30.04.2014 - 11:28
When Judit Garriga Clusellas, 19, and her roommate found out the other day that the pop group Coldplay were promoting their new album by hiding lyrics—handwritten by songwriter Chris Martin—in books all over the world, they wondered if maybe by chance, one of them would be hidden in Barcelona. On Tuesday, afternoon, she found that indeed, they had.
A student at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona, Garriga was studying at the Santa Pau-Santa Creu Library when she saw that Coldplay had released a new clue at 4:03pm:
CLUE 4: Where George paid homage and of which Freddie sang, head to SP-SC. The envelope’s being guarded by ACD’s Devon dogs… #lyricshunt
— Coldplay (@coldplay) April 29, 2014
Garriga says she read the clue a few times and wasn’t quite sure what to make of it. She recognized the references to Barcelona, but wasn’t sure about the book. But it seems all of Twitter was working together. Carla, 30, a windowdresser in the Netherlands and who goes by @Carlaatje on Twitter, was making dinner when she saw the clue. She says she instantly dropped what she was doing and by 4:12pm she had figured it out—and shared it on Twitter. ACD was Arthur Conan Doyle, and the book must be the Hound of the Baskervilles.
Carla says “I instantly knew it was about Barcelona, because of the Freddie remark,” referring to Freddie Mercury’s duet with Montserrat Caballé, Barcelona. “I still don’t know what the George remark is about,” she said, but was relieved when this reporter told her it must refer to George Orwell’s Homage to Catalonia. A quick Google search with Barcelona and SP-SC pulled up the Santa Pau – Santa Creu library. Carla is a long time member of Coldplaying Forum and says she was “so excited to share this search and excitement with fellow members”.
@coldplay ohh I think it’s Biblioteca Sant Pau – Santa Creu barcelona, the book is Arthur Conan Doyle – the hound of the baskervilles
— Carlaatje (@Carlaatje) April 29, 2014
When Garriga saw @Carlaatje’s tweet, she went to the librarian to ask if they had a copy of the book and was told that there were two editions: a full length novel and a comic book. She bet on the novel but when she got to the shelves, she found a man there already looking through it, but hadn’t found anything.
She went directly to the comic book section and straight for the book. In fact, it was the Catalan edition of the book: Sherlock Holmes: El gos dels Baskerville. “When I picked it up, I could tell something was in it, and I got very nervous. At the very end of the book was an envelope that said, “Open me, open me” and inside was the golden ticket and the lyrics to the song, True Love.” Garriga is the first person to have read the lyrics, since the song won’t be released until next week.
Twenty-two minutes after the clue was released, at 4:35pm, Garriga tweeted her findings to Coldplay. Not only did she find the handwritten lyrics, but she was the lucky winner of the special golden ticket: two seats at the Coldplay concert in London on July 1. “I haven’t decided who to take yet, but all of a sudden I have lots of friends,” she laughed. “What I really hope is that I get to meet the band members,” she added.
@coldplay #coldplayfound #truelove #goldenticket pic.twitter.com/6Ud81mxZHm
— Judit Garriga (@Judit_gc) April 29, 2014
