New Year's Day is often referred to as “guaranteed first hangover of the year”. For the British music industry, I’d hazard a guess that the day after the BRIT Awards sees a hilariously impressive spike in the number of email accounts set to auto-respond with “I’m not in the office...

They’re a funny thing, awards shows.



I guess then, that if Glastonbury is the "Beatles of festivals" as CM once quipped, then the Grammys is pretty much the toppermost of the poppermost when it comes to awards shows - and hence...

I hadn’t thought about it until Chris mentioned it on the B-stage. He thanks the Frankfurt crowd and mentions that Germany is where this tour really started, back on Rock im Park all those months ago. Fitting then, that we bring the show back here just before we break for...

I’ve got to be honest, I was expecting the Rotterdam audience to be somewhat - um, 'laid back' I guess is the right phrase. It just goes to show that you never can tell…

It’s a good noisy crowd that...

What a difference a few weeks can make. We had shows in Paris and Cologne during the album launch period. We’re back in those same two cities now and we’ve reached the light at the end of the tunnel that got us through the past six months or so of...

Following the directions from the car park to the video shoot location, I pass the pub that’s noted on the map. I look in the windows to see if there’s anyone I recognise in there. The pub is completely awash with folks covered in luminous paint. Clearly I’m getting close.

Back in 2002, very shortly after I joined the Coldplay travelling circus, we found ourselves in a tiny club in San Francisco. I remember the soundcheck having been somewhat eventful, almost ending in fisticuffs over nothing of any great import. Shortly before showtime, I dived into the dressing room to...

Greetings. I’ve one foot out the door to the O2 show, so not much time to catch up on what’s been a pretty eventful week. The arena shows finally kicked off in Glasgow on Saturday. I’m pretty sure that the first UK arena on the Rush Of Blood tour was...

I’m sitting in the lounge waiting for the flight up to Glasgow. I suppose technically, tonight is the first proper show of the Mylo Xylotour. It’s not surprising really that it doesn’t feel like it. The Rock Im Park festival was the first gig we did with these songs. That...

It strikes me as I arrive at The Church Of St John in Hackney that there is quite a lot going on in the world of Coldplay today. We're in East London getting set up for this acoustic show tonight, whilst on the South Bank, all the gear is going...

Neill Lambert (my keyboard-world partner in crime) has just been on stage to check the piano before the KROQ webcast begins. Before he’s even got back to our rig at stage left, Anchorman (my website co-conspirator) has emailed me a screen-grab...

I point at the image on the laptop when...

A few days after the Cape Town stadium, which was literally at sea level (any closer to the coastline and it would have been a wet load-in), we pull into the FNB Stadium in Johannesburg and are reminded by stage manager Gary Currier that we’re 1,700 metres above sea level....

As you get ever more road(ie) miles under your belt, two things start to happen.

Firstly, less phases you. Most things that the crew encounter on a daily basis are a repetition of what’s gone before. I remember on the Rush Of Blood tour, the enormous growth spurt that the...

So this entry marks the first appearance of this blog on the Huffington Post UK. I'd like to warmly welcome anyone joining us from the wider online world. I have to admit I'm a little cautious of the timing here, though. People generally believe that touring's all exotic travel and...