Hello there, I am Roadie #42. My good friend Prospekt has asked me to keep you all posted on the goings on from inside the tour. I sit somewhere stage left through every performance. Wherever the band are in the world, I’ll be there and I’ll be reporting back to you.

Photo: BBC

So here we are in Brixton Academy. The crowd’s gone home, the floor’s a mess and the truck’s nearly packed. It must be the first night of the Viva La Vida tour.

In many ways, it feels as though we’ve run a marathon just to get to the starting line. Rehearsals have been brutally taxing. We’ve been flitting about across the planet doing TV shows, amidst trying to work out exactly what we need to do to be ready for the guys to play the songs. (Tympani drums? Cast iron bells? Butterfly confetti? Hand painted synths and guitars? None of this stuff comes off the shelf…)

Folks have been working around the clock in Wembley Arena to put together a live experience that does the record justice. The show is crafted and sculpted from months of mere imaginings in round table meetings. From the CAD drawings of Lighting Designer Paul Normandale and the “What we really want to do is…..” emails from the band, to the “How the hell are we going to…?” 4am headaches of Production Manager Craig Finley. Time comes to crush us, as ready or not, it’s time to take the show on the road.

After the scale of the Wembley production rehearsals, we rolled into Brixton with a very stripped back and bare show. In many ways, it’s a testament to the songs and the performance that the show was as good as it was. Proof (if it were needed) that the huge arena spectacle is about enhancement rather than distraction.

You all know how the show went – it was on the radio. As for us, let’s just say that there’s one very happy band walking out of the venue tonight and a large number of very relieved roadies.

See you all in Barcelona – the van’s here to take us to the airport. We should get some sleep once we’ve checked in at around 5am.