Coldplay brought out Ash’s Tim Wheeler during ‘Clocks’ at the latest of their Wembley Stadium shows – watch footage below.
At the eighth of their 10-night residency at the huge London stadium on Thursday night (September 4), the band welcomed Wheeler onto the stage to join them on guitar for the classic 2003 single.
Wheeler shared a clip of the performance on his Facebook page on Friday, writing: “I joined Coldplay onstage to play ‘Clocks’ at Wembley Stadium last night. I hadn’t seen Chris for about 10 years, reuniting on stage was a beautiful moment.”
“There was a time we were like brothers and the feeling is still there all these years later,” he added. “He called me a teacher which is sweet. The mythical Wembley Stadium, 90,000 people, a load of lasers, 1 Flying V. Still floating on air from it all…”
Wheeler and Coldplay’s history goes back to the early days of their careers, and Wheeler later contributed guitar parts to ‘1.36’, the B-side to Coldplay’s single ‘The Scientist’ in 2002.
Around that time, Ash also filmed a DIY slasher movie which starred Chris Martin and Coldplay guitarist Jonny Buckland, as well as Charlotte Hatherley. The footage was later used as a video for Ash’s 2010 single ‘Binary’.
Wheeler is not the first guest to join Coldplay during this residency – Simon Pegg came out to assist with a performance of ‘Sky Full Of Stars’ on August 26, with the Shaun Of The Dead star playing along on tambourine.
The final two nights of Coldplay’s Wembley run had to be rescheduled this week due to industrial action on the London Underground. The September 7 date was brought forward one night, while the September 8 show will now take place on September 12.
For Coldplay’s UK dates this year, £1 from every ticket sold is being donated to support grassroots venues. In quotes supplied exclusively to NME, the members explained why it was vital for them to help support local spaces and emerging talent.
“Organisations like Music Venue Trust are even more important in this country since Brexit, because it’s so much harder for new artists to play in Europe,” said Martin. “I just know that I would always want people younger than us to have even more opportunity than we had, and certainly not less.”
As for Ash, the Northern Irish group are preparing to release their ninth album ‘Ad Astra’ on October 3 via Fierce Panda, which you can pre-order here. They recently shared a double A-side single of ‘Which One Do You Want’ and ‘Fun People’, with the latter featuring vocals and guitar from Blur’s Graham Coxon.
Ash will also play two nights at London’s Scala on September 9 and 10, as well as a string of intimate in-store gigs around the UK in October. After that, they head to Japan, before a full headline UK and Ireland tour in November and December. See all the dates here and find any remaining UK tickets here.
