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Dotmusic @ V2000, August 2000 (Live Review)
"I love you!" screams an enthusiastic young lady. To which Coldplay frontman Chris Martin replies "You don't know me. I'm a twat."

It's true, we don't really know indie outfit Coldplay that well. They seem to have shot up over the last few months with three hit singles and their Number One debut album 'Parachutes'.
Not that that matters to modest Martin. Thanking the assembled thousands -one of the biggest crowds of the weekend- he says, "The charts don't mean shit to us. But it does feel good to beat The Corrs."

Spotting the band's "first ever banner" and "first T-shirt" in the crowd Martin seems genuinely thrilled and touched by the attention Coldplay are getting.

And the crowd in return respond warmly to Coldplay's intimate, melancholy guitar melodies. Martin's plaintive falsetto sounds a little like Thom Yorke's at times while it could be Fran Healy standing there, scraping at his acoustic guitar, leaning up and in to his microphone.

Some of the intricate beauty of the singles 'Spies', 'Yellow' and 'Shiver' -the set's highlight- is lost this afternoon and some songs sound a little patchy in the flesh. So much so that heads are turned to watch a momentarily more interesting drama unfold, as six security guards evict a beenie hatted fan from a tree.

But there's enough here to suggest that Coldplay could build on the success of 'Parachutes'. They have an impressive bunch of songs, Martin is a charming frontman and as the likes of 'Shiver' and set closer 'Everything's Not Lost' prove, he's a dab hand at a little sad trickling piano.

And anyone who can keep The Corrs from the top slot is most welcome to stay in the world of pop for as long as they like.

Gary Crossing