You drift through the years and life seems tame

I've not been too well the last couple of days.

In fact, I've been laid up in bed, coughing, sneezing, spluttering, sweating and wheezing with a never ending stream of snot oozing out my nose.

You should have been here, it was a blast! Not really obviously. In truth it's been a bit of a bore. A couple of days off work completely ruined by the inability to do anything. Such was my complete absence of energy that I've not had the desire to do anything even if I could have. Anything that required me leaving the snug confines of my bed was an effort. Pretty much the only thing I've done is watch a couple of films ('The Devil & Daniel Johnston' and 'Lady Vengeance') and trawl my way through a bunch of unlabeled videos to see what was on them.

Most of them were filled with things I'd forgotten I'd taped, couldn't remember why I'd taped or had watched and aren't likely to watch again. However, one of them did throw up a 20 minute live performance of Coldplay on the Other Stage at Glastonbury 2000. Recorded before they became a proto-U2, what struck me most was how studenty, fresh faced and young the band looked. Which pre-Gwyneth, pre-scrawling slogans on hands and pre-backlash, I guess they were. Recorded around the time of it's release, the set was drawn mainly from their debut album, except for this cover of the Bond theme from the film of the same name.

Their version very much sounds like a Coldplay song of that time. And it's interesting to compare their sound at that time, to their more recent releases and the soon to be released 'Viva La Vida'. Back then, their songs and performances seemed simple and effortless. While they still had singalong anthems, they didn't seem so calculated or aiming for the faux emotional lighters aloft moments that blighted much of 'X & Y'. Having liked but not loved 'Violet Hill', I'm interested to see where 'Viva La Vida' takes them and whether they can recapture some of the form that seems to have eluded them as their fame and fortunes have grown. I guess we'll find out when it's released on June 12th.

Coldplay - you only live twice (live Bond theme cover)

mp3 / music / coldplay