Coldplay picked up three Grammys in February and will wrap up its U.S. tour in Tampa on Sunday.

 

It's been a good year for Coldplay.

 

The British quartet came into 2009 with one of last year's best-selling albums, "Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends." The group picked up three Grammys in February and will wrap up its U.S. tour in Tampa on Sunday before heading to dates in Europe.

 

It's also been a litigious year, though, with guitarist Joe Satriani suing the band for copyright infringement, claiming the song "Viva la Vida" resembled his own "If I Could Fly" a bit too closely.

 

American indie outfit Creaky Boards as well as the former Cat Stevens, Yusuf Islam, also claimed the song bore similarities to their own material. "We know we wrote it. That's all I have to say about it," says drummer Will Champion by telephone from the band's London studio. Well, that's not quite all. "It's funny how this only happens when the song is successful," he adds.

 

Champion has a point there. The song and the album both went to No. 1. The album featured the band — Champion, bassist Guy Berryman, guitarist Jon Buckland and singer-pianist-Gwyneth Paltrow spouse Chris Martin — expanding, and sometimes moving far away from, the quickly-identifiable sound it developed over its first three albums, 2000's "Parachutes," 2002's "A Rush of Blood to the Head" and 2005's "X&Y."

 

The band enlisted producer Brian Eno to help bring about that change. Eno may be best known for his work with U2, to whom Coldplay has been frequently, and not always favorably, compared. But his resume also includes co-founding Roxy Music, producing Talking Heads, Devo and the influential "No New York" post-punk compilation, as well as several pop and ambient albums under his own name.

 

"We wanted to try to come out with something that sounded markedly different," Champion says. "We would have never done it without [Eno's] provocation. He was the one pushing us into strange new territories. "He has done more than anyone else in inventing new ways of approaching music," Champion says.

 

With the band at a commercial and creative peak, fans were shocked when rumors circulated on the Internet that Chris Martin was planning to break up the band at the end of '09. Any truth to it? "He said it. He says that quite frequently," Champion says. "It's basically a statement of intent that we want to play every concert like it's our last, and make every album like it's our last."

 

http://www2.tbo.com/content/2009/aug/05/coldplay-bringing-its-brand-rock-tampa-weekend/news-breaking/

 

ON TOUR

 

Coldplay

 

WITH: Elbow and Kitty, Daisy and Lewis

 

WHEN: 7 p.m., Sunday

 

WHERE: Ford Amphitheatre, 4802 U.S. 301 N., Tampa; (813) 740-2446

 

COST: $35, $79.50 and $97.50

Thanks for the article!!!!!!!!!! I can't wait, so many Coldplayers will be at the Tampa show, lot's of reviews, tweets, pics and vids I am sure!!!!!

:bigcry: We couldn't go to Tampa.....:bigcry: we saw them in WPB though!!! Everyone have fun on sunday!!!! :) -Gigi and Blaire