Dwight Heitzer (23) from Tilburg has a special part-time job. The student appears as a drummer on stage at the live concerts of the world-famous band Coldplay in Amsterdam. The prettiest? He does that without drumming. “I pretend,” he says in the radio program Afslag Zuid. “I playback on the drums.”
Written by
Ron Vorstermans
Confusing, Dwight admits. He is not a drummer, but a puppeteer. During Coldplay’s concert, a puppet band enters the stage, The Weirdos, who are also featured in the music video for the song ‘Biutyful’. Dwight operates one of those puppets: the drummer. Dwight is then wrapped in black. No one can see him, but he is there.
And that is quite a thing, because Dwight has been performing for three evenings in front of an audience of 55,000 people in the Johan Cruijff ArenA. The British band will give its fourth and final concert on Wednesday evening.
“Obviously you can’t say ‘no’ when Elmo calls.”
The big question then, of course, is: how on earth did Dwight end up on that stage? “Elmo called,” he explains. “And when Elmo calls, you can’t say ‘no’, of course.” Dwight then refers to the Sesame Street doll Elmo, or rather the puppeteer who plays Elmo in the Netherlands: Jogchem Jalink.
“So he called with this job. Elmo always has the best jobs. When Elmo calls you can suddenly record a cat food commercial with Robbie Williams, or you are playing at a festival.” And this time too, Elmo did not disappoint.
Does that mean Dwight is now traveling with Coldplay? “No Unfortunately. I got this assignment because the band wants to be environmentally conscious during this tour,” explains Dwight. “They don’t want to fly in everyone, but work with local artists. So I’m doing the performance in Amsterdam, but in Sweden there will be a Swedish puppeteer.”
“It’s such a big production. You always meet new people when you walk around here.”
The moment on stage itself “is not too bad,” says Dwight. “On stage you are actually just working. After all, it is work. But during the day it is really bizarre to see. It’s such a big production. You always meet new people when you walk around here.”
He has not yet spoken to the band members. “But Coldplay’s music will always be part of this experience for me. You know all those songs, of course. You always hear them on the radio. But I haven’t spoken to them yet, no. Hopefully tonight, at the after party”, laughs Dwight.
The music video of The Weirdos:
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2023-07-19 16:05:30
#Tilburger #drums #Coldplay #concerts #sees
