Coldplay “Fix You” at Glastonbury 2011
We are going to Glastonbury in 2013*. We have a new quest. Thanks to the under-appreciated Palladia Channel, we have watched the highlights from every Glastonbury show since 2004. It just gets better and better. All bands kick it up five or ten notches for Glastonbury, and we have never seen better audiences to add fuel to the bands’ fires. Whether it’s Blur, Radiohead or Arcade Fire, the results are the same. Year in, year out.
This year was no exception. Radiohead and Pulp made surprise appearances, but the biggest surprise for us was Coldplay’s headlining set. We had, we now admit, grown weary of Coldplay and their omnipresent songs. For some time we’ve considered them a substandard U2/Radiohead combo. But their Glastonbury performance provided a powerful dose of reality and showed how wrong we can be. This band’s songs are filled with masterful melodies, and they are instinctual musicians that enliven and animate their songs in concert. The new songs they played at Glastonbury bode well for their impending new album. On paper their lyrics can seem somewhat insipid, but sung live and backed by the 175,000-member Glastonbury choir/audience they pack a powerful punch.
Check out three different video versions below of Coldplay playing Fix You. It’ll warm the cockles of your heart (whatever that means; it just seems apropos given Glastonbury’s southwest England locale).
Who knows, tears may stream down your face as you watch. And you may be fixed for a time.
*We’d attend next year, but the organizers are passing given the Summer Olympics in England. So we’ll have to wait until 2013.
Light, ya say? Whose light? Regardless, this performance transcends all disputes. Gwyneth’s husband and mates are making demands on the throne. Good luck with that.
Separately, we pray for the soul of Amy Winehouse. Dear Amy, we were only kidding about that rehab business. Come back, be amongst friends. Have some tea, stroke a sweet stuffed animal. Forget what’s his name. And his libertine pals. But please, dear Amy, please explain, was it us or was it you, or was it some unbridgeable gulf that separated? A fell swoop, and who hasn’t fallen? There was a pulse, and there yet lingered hope. Amy, dear Amy, please aim higher from here on…
Glad you’ve finally seen the light. I don’t care if it’s uncool to like Coldplay. If it’s wrong to like ’em, I don’t wanna be right.