Coldplay took a break from recording its second album and squeezed into to a local London pub on Friday (November 23) to tune up for its upcoming American dates.
The band, minus ill bassist Guy Berryman, performed at the Shepherd pub with “acoustic guitars, disco lights and a pub-singer P.A. system…hastily installed in the corner near the dartboard,” according to a report on the band’s official website (coldplay.com) by Coldplay guitar tech Matt McGinn.
The trio played several of its own songs, including “Yellow,” “Trouble,” “Don’t Panic,” “Parachutes,” and the new “In My Place,” as well as covers of the Sex Pistols’ “Pretty Vacant,” T. Rex’s “20th Century Boy,” and the James Bond theme, “You Only Live Twice.”
The group also answered one audience member’s call for ’80s rock with a take on Guns N’ Roses’ “Sweet Child O’ Mine.” “Hats were expressively removed for Mr. [Will] Champion in particular, following a display of high-level acoustic guitar bravery during Slash’s “Sweet Child” riffs,” writes McGinn.
Coldplay returns to the United States tonight (November 28) for a string of shows, beginning in Providence, Rhode Island. Many of the appearances are part of local radio-sponsored holiday festivals.