After Snow Patrol came down to see us in 2009 and ended up making this here and Kasabian did their video for Fire in Piketberg, Coldplay have also shot (bits of) their video for their new single Paradise here in the Western Cape and Jo’burg and some other places in SA.
No word yet on whether the band will be heeding TKAG’s appeal and support their cause to cost South Africa thousands of jobs block fracking in the Karoo. UPDATE: Just a note that there’s no way the (ZS-registered) jet in the video would have the range to make it from Heathrow to Cape Town. In all likelihood, it would require at least one refuelling stop (Niger, Chad, Nigeria?) at which point the elephant would surely have been discovered and – at best – put into quarantine for several weeks. I’m just saying. However, I recognise that artistic licence has to be used here, since the genuine tale would make for a very long, boring and somewhat depressing video.
I watched this video last night having heard how it’s “a brilliant advertisement for just about all of South Africa”. Quite honestly, that’s a load of hogwash. We know some bits of it were filmed here. Hundreds of millions of people around the rest of the world don’t, and since there’s nothing in there to identify where the elephant goes, it’s not any kind of advert for anything.
What it is though, is one of the better Coldplay songs. Unlike many of their tunes, it’s not depressingly monotonous (personal opinion of course).