Coldplay – Parachutes Tour – 2000

October 4th 2000 – Leicester DSU Arena

Support: Lowdown (didn’t watch)

Coldplay were on their way this year….They had actually played Leicester twice before this year at De Montfort University in January and then The Princess Charlotte in March.

I was oblivious to them at Reading in 1999, so I still was up until now!! In fact, until a song called Shiver was released in March 1999, which sounded really fresh and tuneful, then the big hit, Yellow in June, equally a great melody.

We bought our tickets just before Yellow was released, in late May, which was really lucky as this gig sold out really quickly after Yellow was released and gave the guys chart success. They were the new stars on the block and had been heavily touring anywhere that would take them and it was starting to pay dividends.

The clip below shows how young they all looked, because, err, I guess they were!!!

Chris Martin – lead vocals, acoustic guitar, piano, keyboards
Jonny Buckland – electric guitar, piano, backing vocals
Guy Berryman – bass guitar
Will Champion – drums, percussion, backing vocals

They came on stage to a massive roar and Chris was visibly shocked and yet excited by it (could have been for show). No great surprise they seemed a bit nervous, but Chris particularly was the lead and soon he was chatting away and making the crown laugh.

Don’t Panic was soft and yet with a searing sounding guitar and vocals. Shiver was played really early on so I was happy. Chris Martin had such a smooth voice and the rhythmic guitar sound from Johnny Buckland was special.

Outside of Squeeze, I hadn’t really paid attention to pianos in bands…keyboards yes, but not pianos. So when Chris started to play one it was a new experience. He wasn’t getting on well with it which was making him more nervous and a bit frustrated. His banter with the crowd kept everyone onside though.

I wasn’t going to be a dancing gig, but we had a damn fine go during Yellow until it mellowed out again.

Really great concert, at this stage of their career, I would have been placing them in with Travis and Elbow as their styles were complement each other at the time…..my money was on Travis being the biggest success……partially this came true, but you should never follow my bets in the long term!

Set List

• Don’t Panic
• Shiver
• Spies
• Sparks
• Yellow
• Trouble
• Parachutes
• High Speed
• We Never Change
• Everything’s Not Lost
• Help Is Round the Corner
• Encore: Bigger Stronger