Revealed: Coldplay's role in helping Birmingham City win again

Mar 7 2009 by Colin Tattum, Birmingham Mail

Coldplay performing at the NIA in Birmingham.

ALEX McLeish has enlisted the help of one of his favourite bands in an attempt to revive the St Andrew’s atmosphere.

Coldplay’s chart-topper Viva La Vida has been designated as Blues’ new run-out tune, replacing Feel It by The Tamperer, and McLeish and club PR and marketing staff have drawn up a new playlist for the pre-match music.

The UB40 classic Food For Thought is among the songs, the melody from which became a cult favourite among supporters who suddenly started to chant it at the season’s start.

For a while McLeish and Blues have been wracking their brains for ways of encouraging a better mood, of togetherness and noise, around the stadium rather than the anxious negativity that has so often been the case this season.

“Over the years on my travels to Germany and France and places like that I’ve always made a habit of going out and watching the pre-match entertainment,” said McLeish.

“Dutch teams, Belgian teams have been very influential on the crowd, getting them going, and in Germany the other week I heard the [Coldplay] song and thought ‘that sounds fantastic, if I was in the crowd I’d love that’. The crowd interacted with it.

“I thought, after speaking with our team at St Andrew’s, that there were a couple of songs we could introduce and they are trying to think about other things to motivate our support.”