COLDPLAY - COLDPLAY SURPRISES WITH ACOUSTIC TRIBUTES

COLDPLAY SURPRISES WITH ACOUSTIC TRIBUTES

COLDPLAY turned their headlining set at the All Points West Festival in New Jersey on Sunday (02Aug09) into a show of tributes to late superstar MICHAEL JACKSON and cancer-stricken rapper ADAM YAUCH.
The day's festivities were almost cancelled altogether after torrential rain in the early afternoon threatened to bring the three-day event to a premature end.
The skies over Liberty State Park eventually cleared and the live music was kicked off with a two-song set by PT Walkley, who opened the second stage - two hours behind schedule.
We Are Scientists, Silversun Pickups, Elbow and The Black Keys helped to get the line-up schedule back on track, while bands including Steel Train and Kitty, Daisy & Lewis had their early performances scrapped altogether due to time constraints.
But it was Coldplay who drew the biggest crowd on Sunday night, playing a 90-minute set for patient fans.
After running through songs including Yellow, Clocks, Violet Hill, Viva la Vida and Speed of Sound, Coldplay frontman Chris Martin took to the piano to put a classical twist to the Beastie Boys' 1987 hit (You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (to Party!) as a tribute to bandmember Yauch, aka MCA.
Yauch announced he had been diagnosed with a tumour in the salivary gland late last month (Jul09), forcing the rap trio to scrap their headlining performance on Friday night (31Jul09). Jay-Z stepped in as a last minute replacement for the Beastie Boys and paid his own tribute to them by opening his set with a rendition of their New York anthem No Sleep In Brooklyn.
Martin followed suit by turning party classic (You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (to Party!) into a ballad, telling the audience: "This is for absent friends. I know Jay acknowledged it (Beastie Boys' absence) on Friday but I hope you don't mind us acknowledging it now."
Coldplay also put an acoustic spin on the King of Pop's Billie Jean, prompting a mass sing-a-long as they brought All Points West to a close.