Coldplay’s Secret Santa
Christmas came early for 100 Coldplay fans last month by taking part in the video shoot for Coldplay’s latest single Christmas Lights. I was lucky enough to be one of them.
The South Bank of the Thames looking towards St. Paul’s cathedral: location for Coldplay’s video shoot for Christmas Lights on 25th November, 2010.
The invitation from Coldplay HQ went out as an opportunity to have a question and answer session with Coldplay’s creative director and fifth member (Phil Harvey) as well as to meet two of the touring road crew (Matthew Miller and Matt McGinn) as well as“a few surprises up our sleeves for the evening”. The venue was a cruise boat in London, starting at 5pm and lasting until around 11:30pm, and we were told to dress up warmly for the evening. So out came the glad rags!
Speculation began given the dates (either November 25th or 26th) that it may be related to a video shoot for Coldplay’s next single, Christmas Lights. This was intensified on the evening of the 24th November, when Coldplay posted the following note on their website.
I met up with other fans before boarding the boat and one of the many pleasantly surreal things from the evening was signing a thank you card to Coldplay. We speculated whether the uncertainty around the date was if the band/production company were waiting to see the weather forecast (it had been forecast to snow on the evening of the 25th in London, but not the 26th). My own guess for the evening was that it was going to be a video shoot: that we would be whisked away to some secret location on the East Coast (given the cruise was scheduled to be over 5 hours): somewhere where a stage would be set up and that we would be filmed as part of a live audience at a festive gig. I never dreamt Coldplay could keep filming in the heart of central London such a secret!
As we boarded the boat we had to hand in our cameras and phones. Some fans were wondering why we were doing this – but working in an industry where this is commonplace it didn’t bother me at all; and I guessed something special was in store. Once the boat had left its mooring we were told we were going to take part in the video shoot for their song Christmas Lights, and be the first 100 people outside of EMI to hear the song in full.
Posted from: https://excelgate.wordpress.com/2010/12/15/coldplays-secret-santa/
