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Start date 21 January 2003 (2003-01-21) (official tour)19 June 2002 (2002-06-19) (including 2002 shows) End date 8 September 2003 (2003-09-08) Legs 5 (official)10 (including 2002) No. of shows 70 (official)126 (including 2002) |
A Rush of Blood to the Head Tour was a global concert tour by Coldplay launched in support of the band's second album, A Rush of Blood to the Head. Officially, the tour ran for almost nine months in 2003, covering five continents in the process. In 2002, Coldplay also performed a series of concerts in Europe and North America to support the album. However, these shows were not advertised as being part of the official album tour. The tour DVD Coldplay Live 2003 was shot at the Hordern Pavilion in Sydney, Australia on 21 and 22 July 2003. Supporting acts for the tour included extended appearances by Idlewild and Ash in 2002 and Feeder, The Music, Eisley, and Ron Sexsmith in 2003.
Contents
Background
Overall, Coldplay's concerts during this period showcased its progression as a bona fide live act. The band began playing more shows in arenas and amphitheatres, moving away from the club venues that dominated earlier tours. Shows also had more elaborate stage and lighting effects. For example, strobe lighting for the song "Daylight" featured the image of a rotating sun superimposed over the stage. Taking a cue from U2's Elevation Tour and Nine Inch Nails' Fragility Tour, Coldplay also adopted a series of back screens that displayed video footage of each band member simultaneously.
Other highlights included:
Setlist
The 2002 shows contained a rough 50/50 split in material from Parachutes and A Rush of Blood to the Head. The official tour in 2003 focused on songs from the second album, as well as many unreleased tracks. For example, the future Live 2003 song "Moses" and "Fix You" B-side "Pour Me" were introduced during the tour. Other new songs included future X&Y b-sides, "Gravity" & "Proof", "The World Turns Upside Down", which would later become a completely different song called "The World's Turned Upside Down" as another b-side to "Fix You", and an unreleased piano ballad called "Ladder to the Sun".
Coldplay also made a habit of covering other artists on the tour, often as outros to their own songs. Covers ranged from a tongue-in-cheek excerpt of Avril Lavigne's "Sk8er Boi" to the Louis Armstrong classic "What a Wonderful World". Coldplay also regularly covered Echo & the Bunnymen's "Lips Like Sugar" in its entirety, in homage of Bunnymen frontman Ian McCulloch's role as a mentor during the recording of A Rush of Blood to the Head.
The musical introduction to the concert featured selections from Brian Eno's Apollo: Atmospheres and Soundtracks.
The following is a sample setlist, taken from a concert in Hordern Pavilion, Sydney, Australia on 21 July 2003, that is part of the Live 2003 DVD.
Main set
- "Politik"
- "God Put a Smile upon Your Face"
- "A Rush of Blood to the Head"
- "Daylight"
- "Trouble"
- "One I Love"
- "Don't Panic"
- "Shiver"
- "See You Soon"
- "Everything's Not Lost"
- "Moses"
- "Yellow"
- "The Scientist"
Encore 1
Encore 2
- "Life Is for Living"