Coldplay
Manchester Evening News Arena, Monday 19th December 2005

It has been something of a roller coaster year for Coldplay. The bands third album was finally released in the summer after numerous delays – mainly due to apparent artistic tensions attendant in the recording sessions. Fractious moments in the studio – that nearly resulted in X&Y not being released.

There was also the added pressure the news that their record company EMI had posted a loss in profits as a result of the delayed release. When the record was finally released in some quarters the album was received with muted criticism from a number of critics. The fact that the band had become so big – was seemingly the main reason they had become more of a target.

You can certainly see why in the live arena that the band seemingly thrives away from the minutiae and resultant pressures of being one of the World’s biggest bands.

For all the criticism of the new album, Coldplay do cut the mustard on the stage and tonight’s triumphal gig was no exception. Be it headlining a festival or on a tour in their own right. Three albums in Coldplay have become the band that people will go to see without having purchased the new material. Mainly in the hope they will play the old stuff and the single they have heard on the radio. You could say they have reached U2-like status

This was something of a homecoming night in the vast space that is the MEN. For Coldplay it was a return to the city which they were first discovered at the In The City event - for tonight’s support act, Richard Ashcroft it was a return to his spiritual home of the north west.

Back in the saddle after a layoff to recuperate from the critical mauling his previous album received. He played a smattering of new songs from the soon to be released ‘Keys to the World’. Which sound on first hearing is a step in the right direction – but still weighed down by platitudinous lyrics that to some ears seems mystical, but more often than not sounds trite. The day was saved though as the newer stuff began to plod on - with a selection of his greatest hits from his Verve days.

‘Square One’ started the proceedings again as it had at the summer gig at the Reebok Stadium – this was given a greater sense of occasion given the indoor setting with the clock backdrop showing a countdown to the bands introduction. In fact there were very few surprises and amendments to the set but what was apparent was the verve and vigour of the band despite being nearly the eightieth date of the tour.

The energy of front man Martin was there to see as he raced from the stage to the back row of the first tier of seating during ‘In my Place’. He managed to make it back in time for the next number and was even forgiven for fluffing the lines to ‘Fix You’ on his return.

Next year will see more touring and a number of festival dates. When a new album will surface is difficult to tell. But given the lofty status of the band and the material that they can now omit. The wait for new material could be a long one.

Radiohead

Manchester Evening News Arena, Saturday 22nd November 2003

Set List: There There; 2 + 2 = 5, Lucky; Myxomatosis; Where I end You Begin; Backdrifts; fake Plastic Trees; Paranoid Android; Sail To The Moon; I Might Be Wrong; Climbing The Walls; My Iron Lung; Sit Down, Stand Up; Scatterbrain; National Anthem; Exit Music; Idioteque; The Gloaming; Go To Sleep; The Bends; Street Spirit; A Wolf At The Door; Karma Police; Everything In It’s Place.

Back in the big arenas after this tours various warm up shows and the last major tours use of big top circus tents. Radiohead may have found the perfect place to deliver to the music they are now performing; the sparse electronica that can sound a little cold and digitised on record, but in this sort of arena bounces around this vastness of the place.

The energetic Asian Dub Foundation, are the tour band of choice for Radiohead. They are a band with a similar message to deliver though from a slightly different direction. There set is one that goes down well with tonight’s audience.

At 9 o’clock sharp the lights dim and the band emerge to electronic white noise. The band launches into in my opinion the single of the year ‘There There’. On record this is a fantastic 5-minute experience – live it is something else, with Guitarist’s Ed O’Brien and Jonny Greenwood pound away thrashing out tribal rhythms at two drums. Before grabbing the guitars to take the song to a different level altogether.

One song in and you wonder how they follow that? Instead of relying on the sure fire crowd pleasers, Radiohead explore the more avant-garde output of their last three albums. The reaction from the crowd to these songs is fairly good. You get the feeling that majority of the crowd haven’t just come to see if they’ll play ‘Creep’ (which they don’t) but that they’ll give the rest of the bands output a listen.

The set draws heavily from the politicised last album ‘Hail To The Thief’. As well as from the other electronic based ‘Kid A’ and ‘Amnesiac’.

The other albums are not neglected though. ‘Fake Plastic Trees’ is given a great reception at its start as to did songs like ‘My Iron Lung’ and ‘Paranoid Android’ a song that just gets better every time that you hear it.

Front man Thom Yorke doesn’t go much on the between song banter but he has something of magnetic personality about him that keeps the crowd enthralled. He was a bundle of nervous energy as he spins around the stage like a whirring dervish. While the band solidly concentrate on getting the sound across.
It was an astonishing performance from a band very much at the top of their game. Tonight was very much the end of phase one as a band what with the soon to expire record contract. Here’s hoping that the next phase is as exciting and varied as the last.