"To stage the show, you have to get the stage down a tunnel or a number of tunnels," says Hamilton over the phone. "You start with, 'How big is the tunnel? How many tunnels are there? And how much shit can we get through those tunnels in the eight minutes that we have to set up this spectacle?'"
This year's extravaganza presented a first-time challenge, though. "One of the guiding principals [of putting the show together] has been the fact that this year's Super Bowl is in the daylight, so that has a big impact on the show because we don't have a darkness or the power of lighting," he says. "But we have the greatest light in the world which is, of course, sunlight."
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While Coldplay will swap the spotlight for sunlight on-stage at San Francisco's Levi's Stadium on Feb. 7, 2016, Hamilton kept their set list -- the chart-topper's catalog stems back to their 2000 debut Parachutes -- in the dark. "Within any artist's repertoire, there are big hits, big ballads, big energy and big emotion, and those songs are usually the most Super Bowl appropriate," he offers.
As for a potential cameo from past SB headliner Beyonce for a live performance of Coldplay's "Hymn For The Weekend"? "Everybody can hope lots of things for Super Bowl Sunday, and one of the great things about Super Bowl Sunday is that everybody has their own hopes, opinions and dreams, but obviously only a certain number of those dreams can come alive," he says. "I'm not gonna be the guy who tells you that Santa Claus isn't real."
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Regardless of the chaos that is sure to unfold before millions of viewers in February, Hamilton is confident in one thing: the headliner will shock and awe once they hit the stage.
"I think Coldplay themselves are gonna surprise a lot of people," he says, before reiterating the sentence for emphasis. "They write great music. They're great performers. They're great individuals. They're a great band, and I think they and their energy and their positivity will surprise a lot of people in a very positive way."
