Phil Harvey is a member of Coldplay, one of the most popular rock bands on the planet. He also is an aspiring psychologist and a volunteer for a small mental health charity in London. Phil talks exclusively to Psychminded's Adam James in an online interview published today:

Six years ago an application to do voluntary work dropped through the letterbox of Upbeat, a small community mental health project in Camden, London. But this request was different. It was from someone called Phil Harvey. And he just happened to be a member of Coldplay, one of the planet’s most popular rock bands.

Harvey’s wish to do voluntary work was not part of some rocker’s creepy PR strategy. It was an application from a man recovering from genuine misery and strife.

In 2001, Harvey, Coldplay’s elusive fifth member and creative director, had become overcome with depression and anxiety. For three years Harvey had been working single-handedly for 16 hours a day in a “shithole office” to manage the group fronted by his school chum, Chris Martin. Harvey had elevated the band to international stardom. But the long intense hours had shattered Harvey. By the time Coldplay strolled up to collect the 2001 Best British Album and Band in the Brit Awards, Harvey, then aged 24, was a wreck. All he wanted was to seek refuge in bed. His GP even feared he would slip into a coma.

"I was feeling like death when I should have been on top of the world,” wrote Harvey in a Coldplay newsletter.. “I certainly thought about giving up then. It crossed my mind that I simply wasn’t tough enough.”

Harvey tells me: “I remember this all as being an isolating experience. I normally think of myself as, literally, an upbeat kind of person – it was all quite a shock. Regardless of how the world might perceive it [a mental health problem] can strike any person.”

Harvey took months to recover. Afterwards he decided to venture on a new path - immersing himself in studying psychology with a view to qualify as a clinical psychologist. First he completed a foundation course in psychotherapy and counselling at Regents College, London, then a psychology degree from the University of Melbourne in Australia. A doctorate in clinical psychology is Harvey’s next target.

And when Harvey decided to search online for voluntary work, he was struck by Upbeat, a charity which helps people with mental health problems and who have an interest in music to network in an understanding environment. Upbeat offers modern production equipment, rehearsal space, music workshops and lessons, and assists bands with promotion, recording and performing live. Over the last eight years it has contributed to Camden’s cultural scene by organising and participating in dozens of local arts and music festivals. All the bands on Upbeat’s books – from Palestinian dance group Al Zaytouna to industrial-punk artist Lil’ Lost Lou - are people with mental health problems, ranging from schizophrenia to depression.

On receiving Harvey’s application Upbeat’s founder Drew Jensen and director Lucia Way invited Harvey for a chat. There was instant rapport. “There was a spark between the three of us,” remembers Way who - not surprisingly - asked Harvey whether he would assist with the promotion and management of Upbeat’s bands. Harvey agreed. Infact, he was exhilarated. “Meeting Lucia and Drew reminded me of the chemistry of being in a band,” he says. “I knew I could do something good. I felt I had a natural empathy and experience in the [mental health] area.” In return, Upbeat had a dream-ticket volunteer.

Like all community arts organisations Upbeat’s history is marked by an eternal struggle to find premises, attract funding and stay afloat. When Jensen first set up Upbeat in 2001 it operated from a room in a Camden mental health day centre. Since then it’s been based in an Ethiopian centre and another mental health day centre. In 2007 Upbeat moved again to share the Camden studios of another community arts project, Overtones. But Overtones lost its funding later that year and closed.

This was when Harvey stepped in with £40,000 to top up Upbeat’s other grant. He also became Upbeat’s vice-chair. And Harvey asked the rest of Coldplay if they would agree to the band becoming Upbeat’s patrons. It was a yes. “The other members of the band were very happy to support something I was so enthusiastic about,” remembers Harvey. In so doing Harvey had pulled off a coup that a charity of Upbeat’s size could normally only fantasise about.

Infact, having Coldplay as patron would be PR heaven for any organisation. But Upbeat has, until now, purposefully downplayed Harvey’s involvement. Ironically, this is largely down to Harvey who has always kept a wary distance from media attention. He admits to enjoying the comfort of relative anonymity. Coldplay themselves refer to Harvey as their “mysterious” member. This is his first extended interview with a journalist. “I just prefer it this way,” says Harvey.

But Upbeat faces new challenges. Funds are running low.. So, perhaps now is the time to play the Coldplay publicity card. What about the band taking a tour of Upbeat’s studio? "There’s no plans as yet,” says Way. “But having Coldplay as our patron will mean possible funders will take as more seriously. We will seem more viable,” she adds.

Meanwhile, Upbeat prides itself on continuing to offer music and studio facilities for vulnerable people which is outside a traditional mental health service setting. Jensen, as much as anyone, has benefited from this. The 39-year-old singer/songwriter fled to England from America during a nervous breakdown, ended up homeless and shuffling between hostels and mental health day centres until, with support, he set up Upbeat and started ringing round other Camden service users who fancied a jam.

"Music and Upbeat has been my road to recovery,” says Jensen. “It has meant I have been able to do recovery away from mental health services and outside the world of medication, psychiatry and doctors. I have been able to find myself again. Upbeat still continues to help me. And it’s really inspiring to see people embrace their talents in a safe environment..”

As for Harvey, he is again busy with rock duties. Coldplay has been thriving in more global success since the release of their album Viva La Vida or Death And All His Friends.

Nevertheless, Harvey’s passion for a life away from music remains strong. “My psychology career is definitely something I hope to continue with,” he says. “But it is going to have to wait until Coldplay life dies down abit.”

It could be a long wait. But what Harvey demonstrates is that belonging to an almightily successful rock band is no barrier to also being a hands-on mental health volunteer.

Source: psychminded.co.uk

With a pending lawsuit already filed by Joe Satriani and Yusuf (the artist formerly known as Cat Stevens) waiting anxiously on the sidelines to see how that court case fleshes out, it’s as if everyone’s laying claim to Coldplay’s infectious “Viva la Vida.” Satch thinks the song sounds litigiously similar to “If I Could Fly,” and Yusuf believes the band used his 1973 tune “Foreigner Suite” for inspiration.

Below are the views of the general populous to grace the Rolling Stone website with their comments. I think you'd better sit down first: there are actually some Coldplay defenders out there!

Whenever I hear stuff like this it disgusts me. Musicians are such prima donnas. The sad part in all of this is that Coldplay probably considers Cat Stevens one of their heroes and he is just to them that it is all just smoke and mirrors. That is so stupid and we see that too much in music. [Anon.]

What a bunch of bullshit. Artists take elements from other artists all the time. The worst part of thiss is Yusuf saying he’s going to wait and see how Satch does to decide if he’ll sue-way to stand on your principles shithead. Maybe if you hadn’t exiled yourself all these years you wouldn’t need the money. And Satch-tell you what, we should see if the estate of Robert Johnson can sue Led Zep for stealing his life’s work. Or Muddy Waters estate can sue the Stones for the same reason. Or the Stones can sue the Black Crowes, etc. All these lawsuits are horseshit. If Satch and Yusuf need the money, go out and earn it. [big Daddy]

With all do respect to both artists these two songs do have the same exact piano part. Its at the 2:00 minute mark in Viva La Vida and the 15:50 mark in Foreigner Suite. I had never heard of the Cat Stevens song before this, but I actually did quite enjoy it. However, I do not think Coldplay pin-pointed this one specific part of a completely random twenty minute song on a record long lost in time… Viva La Vida is a great song, and with popular music these days we need to be more lenient on wht is considered plagiarism. Music, as literature and other art forms is a bunch of random influences compiled on top of each other over time. This is how art continues to evolve. Plus, most rappers these days don’t even bother righting their own hooks, or making their own beats. They are just re-used 80s synth rock and pop hits. [Anon.]

Goes to show how some very simple tunes can be copied, consciously and subconsciously, over the course of time. Most music plagiarism lawsuits are very tricky. Also, being a writer, I can’t help but think of how many contemporary writers use basic elements from older lit… with or without citing their influences. As artists, at what point do we stop worrying about lawsuits and focus on creating original works? How do we define “influence” versus “plagiarism”? Too harsh a verdict in a situation like this and we crucify artists who may be innocent… too lenient of a verdict and we risk embracing the copy-cats. [MZA]

Satriani and Cat must be musical geniuses because I can’t hear ANY obvious similarities between the 3 songs… How The Beatles [”Sexy Sadie”] never sued Radiohead [”Karma Police” chorus], I will never know. Now THERE’S a pretty obvious similarity. [h_e_n_r_y]

Radiohead should have their lawyers on speed-dial, just in case this suit holds up in court. After all, in 2000 Coldplay re-recorded Radiohead’s the Bends and released it as “Parachutes.” [Tom Wieler]

Does anyone else find it odd that in a time of music sampling and “excessive borrowing,” that the Sat-Coldplay lawsuit and Cat Stevens’ remarks are ironic? I know I heard the piano break of Supertramp’s “Crime of the Century” in a Gym Class Heroes song not too long ago. Does this mean that Green Day should pay royalties to The Clash, who then should pay The Ramones, who should pay The Stooges, who should pay The Who? Where doees it end? Unless it’s a direct ripoff beyond any shadow of a doubt, it’s awfully hard to show that someone ripped off a melody or musical sound. And how come no one but me though, in 1983, that the chorus of ZZ Top’s “Sharp Dressed Man” sounded pretty much identical to Eddie Cochrane’s “Summertime Blues”? Go listen to it again, and you’ll see what I mean. Strange, yes. Lawsuit-worthy, probably not …. [basser]

There are so many people claiming to have written Coldplay’s “Viva La Vida” at this point that it’s become somewhat of a joke and has probably ruined the chance of any one accuser getting a settlement, writes TwentyFourBit.

Meanwhile, Cat Stevens is waiting for the outcome of Satriani's lawsuit before taking legal action and the Creaky Boards, the Brooklyn-based indie band that first called out Coldplay, probably can’t even afford lawyers.

Coldplay have been somewhat quiet on the issue, but drummer Will Champion has now offered a few reactions to the accusations. Speaking to Hamptonroads.com’s Malcolm Venable, Champion said the claims come with the territory of having a huge hit song, adding, “God only knows why, the successful songs seem to be the ones that are accused of being stolen. So you go figure it out.”

He’s right about that. I mean, The Satch did file his lawsuit exactly one day after the song was nominated for the “Song of the Year” Grammy award. As for there being multiple accusers, Champion said, “there are only eight notes in an octave and no one owns them. And there are probably about 12,000 songs that feature the exact same chord progression.”

That means there’s going to be another 11,997 more “[Musician Name Here] Calls Out Coldplay” headlines. I guess all hit singles will have to be run through Pandora before they drop from here on out.

Source: TwentyFourBit

You've probably heard by now that, as of yesterday, there are now four groups claiming Coldplay plagiarized them, the latest being Yusuf Islam, who says 'Viva La Vida' swipes part of his 1973 song 'Foreigner Suite.' Here is a new interview with Will Champion online today, courtesy of Hampton Roads (Virginia) ahead of Coldplay's show on May 20th at the Verizion Amphitheater in Virginia Beach...

Malcolm: So I read that there was yet another plagiarism accusation to come out yesterday. I read that you guys aren't commenting on it, but do you care to now?

Will: I don't know...in general, we're very...It's tough when people accuse you of stealing something when you know that you didn't. So, we accept that it's part of the territory and know it is only for some reason, God only knows why, the successful songs that seem to be the ones that are accused of being stolen. So you go figure it out. (Laughs.)

Malcolm: That can be kind of subjective too right? I mean, you can take a whole lot of songs and say, 'Hey that's the drum or melody from such and such.'

Will: Yeah I mean I think if everyone...there are elements of our music that I've heard in other people's music but it's kind of...I don't know. It's interesting but a very difficult thing to define. How can you...there are only eight notes in an octave and no one owns them. And there are probably about 12,000 songs that feature the exact same chord progression. I think it lies on an intent to steal, which we certainly have never done and never would. So it's unfortunate but it's the way people are. That's that. We're confident we haven't done anything wrong.

Read more on this at the Coldplay forum here onwards. The full interview will hopefully be online soon.

At last, some satire has eventually emerged from the Cat Stevens plagiarism claim. The Huffington Post blogs are now claiming they wrote Viva La Vida. Here is their online article:

I would like to take the opportunity to claim that I wrote Coldplay's "Viva La Vida." In fact, I wrote "Viva La Vida" just about an hour ago after hearing the news that my pal Yusuf -- the artist formerly known as Cat Stevens -- feels that the undeniable Coldplay smash is too close for comfort to one section of his "Foreigner Suite" from his 1973 album "The Foreigner."

So to be honest here, I'm not exactly sure if I actually stole "Viva La Vida" from Coldplay, from Cat Stevens, from Joe Satriani or from some obscure band called the Creaky Boards who actually called their version of our collective hit "The Songs I Didn't Write."

But rather than waste any time haggling and trying to figure out who's actually right here, let me make a very modest proposal to keep get this peace train back on the rails. Why don't we all just split the royalties for "Viva La Vida" equally among the five of us? It's only fair, right?

Heck, because the stock market went up today, I'll sweeten the pot a little and declare right here in the Huffington Post that if Coldplay agrees to my plan by midnight Friday night, I will personally treat the entire extended "Viva La Vida" writing team to dinner at a participating Red Lobster to be mutually agreed upon -- assuming someone can spot me an advance on my royalties.

"Viva La Vida" indeed!

Source: huffingtonpost.com

Prince started it, but the concept of giving away recordings to concertgoers could become a much larger trend, writes Digital Music News. On Friday, Coldplay announced that it would be giving away an album to those attending its upcoming, summer tour.

The live disc, LeftRightLeftRightLeft, includes versions of 'Viva La Vida', 'Death And All His Friends' and seven others. "This album is a thank you to our fans – the people who give us a reason to do it and make it happen," Coldplay stated.

Invariably, Coldplay fans will eventually be able to download those tracks, thanks to a highly-porous web. Still, the concept is geared towards the superfan, and concertgoers will appreciate the bonus. On a revenue level, the giveaway shifts that action towards the more lucrative live performance, and away from the declining recording. Makes sense, especially as artists - whether Coldplay or an emerging act - find it increasingly difficult to monetize the disc or paid download.

SIGN UP NOW: If you are not going to a Coldplay show in 2009 and therefore not able to receive your very own physical copy of LeftRightLeftRightLeft, worry not! We have a CD mailing exchange programme where you can sign up to receive a free CD from another member who will have spare copies from the shows they attend. For full details, go to the Coldplay forum here [thanks Cobalt]

Article source: Digital Music News

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Stop press! News from Anchorman confirming a nine track Coldplay album to be available at shows and online:

Good morning, We're pleased to announce that Coldplay will be giving away a live CD, LeftRightLeftRightLeft, at every remaining live show in 2009 (apart from festival shows). Starting with the band's first North American tour date, at West Palm Beach in Florida on May 15th, every fan attending a show will be given a free copy of the nine-track CD, which won't be available elsewhere. Also on May 15th, LeftRightLeftRightLeft will be made available as a free download right here at Coldplay.com, for all fans (and for the same time period).

According to the band, the give-away is meant as a recession-busting mark of gratitude to everyone who's supported them: "Playing live is what we love. This album is a thank you to our fans – the people who give us a reason to do it and make it happen." [discuss this] [tweet this] [album mailing exchange]

The album was recorded over the past year in various cities around the world on the Viva La Vida tour. Its tracklisting is as follows:

1. Glass of Water

2. 42

3. Clocks

4. Strawberry Swing

5. The Hardest Part/Postcards From Far Away

6. Viva La Vida

7. Death Will Never Conquer

8. Fix You

9. Death And All His Friends

And here is the artwork:

Roll on May 15th...

Anchorman

Jon Hopkins' (Coldplay's friend, collaborator and frequent support act) self-produced third album, Insides, is out today. Here's what Jon had to say on Coldplay as part of the press release:

I was introduced to Coldplay by Brian Eno at the beginning of 2007 - he asked me to come into their studio for a day to play some keyboards and jam with the band. It went great and we all got on really well, and I ended up being asked back for much of the recording of the album.

Then when Chris heard my track Light Through The Veins he asked me to open for the band on tour, and also started working on a vocal melody, which was later to become The Escapist. On top of that the instrumental version became the intro to Life In Technicolor. I had always been a fan of the band so this was all pretty surreal and amazing for me, as you might imagine.

Hopkins opened shows for them all over the US, UK and Japan, playing tracks from his new album "Insides", which contains the original version of Light Through The Veins, plus nine new tracks. At either end of Coldplay's current album, you can hear a snippet of Light Through The Veins which is currently available to download for free from Domino Records.

Have you heard the track? Let us know what you think in the Coldplay forum here onwards [thanks SueDeNimes]

As previously reported, TIME magazine announced its annual list of the world's 100 most influential people. In that list is Glastonbury Festival organiser Michael Eavis. His inclusion is accompanied by a very nice piece written by our very own Chris Martin. Here is said article:

I went to boarding school a short hop from Michael Eavis' farm, the bucolic setting of the Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts, or Glasto. It's the equivalent of living next to Yankee Stadium and saying, "One day, when I grow up, I'm going to play there." For three days each summer, Michael and his daughter Emily give up their lives as dairy farmers and set up a city purely around music. Anyone who's ever picked up a guitar dreams of playing Glastonbury. It's the biggest rock cathedral in the world.

Everyone wonders why this man and this festival are different. Firstly, Glastonbury is rooted in ancient history; legend has it that King Arthur was buried nearby. And when the festival sets up, 150,000 people flood in to form a very happy metropolis. [discussion]

But Michael, 73, is so good at tapping into the zeitgeist months before anyone else. You'll wonder, Why are the Kings of Leon headlining this year? Inevitably, six months later the Kings of Leon are the biggest thing going.

Michael is one of the people to whom I owe my life and career. Every year he does a thank-you for the surrounding village where the festival takes place. He asked Coldplay to play this little fete and picked us up at the airport. It was like being met by a friendly uncle. We were sitting in the back of his farm vehicle that smelled of cheese and cattle when he said, "Maybe you'd want to headline next year?" We spat out our drinks! It remains the biggest event in our band's life. It changed everything.

We've headlined other festivals, but Glastonbury is the only one that feels like — and is — a family event. It's also the only one where we received some handmade cheese as a thank-you.

Coldplay at Glastonbury 2005:

Source: TIME magazine

Coldplay is generously offering 500-level seats to their July 30 gig at the cavernous Rogers Centre for $39.50, a bargain compared to the $79.50 and $99.50 demanded for an actual view of the stage or the whopping $5,200 someone's asking for a killer spot on the floor at TicketsNow.com, reports the Toronto Star.

Still, you could duplicate the 500-level experience by placing a ghetto blaster in your neighbour's yard and playing A Rush of Blood to the Head at highly distorted top volume. A cheaper option is the new Pilot Speed album, Wooden Bones, which arrives in stores tomorrow and likely won't cost you much more than $12 or $13 at reputable record stores.

The band's long been half-maligned for being Toronto's own budding Coldplay, but the new disc places Pilot Speed (formerly Pilate) in the "much improved" category and might charm you to shell out a further $10 or $15 by the time they return to play a still-unconfirmed local date in June. And you'll still be ahead on that cheap Coldplay ticket.

Missed Coldplay on Rove? Watch the 7 minute Australian interview at the Coldplay forum here [thanks anniea89 & vanessa]

LONDON (Billboard) - "It's been a busy week," deadpanned Jo Oliver, several days after a Swedish court sentenced four men behind the notorious BitTorrent tracker site the Pirate Bay to a year in jail each, after they were found guilty of assisting in making copyrighted material available. Billboard spoke to Oliver from the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry and the conversation touched on Coldplay..

Billboard: Pirate Bay spokesman Peter Sunde has claimed that what the site does isn't demonstrably different from what Google does. What's your view on that?

Oliver: What they do is dramatically different to Google. Their operation is deliberately set up to facilitate copyright infringement. If you were to search for Coldplay on Google, you'd get a wide variety of results including information about the band, news on upcoming tours and so on. On Pirate Bay, you'd just get a list of links to Coldplay albums. If Google links to infringing material, then they'll receive a notice from us to remove that, and they will respond. Pirate Bay makes fun of copyright owners when they're sent notices.

Read the full article at The US Daily website here onwards.

Joe Satriani has said that he is happy that Coldplay won a Grammy Award for 'Viva La Vida', even though he has accused the band of plagiarising its melody. Both parties are currently engaged in a lawsuit after Satriani claimed that the track used elements from his own 2004 instrumental 'If I Could Fly'.

Satriani told Ultimate Guitar: "I'm happy for the group, and in a very weird way, I was happy to hear my melody being celebrated. "However, I was slightly confused that...the organisation which handles the Grammy Awards would even consider nominating a track which they knew was heavily contested. These are the people who voted for Milli Vanilli, though it isn't really their job I suppose."

Milli Vanilli's 1990 Grammy Award for best new artist was withdrawn after it emerged that none of the band's members actually sang on their records. More on the latest regarding the copyright case at the Coldplay forum here onwards [thanks fakfak]

Oasis, Kanye and Coldplay will entertain the masses at the popular Roskilde music festival this year, writes the Copenhagen Post (online).

The complete line-up for this year’s Roskilde Festival has been released today with more than a few recognisable names on the list. The array of performers, which includes more than 150 names from almost all continents and genres, will take to the festival's seven stages from 2 to 5 July.

The Roskilde Festival, which is one of Europe's largest music festivals, will include big name acts such as Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Oasis, Kanye West and Coldplay. Among the acts, the venue will also cater for 74 new artists who will perform in front of a crowd of more than 75,000 spectators. Despite previous concerns about the disappearing available space for camping, Roskilde Festival will continue to provide camping facilities and booths offering food, drinks, bathing areas, a supermarket and free cloakroom.

The theme for this year's campaign is entitled Green Footsteps, and will focus on bringing global climate change awareness to participants. The campaign includes CO2-friendly concerts on both the Odeon Stage and the Sustainable Stage, as well as a camping area christened the Climate Community. Deposits gathered from empty bottles at the festival will be donated to projects in Bangladesh and India, which are largely affected by climate change.

The action officially kicks off on 28 June with an array of experiences, events and activities leading up to the main acts. Since 1971, Roskilde Festival has donated over 100 million kroner to charity.

For a complete listing of this year's bands see www.roskilde-festival.dk. Are you going to this year's Roskilde festival? Let us know in the Coldplay Live forum here onwards.

Coldplay - Roskilde (last appearance) - 27th June 2003:

Joe Satriani v. Christopher Martin et al. (Coldplay) is back in the news now that laywers for Coldplay and Capitol Records have filed their responses to Satriani’s copyright infringement claim, writes The Open End.

They list nine defenses, including the tack that Satriani’s song “lacks originality and is thus not protectable by copyright”. This was the argument of their previous post on the case, where they provided several songs, spanning decades, which share the same melodic structure as the tunes under litigation. Still there were those partisans who were unconvinced and claimed that if we would only transcribe the two melodies — the chorus of “If I Could Fly” and the opening verse of “Viva la Vida” — we’d see that they are note-for-note identical and that Coldplay’s collective goose is cooked.

Read the full article here. If Satriani’s case truly hangs on an initial three-note sequence – long, short, long; five, six, four, it will be difficult to argue that one of his predecessors is not more deserving of that copyright.

A miserable Disneyland punter got decidedly more melancholy when he happened upon Chris Martin and family at the themepark this week, writes ivPressOnline. Here's what he had to say. Also see photos after the jump. Let us know what you think of this guy's pathetic rant at the Coldplay forum here [thanks mimixxx]

Chris Martin from Coldplay is a wuss. Besides all that ridiculous sad bastard music his silly band practices, he seems like a genuinely miserable human being, and another one of those camera-shy celebrities who thinks the world revolves around him and his need for privacy.

Dude, then what the hell are you doing going to Disneyland? The Wife and I took our Satan spawn to Disneyland for her birthday last weekend. We weren’t in the park 20 minutes when I ran into the Coldplay front man, his (poorly named) child Apple — or who I assumed was Apple — and an entourage that included a couple of beefy security guards. It was 9 in the morning and there were already thousands of people roaming the park.

The Wife and kid had just gotten on the Dumbo ride, and were spinning around merrily when I positioned myself to snap a picture of them. I wouldn’t have even noticed Chris Martin if I hadn’t caught him scowling at me, giving me a once over and whispering something to his bodyguard. I immediately took a look at the largish camera swinging from my neck and connected that he thought I might be a paparazzo on a mission to ruin his family vacation with a TMZ money shot.

I had also remembered at that instant Martin was one in a long line of self-important celebs who had a history of assaulting paparazzi. As Martin and Apple got on the ride, his head goon, who was obviously some sort of ex-British soldier, with Gaelic or Celtic tattoos running up and down his arms, dark glasses, an earpiece and an impossibly thick neck, started to mill toward me.

I ignored him, took my family photo and when the ride was done, The Wife, kid and I got on the Tea Cups. That’s when I told The Wife what happened. She ripped on me for not taking his photo, and then excitedly whispered to me, “There he is … in line. I’m going to take a picture.”

As she put the view finder to her eye and pointed it toward Mr. Gwyneth Paltrow, she said, “He just looked right at the camera.” She explained he glared at her menacingly and left the Tea Cups, walking away quickly. That was it. Martin was gone and our brush with fame was over. All we have is a blurry picture of him turning his head away; not even enough for a cup of coffee courtesy of the National Enquirer or People magazine.

But the experience left me thinking about celebrities and their relationship with the public and the media. In recent weeks, actor Nicholas Cage has been quoted as saying he wants the public to approach him and his family when he’s out, as a way to teach his children to say thanks to the people responsible for his career and what it has brought his family. The guy hasn’t put out a good movie in more than a decade, but he’s still got enough juice to have a film debut at No. 1. His most recent film, “Knowing,” was the top ticket seller a couple of week’s ago and his corny “National Treasures” movies still do well.

The point is, the level of fame Chris Martin is receiving right now might be considerably more. He’s hot off February’s Grammy Awards, where his band was nominated for seven prizes and actually took home three golden Victrolas for “Viva La Vida.”

But it’s the same, really. It’s like comparing really crappy, 99-cent store oranges to organic, Trader Joe’s blood oranges. They’re still oranges. Chris Martin should just chill out when he’s out in the public eye. There’s no reason to come off as such a prick. I found it kind of odd that no one at Disneyland was approaching him for autographs or even trying to take his photo, at least that we could see. That could have been because some were trying to respect his privacy, but it’s more likely because of the angry vibe he was putting off, and, again, that perpetual scowl he was wearing on his face for the 10 minutes I got to see him.

More famous people should have Nick Cage’s attitude about fans, autograph seekers and the paparazzi. Without those people, so-called celebs like Cage and Martin would just be everyday schlubs like the rest of us. Besides, it’s an unreasonable expectation to think you can venture out among the commoners and not be on the po’ folks’ radar to some degree. If that’s the expectation, Mr. Martin, then quit making music that sells millions of copies and wins numerous awards.

Stop marrying famous actresses and giving your kids names they’ll hate you for someday. Quit staging world tours that take you from one end of the globe to the other for months on end, playing for hundreds of thousands of people. Drop out of the spotlight you’ve made it your life’s work to shine beneath. Drop out and go away. At the very least stop maddogging me and my wife — The Wife — for having a camera in your holy presence.

Chris Martin at Disneyland: (pictures courtesy of The Sun)

As you will probably know by now it has been reported that guitarist Joe Satriani has sued Coldplay, alleging that portions of Coldplay’s "Viva la Vida" incorporate material from Satriani’s "If I Could Fly", reports Madisonian today.

Read the actual court document detailing the case against Coldplay here [pdf... right click, save as]. For those who didn’t instantly know what the suit is about, Youtube has

For those wondering what the law says about this kind of suit, it’s easy to state the doctrine. Infringement exists when the defendant copied from the plaintiff’s work an amount of material that renders the two works “substantially similar.” In deciding whether copying exists, courts ask whether the defendant had access to the plaintiff’s work and whether the similarities between the two works are sufficient that, more likely than not, the similarities arise from copying.

If copying exists, courts then evaluate whether the works are “substantially similar,” i.e. sound too much alike. First appearances don’t look good for Coldplay. Nevertheless, many speculate that a band as well-known and successful as Coldplay would not copy so obviously. Coldplay is already hugely successful, would be discovered if infringing, and has the money to pay a judgment.

So what happened then? I’m thinking that this case is Bright Tunes v. Harrisongs all over again. In that case, the Chiffons sued George Harrison, alleging that “My Sweet Lord” was a copy of “He’s So Fine.”

The twist to Bright Tunes is that Harrison claimed he did not copy from the Chiffons, and the judge believed him because of testimony that Harrison and his fellow band members improvised “My Sweet Lord” during a recording session. The judge concluded that Harrison must have heard “He’s So Fine” and stored the melody in his unconscious memory. When Harrison began “searching” for a good tune for a new song, the melody from “He’s So Fine” popped into Harrison’s mind, and he did not realize that he was in fact “copying” from the Chiffons. The judge decided in favor of the Chiffons, holding that copying is actionable in copyright whether conscious or unconscious.

The Bright Tunes v. Harrisongs position on unconscious copying is well-entrenched in copyright doctrine, but it has been criticized on the ground that it makes illegal the very process by which most songs are created. Composers choose patterns of notes because they have heard similar patterns in the past and found them pleasing. If that is so, the only thing separating Harrison (and perhaps Coldplay) from being clear of infringement is the coincidence that their unconscious memory delivered them a recognizable tune, instead of one either unrecognizable (perhaps because it’s not well-known) or one cobbled together from snippets of other tunes.

People have sometimes thought that, even if Bright Tunes was wrong, it was unlikely to be reconsidered because another such case might never come along. Interestingly, perhaps the “repeat version” of Bright Tunes has now been filed, and courts may get a chance to rethink whether copyright infringement is something you can do innocently, or whether it’s something that requires some kind of culpable purpose.

According to the BBC, Coldplay has denied in a federal court that “Viva La Vida” was inspired by or originated from Joe Satriani’s “If I Could Fly” off the 2004 album Is There Love In Space? (For the last time, Joe, no: astronauts can’t love), writes Washington City Paper.

Satriani makes a decent living off the instrumental rock circuit and the G3 concert series, and, incidentally, hasn’t written an original melody since he penned the Top Gun theme song. (How bitter he must have been when listeners misattributed the brilliant “Cliffs of Dover” to him instead of maestro Eric Johnson!)

So why did he go after Coldplay last December?

One can surmise from his lawyer’s statements to the BBC that Satch was looking for a handout (emphasis in bold):

In court papers filed in Los Angeles, Coldplay also claim Mr Satriani’s song “lacks originality” and should not receive copyright protection. The guitarist’s lawyer, Howard E King, said Coldplay’s response was typical for copyright infringement cases and he reiterated that he thought the matter could have been resolved without legal action.

...it sounds like Satch hoped Coldplay would pay him to shut up and go away. Watch the video of Joe Satriani's 'If I Could Fly' at the Washington City Paper website here.

Opportunistic Coldplay fans Charlotte and Camille visited Coldplay's studio HQ in London earlier, and met Guy Berryman and Phil Harvey who happened to be there at the time. Here's their story:

So considering Cha had never visited the Bakery I brought her there as she's currently staying in England for 5 days in order to visit the country. I went there few times with Chavi (never met any member of the band) and wasn't expecting to meet anyone.

Was supposed to be a RAINY DAY today but it seems that it was OUR day cause it was totally sunny. Anyway when we arrived there I told her I was always a bit ashamed to ''stalk'' and didn't really want to do so I wanted it to be QUICK. She just wanted to take few pics and put a painting of Jonny she made in the mailbox along with few words. We sat down on the bench (didn't even have time to turn around to show her the back of the Bakery, nor to have a close look at the door, we just SAT DOWN on that bloody bench) she took a pen, a sheet and said ''what should I write ?'' after few seconds we decided to start the ''letter'' with a frenchy ''Bonjour Coldplay''.

Read the full review and discuss the new pictures of Guy and Phil at the Coldplay forum here onwards [thanks Pris & Khalplay]

Perhaps you have heard that sore loser Joe Satriani has sued Coldplay, asserting they stole their song "Viva La Vida" from his royal show-offness, writes MusFormation.com.

Today, Coldplay denied Satch's allegations that they ever would listen to his

With the insane amounts of music that have come out over the years, it is officially impossible to not have some of your works be similar to others. According to the website Top Ten Reviews, in 1965 there were 208 albums released where as in 2008 there were approximately 37,000 albums released. This makes it impossible for some songs to not have similarities to others.

Read the rest of the case at MusFormation here

Guess what, Joe Satriani? Coldplay don’t think they plagiarized you, and they’re willing to swear on a stack of bibles over it, writes American Songwriter.

In a Los Angeles Federal Court on Monday, attorneys for the band responded to guitarist Joe Satriani’s lawsuit, which claims the multi-platinum British Band lifted the melody and chord progression to Satriani’s 2004 album track “If I Could Fly” for “Vida la Vida,” the hit single from their most recent album, Vida La Vida or Death and All His Friends.

The band’s attorneys reiterated any similarities between the two songs were not enough to merit a copyright infringement claim. They also said Satriaini’s tune “lacks originality.” In your face, Satriani!

Coldplay won a Grammy for “Vida La Vida” this year. In December, the band posted a message on their website, claiming “if there are any similarities between our two pieces of music, they are entirely coincidental and just as surprising to us as to him.”

Coldplay have jokingly admitted to plagiarism in the past, just not when any court money was riding on it. Satriani has been quoted as saying that hearing Coldplay’s song “felt a dagger went right through my heart.”

Satriani credits his rabid fan base for bringing the similarities between Coldplay’s “Viva La Vida” and Satriani’s own “If I Could Fly” to his attention. “Almost immediately, from the minute their song came out, my e-mail box flooded with people going, ‘Have you heard this song by Coldplay? They ripped you off man.’ I mean, I couldn’t tell you how many e-mails I received,” Satriani said.

Making the supposed copycatting even more hurtful to Satriani is that “If I Could Fly” took almost a decade to complete and was intended as a love letter to his wife. “I spent so long writing the song, thinking about it, loving it, nursing it, and then finally recording it and standing on stages the world over playing it — and then somebody comes along and plays the exact same song and calls it their own,” the guitarist told Music Radar.

As for Satriani bringing the lawsuit to court, “I did everything I could to avoid a court case with this situation. But Coldplay didn’t want to talk about it. They just wanted this whole thing to go away. Maybe they figured this little guitar player guy will leave them alone after a while, I don’t know.” To help heal his emotional wounds, Satriani is seeking “any and all profits” the Grammy-nominated “Viva La Vida” has generated.

Stay tuned, folks. This could get ugly.

He's been banging on about his love of Saints for years. Now one of the city’s most famous sons, Coldplay’s Will Champion is happy to beat the drum and lead fellow fans in the fight to save the club in its hour of need, reports the Southern Daily Echo.

The drummer – pictured left with youngsters from Cantell School in Bassett, Southampton – is backing the Daily Echo’s Save Our Saints campaign, calling on all fans to pull together to ensure all is done on and off the pitch to avoid the disaster of going down or worse still, out of business. “More than ever, it’s important that people get to the games and it’s time to give their support however they can,” said Will, 30.

“I still have a season ticket with my dad, and although I don’t get to as many games as I would like because we’re so busy, I’ll be going to as many of the remaining games as I can.”

Although he says he doesn’t have enough money to step in and buy the club himself, Will did say he could try to take his bandmates up on an offer made before they became global superstars. During an interview backstage at the V Festival in 2000, lead singer Chris Martin said he would buy Saints for Will when they were asked what they would do if they became mega-rich rock stars.

“I don’t remember that, but it would be nice – I think I’ll give Chris a ring and remind him,” said Will.

Coldplay probably can't get any bigger, so instead they're trying to get better.

In a chat with The Jakarta Post before their Singapore concert, Will Champion, who plays drums for the band, said, "Our goal is trying to improve in our next project. You can't judge *the success of* an album by the number of awards and sales. So what we do is we make better concerts, better videos."

Champion, who prefers to describe himself as a being in a band rather than as a drummer, told the Post that when planning their fourth album, Viva La Vida, the band sat together in their London headquarters, called The Bakery, to "try to do something that no one has ever done before". He admitted that the challenge to stay original gets harder and harder with changes in the way people listen to music.

"After our third album, everything got really big and it was out of our control," he said. "So for the fourth album, we wanted to gain more control over it. We're trying to feel like a new band again, like we were 10 years ago when we just started. We did everything on our own, doing our own demo, our own flyers."

Champion said he was pleased that the four band members kept their hand in to create an integrated look and feel for the production of Viva La Vida, which included designing their album sleeves, photographs, video clips and the band's cavalry-style costumes which they wear for every show, photo shoot and public appearance.

As for their cool new outfits, Champion proudly said, "You like it, yeah? There's no label to it. We designed them ourselves and got our friends who know what they're doing to make them." The band is determined to wear them in Singapore despite the heat. "Anything for style?" the Post asked. "Exactly," Champion answered firmly with a smile.

One of their latest, and most interesting, music videos, "Life In Technicolor ii", had Coldplay represented by puppets. "We're not actors, so when we can make good videos without showing the band, that's great," Champion said. "I think some of our best videos are the ones without us in it." He delightfully added, "We deliberately made Guy's *the bassist* puppet the ugliest because he's the most handsome member of the band."

For the first time in the band's touring history, Champion sang, performing "Death Will Never Conquer". So how does he like singing? "It's scary really. I prefer to stay behind my drums." And did the band's frontman offer some singing tips? Will shook his head and laughed, "No, nothing from Chris."

He wasn't quite so clear on why Coldplay have never made it to Jakarta, even though they've performed in Singapore three times. "I don't know, you know," he answered after a thoughtful pause. "There are so many places that we want to go but we're not able to do so until now. Otherwise we would never stop touring. But sometimes it is a matter of our production, too. It's difficult to squeeze our production into smaller buildings. So we'd rather wait until we get the right venue rather than doing it for the sake of doing a concert."

As Champion said, "The music never stops." So when Jakarta can accommodate Coldplay's mega-production requirements and, more importantly, ensure their safety, then we'll have a greater chance of seeing them here.

Coldplay's Viva La Vida - Prospekt's March edition, a deluxe package consisting of the Viva La Vida album and the Prospekt's March EP, is available at music stores now.

Recent pictures from Coldplay's Singapore concert:

Source thejakartapost.com

Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these fans from the swift completion of their appointed concert. The scene outside of Saturday’s Coldplay concert at Emirates Palace is perhaps best described by reference to a ritual that, thanks to the creeping global expansion of American teen comedies, is known (and, increasingly, practised) across much of the world: prom.

The Coldplay show, like a typical prom, was long anticipated (prom comes but once a year; international pop stars come to the Emirates only ever four of five months). It involved, like prom, the gathering of a large group that otherwise would not have gathered. It encouraged unskilled dancing by low light to well-known pop songs with vaguely uplifting lyrics.

This dancing was immediately preceded by a great deal of standing around by groups of young friends dressed to impress. Perhaps most promishly of all, many groups spent much preconcert energy pretending not to be snatching curious glances of other groups and their clothes.

Scores of teenaged men outside the arena were self-consciously dressed as if auditioning to be the fifth Coldplayer: ruffled hair, dark jeans neither tight nor baggy, carefully scuffed trainers, untucked button-down shirt under a hooded sweatshirt or blazer. Scores of young women were dressed the same way; others opted for skimpy skirts that surely stay in the wardrobe most school days. The doors were already open – these kids were standing outside only to be seen looking at each other standing outside (and, occasionally, smoking). Adults – a category of people defined by their inability to get fully into the correct prom mood – generally headed straight in.

In movies, the moments just before prom are typically rendered in a glistening soft-focus slow-motion. This technique presents prom as one of those personally epochal events that, once underway, seems to pass in a flash, worth approaching with senses tuned to their memory-constructing highest. As a result, personal cameras are an almost de rigueur prom accessory. Outside Emirates Palace, self-conscious group photography was rampant, just like the posting of new Facebook albums the next morning.

Nature hit all the right notes, almost as if taking direction from some prom planner in the sky; wind blew, skies darkened, and lightning forked prodigiously across the sky. Suddenly two rare events – rain and international pop spectacle – were on the menu. Were it to rain – to soak everyone’s sweatshirt, to force friends to huddle together while warbling along with Chris Martin, to produce lightning-lit pictures of same – a memorable night would be guaranteed.

The rain came, and the kids cheered. This was going to be great. Some clever person piped the Barbadian pop star Rihanna’s Umbrella (“Now that it’s raining more than ever / Know that we’ll still have each other / You can stand under my umbrella”) over the PA, and a singalong started.

Meanwhile, a steady trickle of adults left the stadium – some were heading home for rainwear, others were simply heading home. One woman about to step into a cab hesitated. Inside the car was warmth and dryness. Outside was lightning and rain, with hours to go until Coldplay. For a few seconds, she watched a dozen teenagers dancing under a blue tarp, and smiled. “But I’m not a kid anymore,” she said to no one in particular.

Source: thenational.ae

Coldplay have revealed they are returning to the studio with producer Brian Eno. Since releasing Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends last year the band have embarked on an extensive world tour.

They have though, found time to work on new material. Speaking to the band's official website bassist Guy Berryman said: "When we get back into the studio we'll be able to pick up where we left off with Brian. We've worked on a few ideas in soundchecks."

As previously reported Coldplay will play a series of huge shows this September, including two dates at London's Wembley Stadium. "We actually had a big production meeting today [2 April] with all of the relevant people involved and went over all the plans," said Berryman. "We've got some computer renderings of all the ideas and we're all quite excited about how it's looking - we're just working through a few logistical difficulties with some of the ideas that we've got.

Read the full interview article at the Coldplay forum here onwards.

Coldplay.com have caught up with bassist Guy Berryman amidst thunder and lightning leaving Dubai in the latest of their exclusive online interviews. In it, Guy discusses Chris Martin's mad dash across the Sydney Cricket Ground, all the photos he has taken, and the latest on soundchecking some of the older songs. Read the interview below. More discussion on this interview is at the Coldplay forum here onwards.

Hello Guy. How are you?

I'm good, thanks. I'm in a car on my way to Dubai airport. We had a very interesting gig tonight.

How long ago did you finish it?

About two hours ago.

This was the gig at the palace in Abu Dhabi.

Yes, but the venue was actually outside, what with this being one of the hottest, driest countries in the world. But about three songs in, the heavens just opened and everyone was getting soaked. It was pouring with rain and there was crazy thunder and lightning.

Presumably they're not that well prepared for that kind of thing.

No, they're not. But it was good, though, because everyone just gritted their teeth and went for it. And Chris changed a lot of the words of the songs to reference rain. It ended up being a really, really good show, actually. When you have an obstacle like that, it just pulls everyone together. During Fix You it stopped raining and I think everyone was so happy that the whole mood lifted even further. It was a really good way to end this leg of the tour.

Has it been a good set of gigs?

Absolutely. But we have had to do a lot of travelling over the last couple of weeks, from Australia, to New Zealand, then to Singapore, Hong Kong and Abu Dhabi.

It's been a long trip.

Yeah, it's been five weeks, which is about our cut off point, really. But we've all had the kids out staying with us, so it's been a bit more manageable.

It looked like the Sound Relief gig in Sydney went off amazingly well.

It really did. We did the song with John Farnham, which I thought sounded really good, and we were just happy to be involved. Hang on, let me describe to you what I can see right now. There are loads of big skyscrapers, with masses of fork lightning going right across the sky around them. It's crazy!

A bit like Chris's run into the crowd at the Sound Relief show...

Yeah, I think it was a bit silly in a certain sense, because he hadn't told anyone that he was going to do that, so nothing had been prepared. I think he ran into difficulties because by the time he made his way back, he'd amassed a rather large gathering around him, which he had to fight his way through. And then it was quite funny, because he'd run out of energy when he got to the fence at the end and he couldn't quite pull himself over it. But I thought it was really good. People love that sort of thing.

Have you watched it on YouTube?

Yeah, I did. Literally everyone just chases him. It's very funny. But it was a great day. In fact the whole Australian trip was brilliant. That's definitely the most fun we've ever had down there. They're fantastic crowds.

And how was New Zealand?

It was good, although it was all crammed into two days, so we just kind of flew in, stayed in Auckland, did the show and then flew out again. Although, saying that, I did get invited out on a boat by some friends of friends. We went over to an island, where we went swimming and fishing. Arlene [one of Coldplay's management team] caught some snapper, which we ate as sashimi about half an hour later on the boat. It doesn't get much fresher than that!

It's good that you had time for some sight-seeing.

It is, yeah. But I would've liked to explore New Zealand a little bit more. I'd like to go down to the South Island. Everyone talks about that. Maybe we'll get down there next time.

It must be a bit heartbreaking to be in these amazing places and have to leave so quickly.

Yeah, it can be a bit frustrating.

Were Hong Kong and Singapore similarly rushed?

No, we had a few days in Singapore. We stayed in a really nice resort called The Sentosa, where everyone enjoyed getting some poolside action and going down to the beach. And I went into Singapore and had a walk around the markets, which was really interesting. Hong Kong was good too. I've got a friend out there, Dominic, and we had a day off there, so he took me around. We haven't had any spare time there before, so I quite enjoyed that. They do a light show at night on all the skyscrapers, which was great.

Have you been taking lots of photos?

Yeah. I've got a bag full of films which I'll be sending to the lab. So we'll see what comes of that.

Have you decided what you'll do with all the photos you've taken on this tour?

I'm just going to keep taking them, then see what I've got at the end. Trouble is, with all the arena shows, you end up taking the same pictures over and over again. So it'll be nice now that we're going into bigger venues. I can come up with some different ideas.

How's the planning going for the stadium shows?

We actually had a big production meeting today with all of the relevant people involved and went over all the plans. We've got some computer renderings of all the ideas and we're all quite excited about how it's looking. We're just working through a few logistical difficulties with some of the ideas that we've got. But I think it's going to be really, really good.

When you played the big shows at Crystal Palace and Bolton's Reebok Stadium in 2005, Chris said he didn't think the band were quite ready for stadiums at that point. Do you think you are now?

Definitely. Just because we've seen what works in our arena show and we know why that's successful. All we've really got to do is take the same principles of the arena show and make things a bit bigger. I'm think they're probably going to be some of the best shows we'll ever do.

It must be nice to have a new challenge too.

Yeah, it's nice to have something new to aim for. In fact, Hong Kong was our 100th show of the Viva La Vida tour. That's counting from Brixton.

You've done 100 gigs in nine months.

Wow. That is quite crazy actually.

We hear you've been experimenting with a few of the older songs in soundchecks.

Yeah, we've been trying to dust the cobwebs off here and there, because the idea is that for the bigger shows in the summer we'll play for a little bit longer. So we've been digging out some of the older songs which we haven't played for a while. That's actually been really good fun. We played Sparks today and we've been playing Rush Of Blood To The Head, Warning Sign and White Shadows. We're just building up the songbook, basically.

Are there any songs you'd personally veto?

No, not really. It all comes down to where things fit in the set. I think we've learned that if you're not enjoying songs, they're probably not in the right place in the set.

Presumably it's quite hard to swap the setlist about at a big show - because the lights and background films etc will all be set up for particular songs.

Exactly. You make a decision and then you largely stick to it. But on the C Stage we can decide what song we're going to play on the spot, which is quite nice. I'm sure we'll be keeping that C Stage idea going for the big shows.

You were joined by [legendary Australian cricketer] Shane Warne for one of the C Stage performances in Australia.

Yes. I think he contributed more in spirit than in musicality! He's such a great guy, though. He's become a very good friend of the band.

You've got a few weeks before the next shows. What are you doing during that time?

We'll have some time off to recharge our batteries, then I think we're going to be doing some more work in our studio. Plus there will be more planning to do for the big shows.

Have you been working on the new material while you've been on the road?

We've worked on a few ideas in soundchecks, but when we get back into the studio we'll be able to pick up where we left off with Brian before we came out here.

Did you enjoy touring with Mercury Rev as much as Will did?

Definitely. We got to know all the guys really well. We went out socially and swapped numbers and emails. It's really nice when you go on tour with a band and you actually make a connection. We're definitely going to keep in touch and it'd be nice to play some more dates with them in the future.

The Coldplay-shaped puppets were on the trip too. There's been a lot of talk amongst fans about the Guy Berryman puppet. What do you think of it?

Well, I maintain that I got a raw deal, actually.

That has been the general consensus. You're a good-looking chap, with a less-than-attractive puppet.

Haha! But then I do appreciate the fact that they're supposed to be based on the traditional Punch and Judy characters. Hence one of them had to get the more traditional Mr Punch-shaped face. But it's alright, I'm over it now.

Perhaps it was an inverted compliment; the best looking member, gets the ugliest puppet.

Oh right, OK. I hope so!

Despite heavy rain and powerful winds, attendance figures were strong at last weekend’s back-to-back concerts by Coldplay and Andrea Bocelli at Emirates Palace in Abu Dhabi, reports Digital Production Middle East.

Italian classical soloist Andrea Bocelli drew a crowd of 11,000 on Friday, March 27, while British four-piece Coldplay and American rockers Mercury Rev attracted 15,000 punters the following night. Production crews were forced to endure wet-weather and high winds in the lead-up and during both events. However, despite these challenges, both shows went ahead on-schedule.

“The inclement weather slowed us down, we were working right up until the moment we opened the doors on both shows,” revealed Lee Charteris, event manager for Flash. “We were battered by some very heavy gusts of wind the night before the Bocelli show. The fact that we had both concerts ready to go on time was testament to the massive amount of work invested by the production team.”

Extra labourers were required during the production process to account for difficulties presented by the weather. Protec, whch provided staging and lighting for both concerts, and Al Laith Scaffolding, were forced to acquire extra labour at late notice.

“The only major problem we experienced with the Coldplay gig was the rain, but we did well to keep the production on-track” said Rick Wade, operations director, Protec. “Other than a few inevitable problems with water getting into some of the equipment, it really was a faultless show,” he said. “Everyone was happy with the way things came together.”

Both concerts were promoted by Flash in conjunction with Live Nation.