Live Birmingham photoblog

11.01pm: And that’s it from us. It’s been a fun night. Hope you enjoyed it too.
Anchorman

10.53pm: Blimey, we very nearly missed them completely. In fact, we did miss Guy, Jonny and Will, as they whizzed off before we could get to the cars backstage. But we did get a pic of a happy-but-tired Chris. Phew.

10.43pm: The cars are waiting to whisk the band away. This is our paparazzi/Eminem moment. "If you had just one shot, would you take it?" We shall see…

10.31pm: Aw, the butterflies looked lovely tonight. Of course, we’ve been rushing about taking pics, but it’s clearly been a cracking show.

The band are on their encore now. Apparently they’re rushing off straight after the show, but we’ll do our best to get a pic or two…

10.18pm: And some pics from the C-stage.

Gotta rush, Lovers In Japan in a sec…

9.59pm: Some pics from the B-stage…

9.39pm: This is how the setlist is looking. We can hear them paying Fix You right now…

9.32pm: We just went right to the back, which has left us somewhat out of breath. Here’s the pic (taken during Yellow), and one taken on the way back (during Chinese Sleep Chant)…

9.18pm: These were taken during In My Place. Birmingham seems up for it tonight. They’re only four songs in, but both crowd and band are taking off nicely…

Hope you’re enjoying this, wherever you are.

9.09pm: They’re on. Here are some pics, beginning with the pre-match huddle…

Um, you’ll notice that Guy’s live photography advice helped with the first two, if not the last one…

8.29pm: Jonny, Guy and Will are in the warm-up room, getting their voices ready by singing along to a tape. The words are along the lines of "la, la, la, laaaaaa" or "wee, wee, wee, weeeee", which they trill along to while putting on shoes or reading . It’s all quite surreal, to be honest. But Guy was also giving us some very helpful tips on how to take live gig pictures. You’ll see whether they pay off in a bit…

8.17pm: Band are still in their meeting. But hopefully we’ll get some pics of them warming up soon…

8.04pm: Here’s a pic of Jon Hopkins playing his twittery, skittery and really quite beautiful electronica. Check out his MySpace here if you want something to listen to while you read the blog.

7.53pm: Meanwhile, in Franksy’s office, the scene is set for a post-show drink ‘n nibbles…

7.48pm: The band are having a meeting in their dressing room with Franksy. Meanwhile, it’s all looking busy in the management office. Check out the concentration on Arlene and Vicki’s faces…

7.29pm: Will is in the dressing room playing Pro Evolution on the Playstation. Apparently he’s playing a season as Lyon, trying to win the French league. In real life football news, he’s very pleased that Southampton have drawn Manchester United at home in the FA Cup, and hopes to go.

Ain’t that the face of concentration? On the way back from the dressing room, we popped out and watched a bit of Eugene Francis Jnr, who’s warming the crowd up nicely with an energetic set.

7.17pm: Here’s Chris and Jonny, in the dressing room, just before heading off to do an interview. They seemed in good spirits. As did Prospekt, who popped in to say hello.

Now all we need is Will to complete the set…

6.50pm: Guy in the house! He’s had a nice, relaxing day, is looking forward to the show and assures me that the other three are somewhere in this cavernous venue. He also appears to have an arrow coming out of his right arm…

6.38pm: Sorry for the gap since we last posted, we went go get some food from catering (chicken tagine, very nice). We found ourselves sitting next to Chris’s dad, who’s driven up from Devon, as this is his closest show to home. Lovely chap. Also there was soundman Dan, who was discussing the Wembley Stadium acoustics, and trainer Dan, who reports that Alex McLeish had a steady but impressive game of football earier.

Right, the band are apparently in the building, so we’re going to hunt them down and take some pics…

5.52pm: Shopping trolley update.

Where did all the stuff go?

5.37pm: The other wardrobe cases (we showed you Chris’s earlier).

The band may not be here yet, but at least the wi-fi is a million times quicker than it was in Lyon.

5.16pm: This just in from acclaimed popster-cum-roadie #42. Eagled-eyed viewers will note a former Scotland manager and current Birmingham City boss lurking on the right of the pic…

Look out for video highlights of the match from #42 soon.

5.10pm: Well, as you’ll appreciate, it is a little tricky to give you exciting pics of Coldplay backstage when Coldplay aren’t actually here yet. So we went for a bit of a wander. And this is what we found…

Yep, the merch stand.

A poster for a badminton match 16 years ago. Sadly, Mr Google is not forthcoming with details of who won.

The Oxfam stall. Head to www.oxfam.org/coldplay for all the info.

"Hello, I would like some food." "You’re in luck sir, we have lots of food."

Postman Pat and Jess. Big stars, coming to the NIA on Dec 27th.

We saw this sign on the wall near the production office. Are they suggesting that Roadie #42 is chart-busting electro-popster MIA? Seems a little unlikely to us.

4.30pm: This is how it’s looking at what’s known in the trade as "the house" (so Coldplay’s tour manager, Franksy, tells us). As you’ll see from the first pic, it’s a risky business going out there…

 
That last pic was taken from the seat at the very, very back of the venue. Not one for someone with vertigo.

4.03pm: Good afternoon. We’re backstage at the NIA in Birmingham, having set up home in the management office. It’s cold and icy outside, but reasonably cosy in here. The band aren’t about yet – Jonny and Will have been playing football this afternoon, while Guy and Chris have been enjoying an afternoon off. They’re all due here at about 6pm. Until then, we’ll be wandering about, snapping pictures like the ones below.
Anchorman

That last one is a picture of the view from where we’re sitting, just in case you were thinking it was all glamour back here…