Viva la Vida Tour
| Tour by Coldplay | |
Insignia used on the tour, featured on the tour's posters, programs and stage design.
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| Associated album |
Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends Prospekt's March |
|---|---|
| Start date | 23 June 2008 |
| End date | 11 March 2010 |
| Legs | 13 |
| No. of shows |
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| Box office |
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| Coldplay concert chronology | |
The Viva la Vida Tour was the fourth concert tour by British band Coldplay. The tour was in support their fourth studio album Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends (2008). The tour was a massive commercial and critical success visiting Europe, Asia, the Americas and Australasia. The tour further established the band as one the concert industry's biggest draws and as one of the world's most popular bands.
The stage setup consisted of a stripped-down main stage and two catwalks; Coldplay also performed amongst audience members at the back of venues in a special acoustic set. Instead of a giant video screen on-stage, the band opted for six hanging giant lightbulbs that displayed images and closeups. Lead singer Chris Martin dubbed the fixtures as "magic balls", while drummer Will Champion added that they release confetti butterflies. During the tour the The Blue Danube, by Johann Strauss II, was played on all concerts, as an intro, right before the band coming into the stage.
Coldplay were accompanied by Oxfam and David Gibbin during the tour. Volunteers were stationed at each venue to tell concertgoers how to reduce poverty; the organization's logo and website was featured on one of the light ball fixtures during each concert.
On 23 July 2008 Coldplay performed their second in two shows at the United Center arena in Chicago. In each of the two shows, the band shot the music video for "Lost!" by performing the song twice. On 19 September 2008, Chris Martin was accompanied by A-ha pianist Magne Furuholmen in the encore at the Oslo Spektrum, Oslo, to play a cover of the A-Ha song "Hunting High and Low".
The intro of the concert would begin in space before turning to show the Earth and zooming to aerial views of the continent, country, city and then stadium that the show would take place. The idea was to make each show being a spectacle in its own, rather than just part of the tour. The cosmic theme is repeated across a number of the visuals like "Speed of Sound" and "Glass of Water". This takes the gig-goers on a journey through a solar system where the stars coalesce to form an eye shape that goes supernova and engulfs the screen in flames. However, other sections of the show were completely different. "Lovers in Japan", one of the highlights in visual terms, uses a series of archive footage and animations across the screen at the back of the stage and in the end thousands of confetti butterflies would rain all over the venue. For the show's closing number, "Life in Technicolor II", the paintings created for the album artwork from Viva La Vida was treated with sprocket and projection effects to create a vibrant, experimental and immersive colorful effect.
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