Coldplay
Exeter Castle
19th December, 2009

View: standing, stage-right

The long overdue return for Exeter-born Chris Martin was in aid of Mencap and put together by Radio One. Some 200 diehard Coldplay fans got tickets from a local record shop, the remaining 300 going for £500+ each via e-Bay. Subject to stringent noise abatement, the band played the latter part of their set on a secondary acoustic stage. But in spite of the limitations, Coldplay demonstrated the professionalism that has made them one of the biggest names on the live circuit. Martin is an incendiary showman, with the audience in the palm of his hand from the opening track, Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas, to the encore of Lennon’s Happy Christmas War Is Over. Between, we got all the classics, and even trains rattling past at the nearby station couldn’t dampen his ardour or the crowd’s enthusiastic dancing. The group aired Clocks, Yellow and a restyled The Scientist. Headlines in the local paper billed this “gig of the decade”, which was a slight exaggeration, but certainly an evening that will live long in the memory.

Reviewed by Bradley Smith
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