singer then said that they would attempt to play “a few songs from each album, which doesn’t seem like a revolutionary idea but it’s strange for us”. They then launched into ‘God Put A Smile Upon My Face’, taken from 2002’s ‘A Rush Of Blood To The Head’ and ‘Til Kingdom Come’ – which the singer stopped midway through to joke about an audience member making an amusing noise. ‘Don’t Panic’ was also stopped to cheer for guitarist Johnny Buckland who took lead vocals on two lines and was deemed by Martin “the shyest man in the world”.
‘Everything’s Not Lost’, ‘Ink’, ‘True Love’ and ‘When I Ruled The World’ followed, during which Martin and drummer Will Champion took to a smaller stage at the end of the venue. They then continued with ‘Midnight’ and fan favourite ‘Every Teardrop Is A Waterfall’ before exiting for the first time.
With the crowd chanting the riff from ‘When I Ruled The World’, Coldplay then re-entered wearing a mixture of white and grey tops before launching into ‘Oceans’. Instructing people to “loosen up”, they then played ‘Sky Full of Stars’, inciting the crowd to jump up and down as confetti cannons of white paper stars went off around the room. The band finished with ‘Fix You’ before uniting to bow to different areas around the stage in turn.
Coldplay played:
‘Always In My Head’
‘Charlie Brown’
‘Paradise’
‘Magic’
‘Clocks’
‘The Scientist’
‘God Put A Smile Upon My Face’
‘Til Kingdom Come’
‘Everything’s Not Lost’
‘Ink’
‘True Love’
‘When I Ruled The World’
‘Midnight’
‘Every Teardrop Is A Waterfall’
‘Oceans’
‘Sky Full Of Stars’
‘Fix You’