Coldplay, MEN Arena, Manchester

Coldplay are not cool. And they never have been. Famously derided by the former Creation Records boss Alan McGee for being "bed-wetters'', they've never enjoyed the social kudos heaped on his most famous signing, Oasis.

Coldplay have never been hyped by the music press nor wooed as Star magazine darlings, as with the recent chart-toppers The White Stripes.

Coldplay do not effortlessly ooze "icon''. They are four impeccably behaved public schoolboys without a drug- addled tale of rock excess to tell. And yet they are today's biggest rock and roll band in Britain.

Even though, with their infinitely (almost tediously) polite, tee-total, front-man Chris Martin, you could argue there's nothing rock and roll about them at all. Except for Martin's ultimate rock star-calibre girlfriend, the Oscar-winning actress Gywneth Paltrow.

This guitar band have come a long way from their humble shoe-gazing Radiohead-aping beginnings. They've sold out every night of this arena mini-tour which takes in two nights at London's Earls Court.

But the facts that Tesco stock their records and the BBC have adopted the driving piano chords of the band's new single "Clocks" as their theme tune of choice prove Coldplay have not only hit the big time but have slammed head on into the mainstream.

The over-exposure has not endeared the band to critics but it did not dampen the enthusiasm of last night's 13,000 strong crowd.

The roar of anticipation as the band step on to the spartan aqua-lit black stage is deafening. The soulless horseshoe of the MEN arena becomes a writhing, maggot-like mess of screaming, hugging fans, their arms waving as they sing along to every song.

From the pleading and intense set-opening "Politik", Martin too is incapable of standing still. He exudes confidence as he mauls his instrument while bouncing about like a deranged undertaker, dressed in black suit and blood-red T-shirt.

Despite his thrashings, the intensity of his music is intact when he plaintively sings "Take Me Back To The Start" or the ballad to lost love "The Scientist". Despite the throng, he feels he is opening his heart to you alone.

Chris Martin has slayed his shyness and he no longer needs to thank the crowd for their support as he did compulsively in the past. He ends the set with the brooding "Trouble": "better than snorting coke off a hooker – which we don't do,'' he says. Here, we have witnessed the birth of a rock and roll star. Well, almost.