Coldplaying in the Heat & Dust
They were here. Did you see them? Has your life changed?
If you did not see them - get the recording off VH-I. I have been told they will keep
broadcasting it.
If your life has still not changed - sunny boy, this is the time to recognise your dad
was right. You need a real job. Like in an office, with a tie.....
If you, like me has seen the future. Then you in the right place. A few columns ago I
wrote that we were in the best of times and in the worst of times. Coldplay was the best
of times.
In my opinion Chris Martin is a Star. Cut in the mould of the greatest Rock Stars of his
generation. Amongst a crowd of 80,000 (reported) he connected to everyone there. He was
best friend.... or brother or lover or whatever you wanted him to be. That is his gift
and we all felt it that night.
Also in my opinion the rest of the band was about the most boring, average set of musicians
who were supremely lucky to have befriended a Rock God. Lucky Them. Was that boredom or
resentment on their faces ? While Superstar Martin obviously was enjoying every moment on
stage and ensuring that every one of his new best friends or lovers or brothers in India
also enjoyed every moment, the rest of the band looked like they were going to burst into
tears or just wanted to be somewhere else.
Now let’s talk about the real hero of the evening. The Staging.
The Sound - Impeccable. All the work and the attention to detail paid off. The Colden King
was transmitted to each one of us there. The unique timber of his voice sitting on our
shoulders. As for the rest of the guys - the PA made them actually sound good.
The Lighting - Vast. Who says that a massive inventory of cheap Chinese lights doesn’t look
great. Who would have thought that DMX delays and many cylinders of carefully released
smoke can fill a space with shock and wonder. I learnt a huge lesson that day.
The Staging. That vast flying wing of blinding light flying at you. The confetti, the
balloons, the bridge and even more confetti. Simply WOW.
Everything put together makes me feel that tomorrows Global citizen has much to look
forward to.
Clean Toilets, Digital Currency, No corruption and every time somebody powerful wants
to make a connect to India’s unbounded youth - we can celebrate these gifts with a
huge concert.
There was so much around the concert. So much to read, so much fuel, so much hype. Like
good little children being groomed to be global citizens, concert mama also advised
us on what to wear - loose comfortable clothing. What to pack - water, salt tablets,
nutrition bars. We were told to bring cash. Not cards. Apparently the ringing of cash
registers and the airwave consumption of card machines would adversely affect the
technology of the evening. Hopefully next time we will learn to behave in the presence
of our betters. But mama - we were good children right? Nobody got hurt or was led
astray.
I was led astray. After ages some excitement crept into my cynical old bones. I danced,
bad leg and all, and still had energy to walk to the car.
I am a minimalist. I believe that great lighting is about the minimum darkness we displace.
One carefully placed spot light in a beautifully timed fade, to me is orgasm. In the
theatre my mentor would yell at me. ‘I don’t care how big the show. You don’t need more
than 15 dimmer channels - as long as you have a finger on each one of them ‘
Even in a Pink Floyd Concert with its amazing light shows - when you break it down it is
always so simple. Every song has ONE big look. That you can never forget. Against them
you have the Rolling Stones with their jumble of joys. But the Coldplay light guy had it
all. Simple stuff like in the obviously lit ‘Yellow’ to the complexity of ‘In My Place’
From Garage Band to Outsize stadium in a switch. Break it down guys. Watch it over and
over. It was lesson in showmanship. What can I say - Respect !
This issue is all about Outsize DJ’s. This is a Visual Designers dream. Like the self
effacing Pink Floyd once said - ‘None of us are in the Robert Redford looks department,
so we got have our audiences see something’
Fortunately for us, most of the DJ’s are not much better looking than Roger Waters. Can
I be mean and say - perhaps even including the ladies !
So here’s your chance to stand up and give those incredible audiences ‘Something to
See’
All the advertisers in this issue offer many tools in that journey. Coldplay has taught
us that being a maximalist with cheap Chinese lights is the new way forward. I finally
understood why people would invent boxes that control mountains of DMX universes. Ok
sorry - I was slow - but I got there !
Break out of the square box stages. Fly off in a hundred new directions and bring back
the stages that immerse you in light, shower you in fine smoke and fill all the air
around you in tightly controlled LIGHT.
The beat is steady and easy to bounce off. The girls are pretty and everybody is moving
in chic convulsions. Come on we got Mr Modi to sprout ‘Too cool to show up for a Nobel,
Dylan’
Step up and take the space before these Global citizens come yapping on your heels.