Coldplay, the perfect success machine

LA NACIÓN, Feburary 22nd 2006

 

They are almost perfect in their thing and they have everything to be the greatest rock and pop band from this globalized times. They have the songs, and their clothes are torn and worn out, but clean. Their social compromise is politically correct and they have a lead singer with green eyes that sweetly sings: "When you try your best but you don't succed, when you get what you want but not what you need... lights will guide you home and ignite your bones, and I will try to fix you".

 

They are nice, but rough in attitudes just like rock stars' nr. 1 rule demands, they rigurously wear black t-shirts and pants, but white Adidas sneakers. They are so perfect one could even feel jealous of that Parlophone employee who first listened to them in a University gym in London, and realised he was in front of what would become a succesful rock band.

 

It has been eight years since that time when Chris Martin, Jon Buckland, Will Champion and Guy Berryman were discovered by a multinational company, and suddenly their band became the most ambitious and pretencious band on earth. Coldplay is the numer one band in Europe, the USA and Japan; the one which sells the most, the best sponsored, the one who rules the songs which are played in cellphones, television, and radio of every city which is considered to be cosmopolitan.

 

Last night, Coldplay debuted in our country with a concert at the Gran Rex theatre, which might be considered weird, as succesful First World bands tend to take longer to come this way. About 3000 people were priviliged to enjoy a face-to-face encounter with their favourite band, close as they were to the stage. The hit band, in their best moment, here and now, in front of you, performing all their hit singles for everybody.

 

The show opened with "Square One", "Yellow", "Speed of Sound", "God Put Smile Upon Your Face", "Clocks", "Trouble", "In My Place" and in the end, after a one hour and a half concert, "Fix You", that song about a man who wants to fix his lover any way he can.

 

They sound a bit like Echo & The Bunnymen, a lot like U2, not at all like Radiohead and a little bit like Travis. Coldplay is Brit pop's best Frankenstein built throughout the years, and it shows it on stage. They are so perfect that, performing live, a mistake is unthinkable and it seems they face no risk at all. What do you want rock for? "Yellow" their first hit single, sounds with the same fidelity as it could sound in a sophisticated Bang & Olufsen stereo; and that, in the digitalisation era, it's an invaluable virtue for the commercial industry.

 

Eventhough Coldplay has everything, they lack originality. It's the British Rock #1 band, but it seems it has nothing new to offer in this musical scenary which a decade ago, strongly believed in Oasis, a Beatles' clone band. Now, this clonation is based on Bono and company: musically (it is amazing how similar Buckland's guitar sound is to the one from The Edge), attitude-wise (Make Trade Fair brochures were handed out). It is also true Chris Martin's personality cannot be compared to Bono's one, but he is more good-looking and, who knows? After all, industry it's at their feet and it seems these guys are capable of learning (copying or imitating) anything. Could it be that rock could finally create the perfect globalized success machine? Are these good news? Or is it the end of rock culture? More than salvation, these young men look like the four Apocalypse riders, dressed up as lambs.

 

Sebastián Ramos

 

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Original article in Spanish:

Coldplay, la máquina perfecta del éxito

 

Son, sinceramente, casi perfectos en lo suyo y tienen todo para ser la banda de rock y pop más grande de estos tiempos globalizados. Tienen las canciones y tienen la ropa rota, gastada, pero limpia. Son políticamente correctos en su compromiso social y cuentan con un cantante de ojos verdes que entona dulcemente versos como el que dice: "Cuando lo intentas todo pero no tienes éxito, cuando obtienes lo que quieres pero no lo que necesitas... las luces te guiarán a casa y encenderán tus huesos y yo intentaré arreglarte".

 

Son amables, lo suficientemente parcos y recios en sus gestos como para cumplir con la regla número uno de las estrellas de rock y visten de riguroso negro, remera y pantalón, pero con zapatillas blancas, impolutas, Adidas. Son tan perfectos que produce cierta envidia pensar en la sonrisa de ese empleado del sello Parlophone que los escuchó por primera vez en un gimnasio universitario, en Londres, y se dio cuenta en ese mismo instante de que estaba frente a la gallina de los huevos de oro, de platino y de diamante todo junto, por el mismo y módico precio.

 

Desde entonces, cuando Chris Martin, Jon Buckland, Will Champion y Guy Berryman fueron descubiertos por una multinacional y, de la noche a la mañana, su banda, Coldplay, se convirtió en el grupo más ambicioso y pretencioso del planeta, han pasado poco menos de ocho años. Coldplay es el grupo número uno en Europa, los Estados Unidos y Japón, el más vendedor, el mejor sponsoreado, el amo y señor de las canciones que suenan en los celulares, en la televisión, en la radio y en el aire de cualquier ciudad que se considere cosmopolita.

 

Anteanoche, en lo que podría considerarse toda una rareza teniendo en cuenta el retraso con que suelen aterrizar por estas tierras las luminarias del Primer Mundo, Coldplay debutó en el país con un concierto en el teatro Gran Rex, para poco más de 3000 privilegiados que disfrutaron de un encuentro cara a cara con su banda favorita, sin prismáticos ni multitudes abarrotadas lo más cerca posible del escenario. La banda del momento en su mejor momento, aquí y ahora, en tu cara, interpretando todos sus hits con certificado ATP.

 

El comienzo con "Square One", "Yellow", "Speed of Sound", "God Put Smile Upon Your Face", "Clocks", "Trouble", "In My Place" y el cierre, luego de una hora y media de show, con "Fix You", aquella canción del hombre que quiere arreglar a su enamorada, como sea.

 

Suenan un poco a Echo & The Bunnymen, mucho a U2, casi nada a Radiohead y una pizca a Travis. Coldplay es el Frankenstein mejor ensamblado del brit pop en años y lo demuestra en escena. Son tan perfectos que, en vivo, el error es impensable y el riesgo, una utopía. ¿Quieren rock? ¿Para qué? "Yellow", su primer éxito, suena con la misma fidelidad que podría sonar en un sofisticado equipo de audio Bang & Olufsen, y eso, en esta era de digitalización al palo, es una virtud invaluable para la industria comercial.

 

Eso sí, Coldplay tiene todo, menos originalidad. Es la banda número uno del rock británico, pero, al parecer, nada nuevo tiene para ofrecer esa escena que, una década atrás, depositaba todas sus fichas en un grupo clon de los Beatles como lo era Oasis. Ahora, la clonación está basada en Bono y compañía: en música (es asombrosamente igual la reinterpretación que hace Buckland del sonido de la guitarra de The Edge) y gestos (se repartieron volantes de la campaña internacional Comercio con Justicia, de la organización humanitaria Oxfam). Cierto es también que lejos está Chris Martin de tener la personalidad de Bono, pero bueno, es más fachero y, además, quién sabe: la industria se rinde a sus pies de todas formas y, como ha quedado demostrado, estos chicos parecen capaces de aprender (imitar/copiar) cualquier cosa. ¿Será que finalmente el rock creó la máquina perfecta del éxito globalizado? ¿Es esto una buena noticia? ¿O será el anunciado principio del fin de lo que hasta aquí se entendió como cultura rock? Más que la salvación, estos muchachos parecen los cuatro jinetes del Apocalipsis, disfrazados de corderos.

 

Sebastián Ramos

http://www.lanacion.com.ar/entretenimientos/nota.asp?nota_id=885549

"and their clothes are torn and worn out, but clean":lol:

"they have a lead singer with green eyes"

I thought Chris had blue eyes:confused:

 

Anyway, apart from that. I still think there's more to see from Coldplay. We have to wait for the 4th album.

chris is beautiful yeah..that's true

and he has pretty blue eyes!:)

Maybe he was a colour-blind journalist? :P

I'm at a point where I don't really care about journalists opinions.

Every artist resembles another artist -you could find a 'clone' in every musician / songwriter, etc. if you'd want to.

 

The comparisons don't surprise me. Journalists can't seem to write positive comments even if there wasn't anything to critize.

 

After the press conferences in SouthAmerica, I'm not shocked at all with them (journalists). I'm angry, but not surprised.

thanks for the translation gas! ;)

Maybe he was a colour-blind journalist? :P

 

 

 

 

 

could be hahahahahahha .

 

chris has a beautifuuul blue eyes !!! i'll never forget that night when i saw his eyes in front of me uhuhuhuhu

 

just like a beautiful landscape xD hahahahahahha

u should read this :\ :thinking:

 

We never change, do we? no, no

We never learn, do we?

By dargelita , Buenos Aires February 26th.

You , who think that Chris Martin and his mates are PERFECTLY HEALTHY you’re completely wrong .

Well ...while staying in Buenos Aires , Argentina , the band had too much fun with non-stop parties all week long .

On saturday 17th , the day they arrived to the Faena Hotel , before giving autographs for the crowd which was waiting for them ( including me ) since 3p.m. they played some songs with the well-known argentinian singer Charly Garcia an then went to the night-club Kandi where they ate sushi , chocolate cakes and drank a lots of Apple Martinis , caipiroskas , beer and vodka with orange untill 2a.m. . " Take me to Pachá... would you leave me here ? " said Chris Martin to the owner of the disco Pachá ( the best of Buenos Aires ) Marcelo Meca . There , they talked with lost of top models and drank too much beer , even they didn't waste their time . they invited to ther gigs ( on february 20th , 21st & 22nd ) most of the girls who where with them in their VIP room ; although they said they came back alone to the hotel . ( they'd better ).

On Sunday 18th Chris Martin asked for chocolates and lot of beer for the fourteen rooms at the hotel .But at night before giving autographs to their fans again they decided to go out for dinner but this time only to taste the traditional "Asado Criollo" and " empanadas" .

Although Chris Martin wasn't with his wife , the beautiful actrees Gwyneth Paltrow ( she was at home back in London with children Apple and Moses ) cute bassist Guy Berryman was staying with his wife the designer Jo Briston and daughter baby Nico . Also drummer Will Champion spent time with his wife Marianne and little Ava ( they used to take a stroll early in the morning around the city after givin autographs for the 8978945641 time ). The Drummer and the Bassist asked for a nanny who could speak "perfectly" english .

But good times ended when back at the Hotel when singer Charly Garcia said : " ladies and gentlemen Radiohead !!!!!!! " and Chris Martin's face was just like : WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON !!!!?? . But never mind , they played together again .

On Monday 19th at about 7p.m. they came out of the hotel for the 7988798746421365498765 time to give some autographs. ( what's happening with the fans nowadays ? stop stalkin them !! ) In spite of the fact the fans seemed to be so stalkers they were " happy " of being in the country , just like the band said .

On Tuesday afternoon ( just hours before their first gig in the city ) they gave AUTOGRAPHS AGAIN! . The show began at about 21.30 p.m. with Chris Martin saying ( in a beautiful spanish ) "Hoy es un dia muy importante para nosotros porque es nuestra primera vez en esta preciosa ciudad" ( "Today's very important for us 'cause this is our first time in this beautiful city").

On Wednesday afternoon they gave autographs again to their fans after the second show that night .

But the horror began on Thursday afternoon after givin autographs to their fans ( how many autographs have they given this week? ) when the press conference began with so many silly questions like : " have you heard about the bad critics in Chile ? " " and what about your gigs here ? they say the sound was horrible." . Martin said he didn't hear anything about the gigs in Chile , but it wasn't true. "What's about your next album ?" asked a journalist. " It's all about sex, sex, and just sex" said the frontman " We also want to write some songs to Pablo Neruda , Maradona and Boca Juniors ".

But 20 minutes after the conference began Chris Martin stood up and said : "We're not feeling well with all this questions.It's enough" and the conference ended. Badly , ended badly.

Before the last show that night ( the most funny part was when they played Love Me Tender form teh legend Elvis singin in the end of the song " / Love me tender / we love you argentina / " and when a girl said : I LOVE YOU ! and the frontman answered : " I love you too but not in a sexual way cause i'm married " ) , the Faena Hotel did a big party just for 40 people with modern food and beautiful cakes. Were at the party singer Gustavo Cerati ( one of the best in argentina ) , actor Gaston Pauls and the model Maxi Patané , who said that the party was very "relaxing , a good vibe party with so many beautiful girls and too much photos ".

On Friday afternoon a crowd of fans where outside the hotel just to say good-bye to the band , cause they thought they were living the country the same afternoon but Coldplay came out again to give thousand of autographs and said : "We're not leaving today, we're going to Brazil on Sunday cause we love argentina".

Saturday was the relaxing day . weird : no autographs that day . Chris Martin asked for the old piano of the hotel and decided to play some new songs ( don't know which ones ) .

The Next day ( sunday 25th ) they went out of the Hotel to give their lasts autographs to their fans at about 12p.m. . At 12.30 they arrived to the Ezeiza National Airport and took some photos with some fans .

So... what's up next Brazil ?

I do not believe that all that is truth

after givin autographs for the 8978945641 time

 

if they gave autographs so many times its cos they wanted to, and they wanted to come out ... if they didn't want to take pics with their fans or give autographs almost everyday, they would have used the other exit of the hotel to escape without giving autographs :rolleyes: ... it's not something they had to do , but they did it because they are cool people ... really, why do you tell this as something sarcastic? :\

and journalists always tell things like that .. and the press conference was a disaster :confused:

 

its obvious Chris reacted in that way, yeah journalists are jerks.

Mhm.. Darge, were you trying to be sarcastic, ro what's the point of that text? :confused:

thanks for the translation gas! ;)

 

You're very welcome! :D I was glad to do it ^^

Mhm.. Darge, were you trying to be sarcastic, ro what's the point of that text? :confused:

I would like to know that too.

Those are nice articles thanks for posting them. So why they never came out of the hotel here?:huh:

what!!? chris said "i love you" to a girl in the crowd.

well this is not the first time here.

in perth last year he danced and moved with some girls during in my place,

in milwaukee too he did that with a girl,

and during isle of wight i read that he named a blonde girl bandmember of the year and also invited her to drink champagne and stay on the stage for some songs.

i've seen many photos of him eventhough he says he was married he appreciated mariah carey,lily allen did duets and before gwyneth also he dated with natalie imbruglia and nelly furtado and also unknown number of girls too wrote some songs also for them.ok it is not true but who knows what happened behind?!

i think he is lost whenever he see girls in a huge number.

and that too dargee you said that there are a large number of models and beautiful girls around him in the party as well as in the vip rooms well this must happen there is no wonder in that.

oh no my chris has gone from me i don't trust him anymore.:cry:

Come on, you don't seriously think he's off with every girl in the crowd?!

 

Chris is about the last person on earth who'd pull a groupie! :laugh3:

 

 

 

 

Oh, and I think he was only joking around about Marah Carey!

i remember once , he said that lily allen is HOOOOOOOT... and he said too if he weren't already married... who knows... maybe lily and chris...

 

hahaha

and about nelly furtado... he never ever ever dated her .

 

 

 

 

 

[ what says in the article i posted is aaaaaaaaaall true ]

It was true the thing about the girl in Argentina, he did say that but as a joke!

and journalists always tell things like that .. and the press conference was a disaster :confused:

 

its obvious Chris reacted in that way, yeah journalists are jerks.

 

 

 

 

listen LoveLight & Gas: i'm just telling you what i know . if it's or not true is not my problem .... they can do what they fuckin want to do .

 

and there's nothing sarcastic in the article. it's what coldplay did in argentina . they're free to do what they want.

and about givin autographs it SOOOOOOOO FUCKIN GREAAAT !! I'M BLOODY HAPPY !!!!!!!!!!:D

It was true the thing about the girl in Argentina, he did say that but as a joke!

 

 

 

chris's always joking....:D

 

 

[ you don't have to take this so serious]

[ you don't have to take this so serious]

 

Okay, I guess I'll just take as some new information which might or might not be true. I was just wondering if you wrote sarcastically or something.. nvm

Sorry, but i think Jo never came... we never saw her... We did see Ava and Marianne, but not Jo and Nico

listen LoveLight & Gas: i'm just telling you what i know . if it's or not true is not my problem .... they can do what they fuckin want to do .

 

and there's nothing sarcastic in the article. it's what coldplay did in argentina . they're free to do what they want.

and about givin autographs it SOOOOOOOO FUCKIN GREAAAT !! I'M BLOODY HAPPY !!!!!!!!!!:D

 

ok dargee i read everything that you posted til now,and i agree with you at

some points too.

but when they came to argentina i believe that they ate a lot of stuff

and also drunk wine.ok drinking wine or champagne doesn't really come

under drinking too,because even in traditional countries like ours India,

where people have lots of beliefs they do that often

and they went to night clubs and discos talked to top models,invited them to

gigs

ok...really they just want to get relaxed by doing that..

ok the girls who are there with them in vip rooms also said they came back

alone, ok..., who is there to come with them then? if they don't come alone...

chris or some others????

ok they gave autographs and took photos with fans that's really great!!

and about the one he said to the girl, he has lot of fans all over the world...

today he will tell to her,tomorrow for another one..like that there are several

fans especially girls a lot..ok he said not in a sexual way because i am

married..that's enough to get convinced i think realy...

even chris didn't wish to talk about gwyneth too in interviews yeah..how can

he do that,even i don't talk about someone if there are any(i don't have any well;) )

who are close for me!

so all over he is a good person!!really