Singapore will always hold special meaning for Coldplay, said drummer Will Champion. They’ve performed here three times and Champion said the band have always had “good memories of Singapore”.

That’s probably why they put on a supercharged show on Monday night at the Singapore Indoor Stadium. They gave an “impossibly charming” performance that was, according to Today’s Genevieve Loh, “worth every single superlative and every single cent”. Read her gushing review exclusively online at www.todayonline.com. “I remember the very first (performance in Singapore) with Travis,” said Champion just before the show. “Because, coincidentally, a guy who turned out to be one of my very best friends lived in Singapore at the time, and came to watch us.

Read the full interview at the Coldplay forum here [thanks but a dream]

Coldplay made their Middle East debut in Abu Dhabi Saturday night in a carbon-neutral concert that coincided with Earth Hour and earned them a reported £1.4 million ($2 million), report Al Arabiya.

Lead singer Chris Martin, who is married to Hollywood heartthrob Gwyneth Paltrow, did not let the unseasonable rain dampen his enthusiasm and sang impromptu renditions of Singin’ in the Rain and Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head to a delighted crowd.

In the last performance of their worldwide tour the band, nominated for a whopping seven Grammy Awards, performed what they billed as a carbon-neutral concert at the glamorous Emirates Palace.

Coldplay committed to offset the energy consumed in putting on the event, estimated to be about 600 tons of carbon dioxide, by funding a wind farm in New Zealand and offer recycling bins at the venue. The concert opened with a video about Earth Hour and the palace turned off the lights to mark the global-warming awareness campaign, during which landmarks across the world turned off their lights for one hour at 8:30 p.m. local time to promote energy conservation.

"Coldplay's debut performance in the Middle East is set to attract one of the biggest attendances in the UAE,” Gig promoter Elissa Murtaza told Rolling Stone magazine, which reported the rockers earned for the one-night concert. “Regional fans of the band have waited a long time for this show and they won't be disappointed."

Coldplay’s producer gained support among Arab audiences for his support of Palestinians during the Israeli war on Gaza. Brian Eno, who is also a producer for U2, criticized Israel in January for its offensive in Gaza, asking how a people who experienced the Holocaust could act in such a way and condemning the Jewish state’s “experiment in provocation.”

The concert was part of the Abu Dhabi Music and Arts Festival. The band’s Grammy-nominated Viva la Vida album was last year’s worldwide bestseller and won Song Of The Year for the track Viva La Vida.

Source: alarabiya.net

Coldplay frontman Chris Martin was charmingly apologetic, as if the rain was his fault. “I know this is extremely terrible weather,” he bellowed from the Emirates Palace stage on Saturday night.

But in fact, the rain never mattered. The British foursome bounced on stage with sparklers, opening their storming Middle Eastern debut with the instrumental Life in Technicolor from their last album, Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends, followed by Violet Hill from the same album. From the happy enthusiasm shown by the band, you would never have guessed it’s a show that they’ve already performed more than 100 times worldwide. As forks of lightening streaked the sky, a sodden, enraptured audience of 15,000 whooped back at them.

Musically, it was a strong, well-constructed set list of upbeat new tracks from the recent album, produced in part by Brian Eno, along with a smattering of oldies. Having worked their way through Clocks and In My Place, it was during a rendition of the band’s early hit Yellow that the rain really started coming down.

Martin looked disbelievingly skywards and laughed with his three band mates, the guitarist Jonny Buckland, the bassist Guy Berryman and the drummer Will Champion. “I’m singing in the rain,” he quipped. Three giant orbs twirled above their heads, yellow balloons floated across the stage and a backdrop of multicoloured laser beams shone out into the audience.

It wasn’t a mere visual spectacle, however. From start to finish of nearly two hours of music, it was a magnificent effort in which the crowd were given a true taste of Chris Martin, the entertainer. He didn’t just sing. He also played the guitar, tinkled on the piano, cracked jokes at the audience and apologised for his bad Arabic before, at one moment, swaying around while puffing into a harmonica. All of this while skipping around stage, sweat pouring down his face. “We’re staying in a palace,” he said incredulously while waving his hand at the hotel behind him, seeming genuinely grateful to be there.

As he launched into a soaring rendition of Fix You, the rain stopped and the crowd were encouraged to sing along. Martin flung his Sergeant Pepper jacket out into the audience before launching into the opening guitar chords of Strawberry Swing, an Afropop influenced track that Martin attributes to Zimbabwe, where his mother grew up. “It’s such a perfect day,” he sang as the crowd collectively wiped rain water from their eyes.

The highlight, for one girl, came when Martin called her up on stage for a birthday treat. Having moved to a platform in front of the stage while frantic bodies mopped the equipment behind him, Martin invited the 23-year-old Sarah to sit beside him while he played the piano through The Hardest Part. “Just turn the pages,” he said. “I probably don’t smell so good but just sit back and relax. I’ll do all the singing.”

For others in the audience, their moment came when the four moved to a small platform in the middle of the standing section. “Remember, it’s Earth Hour,” instructed Martin as the lights went off and a sea of mobile phones and cameras were held up instead while the four swept through The Monkees’ I’m A Believer. Champion left his drums and took over for Martin with a rare vocal performance of Death Will Never Conquer, a song penned during writing sessions for Viva La Vida or Death And All His Friends but which never made it on to the album.

The evening’s pinnacle came just afterwards, when having moved back to the main stage and performed Politik, the band struck up their wistful anthem to the East, Lovers in Japan. To a screened backdrop of Japanese images, thousands of multicoloured paper butterflies showered down on the audience. It was a truly breathtaking moment.

Tricky, therefore, to follow it up, but this they did with aplomb, performing the lullaby-like Death and All His Friends before taking a bow and leaving the stage. A brief encore, including The Scientist, was swept through before Martin had one final parting shot for the grateful crowd. “The ratings are back,” he said, “And we’ve played a few gigs, but the Abu Dhabi is audience number one.” On such a night, we happily believed him.

Source: thenational.ae

A navy hoody pulled up over his blonde curls, trying his best to go undetected, Coldplay's Chris Martin mooched across a half-built arena ahead of the UK band's first concert in the Middle East.

Barefoot and boardshort-clad, the world famous frontman oozed calmth, in direct contrast to the 100-strong work force beavering away to get Emirates Palace ready for the 15,000 hungry fans due to descend on the venue in a matter of hours. The concert, the final stop on Coldplay's Viva La Vida world tour, was timed perfectly to coincide with the globally-marked environmental initiative Earth Hour, something close to the band's hearts, as they explained to tabloid! just hours before the concert.

"When we support something, we prefer to support it whole-heartedly and not just put our name on the can," said drummer Will Champion. "It's not good to spread yourself too thin, especially when it comes to things which require so much effort and energy to get right. We all made a pact a long time ago we would never put our faces to campaigns unless we truly believed we had the time to really make people believe in them too."

Read and discuss the full interview courtesy of Gulf News at the Coldplay forum here onwards.

Abu Dhabi: The atmosphere was electric, alright. With thousand-volt lightning streaking across the sombre skies, a group of four took to the stage in their marching band outfits to sing about Violet Hill, with Eugene Delacroix’s symbolist painting: Liberty Leading the People, unfolding in the background, reports Xpress.

The heavy skies soon opened up pouring rain over the 15,000 fans who had come to see Coldplay in their first concert in the UAE on Saturday [March 28] at the Emirates Palace in Abu Dhabi.

The rain, the thunder and the lightning combined with the blue-green laser lights and humongous balloons wading through the air to create a surreal backdrop. On the last leg of their world tour to promote their fourth album Viva La Vida or Death And All His Friends, Coldplay belted out hits such as Yellow, The Scientist, Fix You, Clocks and In My Place from their previous three albums, alongside other tracks like Green Eyes, Shiver and The Hardest Part.

From their latest album, the obvious favourite was cover song Viva La Vida with the crowds joining in the chorus as lead vocalist Chris Martin swaggered around the stage and across the protruding ramp which divided the VIP stands into two, bringing Coldplay closer to fans who were at the back. Martin couldn’t help joking about seeing rain in a ‘desert country’.

Coldplay also showcased new tracks such as Lost, 42 and Lovers of Japan, which was played against a rolled-down backdrop video of Japan. As the crowd began applauding, Martin sprung out a Wagasa (a Japanese parasol) and broke into a frenzied dance before the crowds were showered with thousands of little paper butterflies; just like in the video.

Sixteen year old Samar who was having the time of his life, said, “We felt like we were floating in the air while listening to them. Coldplay makes you forget about all your problems; they take you into another world…”

An old-school wooden-framed television placed next to the piano on stage was beaming live images from the concert and clips from their music videos. As the rains died down and a cool wind wafted over the concert-venue, Coldplay mimicked the weather with their romantic guitar riffs and vibrating drum sounds. The musicians constantly interacted with their fans and also went on to say that the Abu Dhabi crowd ranked as their number one to date. A lucky birthday girl got to go on stage and join Martin on the keyboards for a solo performance of the song ‘The Hardest Part’

Since Earth Hour 2009 also coincided with their concert, the band who are known to be environmentally-friendly, requested the organisers to switch off all lights in the arena for five minutes to commemorate the event. A multitude of cellphone lights lit up the arena, the musicians went on to do a cover of Neil Diamond’s I’m a Believer. Scott Hallsworth, a British expatriate, who had braved the rains with his wife and infant baby in a stroller, to watch the band perform, said, “I’ve attended Coldplay’s concert in London, but this one was much better than that. Coldplay is famous for their brilliant stage productions and they stayed true to form. The weather did not bother us; it actually complemented the atmosphere of the concert,” he said. Martin then joked about the early formation of the band, and made drummer and backing vocalist Will Champion perform, to prove that the band would not have been the same, had he been the lead vocalist – all in good humour.

As the curtains came down, the band bowed out in front of a roaring audience with a humble ‘Shukran’. However, the crowds were not in the mood to call it a night. As Coldplay retired backstage, the thousands of fans began to hum Viva La Vida – an unusual way to urge the band to come back on stage as compared to the usual ‘once more’. Despite a few minutes passing by and no sign of Coldplay, the crowds continued singing hoping that the band would come back on stage one last time.

And they did…........

Source: xpress4me.com

A funny blog review of last night's outdoor concert is online, courtesy of Peter Vegas at Blogspot. (discuss!) Here it is:

Top performance by Cold Play in the grounds of the 7 star Emirates Palace last night. Dug the surreal lightening display that went on throughout the gig. Guess it was Gods way of saying, ‘Stuff Earth Hour I don’t turn my lights off for no one.’

Unfortunately with the lightening came rain. I don’t mind rain at an outdoor gig especially in the Middle East because it’s warm rain. It’s warm like the water the hairdresser uses to wash your hair. You know how they hold the little nozzle under their hand till the temp is just perfect and then they start washing? In the Middle East the rain god does the same thing before he dumps a deluge on you...

Millions of little drops of urine temperature water plopping down on you. Back in the 90’s at the one-day cricket at Eden Park, before they banned booze sales in the second innings, you did used to feel the same thing, except it was drops of urine falling out of the sky. Well, out of the cups of the guy’s 12 rows back.

No, I don’t mind rain but some people do. They mind it so much in fact that they would rather wear rubbish bags than get wet. Who started that retarded trend? Which genius decided to cut holes for arms and head and throw on a plastic bag? Probably a pissed guy who was trying to dress up as a homeless guy for a joke. But it caught on! Do concert goers read the weather report and think ‘Might be chance of rain. Better put a giant rubbish bag in my pocket? The Cold Play concert was carbon neutral apparently. I guess the thousands of rubbish bags on their way to the landfill today don’t count.

Great gig from a top band but the sound seemed a bit crap for a while. There was this staticky hiss in the air. Then I realized it was the sound of hundreds of rubbish bag wearing plonkers rustling in time to the songs.

Source: petervegas.blogspot.com

On paper, the weekend was a triumph before it had even started - two of the world’s biggest acts playing back-to-back in the UAE capital, attracting thousands of fans from across the Emirates.

No language difficulties with Coldplay, whose eager-to-please front man Chris Martin must have swallowed a local dictionary. Once again, the elements voiced their disapproval in spectacular fashion – the primordial stew that had been brewing throughout Saturday finally giving way to a vast and furious electrical storm an hour before show time. It paused briefly to allow Mercury Rev their chance to mimic Flaming Lips, beginning again with renewed vigour during the headliners’ mesmeric rendition of smash hit ‘Yellow’.

Never have 15,000 people looked so happy in the rain. Love him or hate him, Martin is a compelling frontman, and the unassuming young Brit managed to summon forth a devilish alter ego, pulling the gig back from the brink of being a literal washout.

Read the full review article at the Abu Dhabi thread in the Coldplay Live forum here [thanks mimixxx]

Coldplay made their Middle East debut last night in a musical performance to a capacity crowd of 15,000 on the Emirates Palace hotel grounds, and began their set with Violet Hill, followed by hits including Yellow and Clocks. Chris Martin, the lead singer, greeted fans in Arabic and laughed off several downpours with impromptu renditions of Singin’ in the Rain and Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head.

“Even this torrential weather couldn’t stop us having a great time with you,” he told the crowd, who ignored the thunder and lightning to carry on dancing and cheering. Sarah Foster, a Canadian, said: “He’s turned the rain into an amazing atmosphere. If anything it’s like a treat for us here.”

Philip Parks, also from Canada, said: “It’s the best concert I’ve been to here. The rain just made it better. Amazing atmosphere.” Laura Nightingale, 27, from the UK, who is on holiday with her fiance, said the concert was the highlight of her trip. “This is an amazing treat,” she said. “I love the ‘show must go on’ attitude.”

Read the full review article at the Abu Dhabi thread in the Coldplay Live forum here [thanks mimixxx]

Picture: ifpikad

They are one of the hottest bands right now and wowed a full-house this week at the Singapore Indoor Stadium. Having sold over 50,000 records world-wide - not to mention picking up a couple of Grammys along the way - Coldplay is on top of the world.

But the UK band isn't settling on any formula for success but constantly evolving their sound. The UK band took a very different direction for their fourth album - Viva La Vida - and many said it's the most experimental offering from Coldplay. Though it wasn't well received by some critics, it's one of the top selling albums of last year.

"People have a lot of choice of entertainment and when you have made three records, you need to give everyone a very good reason to buy a fourth record because they've already heard the sound of the group three times. So I think when we came to our 4th piece of music, we better start to go in different directions a bit," said Chris Martin, Coldplay's vocalist.

Read the full article at the Coldplay forum here onwards.

Brian Eno has said that the music industry is currently an "exciting mess". The Coldplay, U2 and David Byrne producer told The Guardian that he has tried different methods of releasing music to experiment in the changing business.

Eno said: "When I finish something I want it out that day. Pop music is like the daily paper. Its got to be there then, not six months later. "So [David Byrne and I] decided to release on our websites first, then put it on the commercial websites, then as a CD, then with different packaging. It's just trying to see what works. The business is an exciting mess at the moment."

Byrne is currently touring the UK with 'The Songs of David Byrne & Brian Eno'. Meanwhile, Coldplay themselves have revealed that they will delay the release of their next album so that fans don't get sick of them.

The group admitted that they would take a break after completing their world tour before starting to record the follow up to 2008's Viva La Vida. "We ended up doing much more touring than we originally planned so there's no time to do proper justice to a new project. And anyway people may need a bit of a break from us," Bang Showbiz quotes guitarist Johnny Buckland as saying. "We're taking a little break and let's see where we get after that. We've got a lot of ideas but we want to find a new way to go and that may take some time."

Frontman Chris Martin recently claimed that he could never imagine the band parting ways.

Pictures of Coldplay in Hong Kong, 25th March 2009:

Pictures: Ray Chan

Expectations ran high among the more than 10,000 people who paid an equally high price to watch British superband Coldplay performed in Singapore on Monday. Ticket prices for the sold-out gig ranged from S$88 to $249 and, according to several Indonesians who flew in especially for the concert, it was time and money well spent.

Because Coldplay delivered on those expectations. With four successful albums under their belts, they had no problem delivering hit after hit during their two-hour show, entertaining a stadium full of hysterical fans, from young teenage girls to gentlemen in their 50s.

An hour after Mercury Rev opened the show at about 8:15 p.m., the Coldplay members - lead singer Chris Martin, guitarist Jonny Buckland, bassist Guy Berryman, and drummer Will Champion - jumped onto the stage. They appeared behind a thin black screen carrying sparklers across the stage, wearing their signature cavalry-inspired outfits, and kickstarted the show with an instrumental version of "Life in Technicolor".

When the black screen dropped, the fans turned up the screaming by several decibels, and they launched into another number from their Viva La Vida album, "Violet Hill". Then, as the stage turned red and red lasers beamed across the Singapore Indoor Stadium, Chris Martin hit the piano and the band began playing "Clocks" from A Rush of Blood to the Head. The lanky Chris Martin strutted down the left-hand runway, drawing a surge of picture-taking frenzy and photo flashes, when performing one of their "cult" songs from the same album, "In My Place". Then, as one of their early hits, "Yellow", came up, giant yellow balloons started rolling among the audience.

With the venue lit up in a bright yellow light, the whole production set came into clearer view, showing the huge stage for the four-piece band and their extra instruments - including a piano, a keyboard, a drum and an old TV as also seen in their music videos - a long runway on each side of the stage, a giant screen on the stage backdrop and a few more hanging above the audience, and huge light orbs, on which the act was projected, hanging above the stage and around the stadium.

The band played nearly all the songs from their Viva La Vida album, as well as some new pieces from their EP, Prospekt's March. Martin showed off his vocal power while singing "42" as he pretended to be out of breath at the last note but then dragged it out for what seemed like forever (and kept his eye on his watch while doing so). "Postcards From Far Away", a piano instrumental by Chris Martin, led into the intro to the familiar strings sound of their biggest hit ever, "Viva La Vida", which had the whole stadium on their feet. And of course a Coldplay concert could not be complete without earlier hits such as "Fix You", "Politik", "God Put a Smile Upon Your Face" and "The Scientist", which the band presented smoothly. The crowd danced, jumped and screamed to each of the more than 24 of Coldplay's all-time favorite songs covered at the concert.

The naturally entertaining Chris Martin charmed the audience with his jokes, teasing his band mates and thanking the audience, acknowledging all those who flew in from overseas.

The production team behind the concert smartly injected surprise elements, to the delight of the audience, such as sending out a shower of colorful paper butterflies during "Lovers in Japan" while Martin sashayed down the runway swinging a Japanese paper umbrella. A surprise act came after the performance of "Lost!": The boys made their way through the audience to a small "stage" in the middle of the bleachers area, welcomed by the stunned audience who reached out trying to touch the guys. The quartet belted out acoustic versions of "Speed of Sound", a rendition of The Monkees' "I'm a Believer" and "Death Will Never Conquer" sung by drummer Will Champion. Martin joked that he had become the band's lead singer after losing a game of Monopoly to decide who would be the frontman "to take all the abuse, the drugs and that sort of thing". "Life in Technicolor ii" closed the show but left the audience wanting more.

Even if you took out the giant balloons, laser shows and shower of butterflies, the concert proved that what Coldplay really offers is just a plain good music. The band does deserve its Grammies.

Source: thejakartapost.com

Pictures: Hoong Wei Long

Were you not entertained? Like Roman gladiators, Coldplay came to Singapore (again), played to almost 12,000 roaring fans and left the arena no doubt feeling like kings. If Chris Martin, Will Champion, Jonny Buckland and Guy Berryman didn’t feel like they ruled the world already, I bet they did after the band’s concert at the Singapore Indoor Stadium on Monday night, which was their third date in the island republic already.

It’s hard not to compare this concert with their second one in 2005 at the same venue (they first came here in 2001 to open for Travis. How far they’ve come since then ... and where’s Travis now?). Where the previous show the London-based band had just three albums (of which songs from the latest at the time – the less radio-friendly X&Y – made up the bulk of the songs); this time around they came armed with the Grammy award-winning Viva La Vida with more stadium anthems than you can shake a stick at.

Read the full review article at the Coldplay Live forum here onwards.

If there were any lingering doubts in the backs of the minds of Coldplay fans that the band is the coolest on the planet, the Grammy Award-winning rock band consigned them to oblivion with its Viva La Vida concert on Wednesday, reports Hong Kong's The Standard.

Chris Martin was the consummate entertainer throughout, using his ultimate insider's knowledge to rib bass player Guy Berryman, guitarist Jonny Buckland and drummer Will Champion between numbers and create an intimate atmosphere.

But when it came time to pump up the volume, the band did it at full strength, complete with Martin's signature voice and dances, flickering strobe beams and six video orbs for dramatic effect to fuel the high-octane event.

It was intense. The audience went crazy at the first notes of Yellow, the song that thrust the band into massive popularity nine years ago. It was accompanied by an array of giant yellow balls filled with confetti bouncing from the stage. From then on, the band bombarded the fans with hits like Clocks, In My Place and Strawberry Swing, before leading them to sing along for Fix You.

Martin went unplugged for a piano solo in The Hardest Part. That just made the adrenaline rush even stronger for the climax: Viva La Vida. The crowd sang so loudly it almost drowned out the band. Just when you thought the show couldn't get any better, the four strolled to the back of the AsiaWorld-Arena hall, where Martin led the crowd in a Mexican wave of illuminated phones to The Monkees' I'm A Believer.

The thrill didn't end there. Thousands of butterfly confetti fell from the ceiling for Lovers In Japan at the end. As the fans tried hard to catch one, the band hid coyly under Japanese parasols.

By then, the show had already gone on for 1 hours. The fans still hadn't gotten enough. They cheered on the band for a three-song encore that included The Scientist.

Could Juliana Down pull off at the last minute what they haven’t in a month? While the likelihood of them opening the act for the much-anticipated Coldplay concert in the capital this Saturday looks as minuscule as the eye of a needle, the Abu Dhabi-based band hasn’t lost hope.

“Anything can happen at the last minute. We are still hoping,” said Juliana Down’s 23-year-old vocalist Hassan Dia. The four-member band launched a massive month-long campaign to convince Coldplay to let a local band open for them, but failed to cut ice with the Grammy winners. It is important for the local music scene that opportunities like this are made accessible to local acts, otherwise our fledgling scene will not go anywhere at all. We believe that Chris [Coldplay vocalist] and Co, based upon the way they are portrayed, would care enough about making a difference at any given opportunity to make this happen if they knew about the campaign,” said campaign coordinator Saleh Hamed. It now appears that Coldplay will open their show with an English band.

Hassan is disappointed, but doesn’t want to blame anyone. “It’s always good to include local bands in such events as it gives them a lot of exposure. I wouldn’t blame the organisers or the band because when a band goes on a world tour, they have a set opening act,” he said.

Sponsored by Flash and Live Nation, Coldplay’s one-off Abu Dhabi concert – their first in the region – comes as the final stop on their world tour for their fourth album, Viva Le Vida, regarded as the most commercially successful rock album of the decade. It’s this album that earned the four-member British band seven nominations at this year’s Grammys, including Album of the Year.

Fans can expect most of their hits, including Viva La Vida, Violet Hill, Lost, Fix you, Yellow, Clocks and Lovers in Japan. Official broadcaster MTV Arabia is running a competition on their website www.mtva.com for fans who want to win free tickets to the event.

Reviews of yesterday's Coldplay concert in Hong Kong are online; here's one from a Seatleite:

Last night we had a real treat when we attended a Coldplay concert - part of the group's Viva La Vida tour - at the AsiaWorld-Expo Center in Hong Kong. I have to admit, while I have always enjoyed Coldplay (full disclosure: It is my husband who has bought all of their CDs) I did not quite realize just how big they really are. Or how good.

Coldplay performed in front of a full house for just over an hour and a half. Chris Martin, the lead singer, is famous for his discomfort around the press, and perhaps because of this, I was surprised at how charismatic and genuine he seemed on stage, even apologizing for not speaking Cantonese or Mandarin (and how great that he knew the difference).

An engaging performer, Martin danced around the stage and the band members even walked the length of the large auditorium to do a number from the back of the room. The huge arena had five or six large balls hanging from the ceiling that acted as video screens, and during the group's hit song, "Yellow," large confetti filled balloons appeared from nowhere for the crowd to bat around.

The woman next to me shrieked periodically in pure ecstasy and sang loudly to every song the group performed, giving me a sense of what it must have been like to attend a Beatles concert in 1966. Much to my amusement, she seemed positively baffled (and quiet) when the band sang a campy version of the Monkees' "I'm a Believer."

The crowd was diverse – with locals and expats of all ages in attendance. After seeing the show it was obvious why: Coldplay offers something for everyone – and one of the best live performances I have ever experienced.

Source: blog.seattlepi.com

Lionel Ritchie has expressed his desire to work with a host of UK acts, including Duffy, The Ting Tings and Coldplay. The veteran singer said he was inspired by the current crop of British talent - and also signalled his intention to work with Irish band U2. Ritchie, who is on a UK tour, said he was a fan of British music because you “still experiment, you don’t get stuck in one rut”.

“I love Duffy, whom I’ve just discovered – does she write her own stuff? If she does we’re on fire because she’s great,” he told the Daily Star newspaper. “I like The Ting Tings, I love Coldplay and U2. I want to work with them, let me put it out there. Your diversity gives me inspiration and makes me say ‘I wanna try that’.”

He expressed a similar wish to work with Coldplay prior to the Brit Awards in February.

Coldplay may have sold more than 50million albums but frontman Chris Martin admits he still feels as scared as a total novice in the music business. Chris confessed to The Sun: “Every day I wake up and think, ‘OK, today we’ve got to really prove ourselves. We’ve got to justify where we are.’ I always feel like my dad’s going to burst through my bedroom door at any moment and wake me up to go back to my real job.”

Talking in Australia, the singer also said how he shrugs off any cristicism about his music: “We’re like Vegemite in many respects. “A lot of people like us, but many more people don’t. I’d like to convince everyone that our particular brand of Vegemite is brilliant, but it’s never going to happen.”

More on this article at the Coldplay forum here onwards.

Coldplay frontman Chris Martin has described Michael Jackson's forthcoming shows at London's O2 Arena as “the biggest comeback since Lazarus”. Martin also told The Mirror newspaper that like thousands of Jackson's fans he was unable to buy tickets before they sold out.

"I was looking at it on the internet and thought, 'I'd better buy some for myself' and I couldn't. They were totally sold out,” he said. "To sell out like that is a testament to talent. It is just amazing to sell out 50 shows in one city in a big arena. It's the biggest comeback since Lazarus. It's good news - but not for me."

Jackson is scheduled to play 50-nights at London's O2 Arena. All of the gigs, which run into 2010, have already sold out.

More on this article at the Coldplay forum here [thanks ravrat]

Dubai - British rock band Coldplay will perform in Abu Dhabi on Saturday, their first performance in the Middle East, the entertainment satellite channel MTV Arabia reported Monday. The concert is planned as a stage in the English rockers' world tour promoting their latest album, Viva la Vida, Samir al-Marzouqi, managing director of MTV Arabia, told German Press Agency dpa.

Despite an exodus of foreign workers seeking opportunities elsewhere in response to the world financial crisis, Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, remains home to a large expatriate British population.

The emirate flexed its economic muscle over the weekend when one of its state investment funds, Aabar investments, agreed to become the largest investor in German car giant Daimler by purchasing new shares worth 2.65 billion US dollars, for a 9.1-per-cent share in the makers of Mercedes.

Abu Dhabi has also sought to position itself as a cultural hub. Paris' Louvre museum plans to open its first oversees branch in 2012, and the Guggenheim museum franchise plans to follow suit in 2013. The emirate also plans an opera house that will seat more people than the landmark that graces the harbour at Sydney, Australia.

Read more on Coldplay's concert in Abu Dhabi going carbon neutral in the Coldplay Live forum here [thanks mimixxx]

The upcoming Coldplay concert on Mar 28 is set to make history as the first carbon neutral music event in the UAE. To offset the band’s carbon footprint through lighting, electricity and flights, the concert's organiser Flash plans to finance an unannounced sustainability project.

Meanwhile, Environmena, an Abu Dhabi solar power systems installation company, is carrying out an initial audit into the likely level of C02 emissions produced by the concert. It will then conduct a final review following the event.

The initiative, backed by Emirates Wildlife Society – World Wide Fund for Nature (EWS-WWF), will also see Coldplay addressing 15,000 fans to promote Earth Hour, which falls on the same day of the concert.

Earth Hour is an environmental scheme to raise awareness of climate change by encouraging people to switch off unnecessary lights and electricity for one hour. “Earth Hour is a powerful symbol of what can be achieved through individual action on a global scale, with the whole world coming together in a response to tackle climate change,” said Razan Khalifa Al Mubarak, managing director of EWS-WWF.

“In the UAE we are keen to grasp the momentum generated by this global occasion, urging everyone to make the switch for one symbolic hour, thus taking affirmative action towards helping save our planet.”

Source: http://digitalproductionme.com

ABU DHABI // Coldplay’s last album was inspired by the sights and sounds of South America, but the next will draw on the Middle East’s rich cultural heritage.

Speaking yesterday, ahead of this weekend’s eagerly awaited concert at the Emirates Palace hotel, the British band’s lead singer Chris Martin described the visit to Abu Dhabi as part of a musical odyssey that typified Coldplay’s spirit.

Huge international acclaim has taken the band to countries as far apart as the US, New Zealand and Singapore. But Martin said he was looking beyond a single live appearance, the only date in the Gulf on an extensive world tour. Instead, he sees the Middle East as “uncharted territory”, a region that promises the band an element of mystical excitement that will prove a creative force in their musical development.

Read the full article at the Coldplay forum here onwards.

An attempt by the band Juliana Down, an alternative rock band from the United Arab Emirates, to open for Coldplay at a local show appears to have failed, ahead of this Saturday's highly-anticipated concert at the Emirates Palace Hotel.

When Juliana Down contacted the promoters for a Coldplay show to take place in Abu Dhabi, they were told by Coldplay's manager, "It would be my preference to support local and regional bands but in the end it is not [the local promoter] who dictates if a band will play the opening slot."

Representatives from Coldplay's record label and official Web site said the decision ultimately rests with the members of Coldplay, who have not responded, according to a press release from Juliana Down.

Juliana Down's attempt to open the show turned into a campaign to get any local UAE band on the show. Keyboardist Saleh Yahya Farah wrote an appeal to Coldplay in Gulf News, stating: "The UAE has a nascent music scene that needs all the support it can get. Local bands still have to pay crippling fees for the right to perform and promoters still do not automatically make provisions for them. This is why getting a local band to open for Coldplay is so important to us. Not only does such an event make it possible for a band to make it big, but it also sets a precedent."

A Facebook group called "Get a local UAE band to open for Coldplay" currently has 1,000 members, and the story has made UAE national newspapers.

Fabio Capello fears the controversial playing surface at Wembley - and the £757million national stadium's hyper-critical crowd - could harm England's World Cup qualifying campaign, writes the Daily Mail this weekend.

Capello's team are five points clear in Group Six ahead of the home match against Ukraine a week on Wednesday. But with some England stars expressing their dissatisfaction over the Wembley pitch, Capello and his backroom staff believe the state-of-the-art stadium may have become more of a hindrance than a help.

Wembley have four weeks after concerts by Oasis on July 9, 11 and 12 to relay the pitch for the showpiece Community Shield on August 9. It is understood the pitch will then be ripped up and relaid a week later, after the August 14 concert by U2, with just two weeks for the new turf to bed down before the rugby league Challenge Cup final, followed a week later by the Slovenia friendly on September 5 and Croatia qualifier four days later. The surface is in line to be ditched for a third time after Coldplay's September 18 and 19 shows, with only three-and-a-half weeks to prepare another new pitch for the Belarus qualifier on October 14.

Read the full article at the Wembley threads in the Coldplay Live forum here (18th Sept) and here (19th Sept).

This past Tuesday, the grandeur that is Coldplay revealed their summer tour schedule, showing a 42 date route through North America. This tour, through all arenas and amphitheaters, will probably sell out completely just like both their fall and winter world tours.

To me, that is almost incomprehensible. How can you be that relevant? How can you become that massive touring conglomerate that sells out at will? Droves of people are willing to not just watch them, but borderline worship them, in the impersonal, massive venues that Coldplay is playing.

These barely 30-somethings aren't playing music that turns stadiums into living rooms, but they are playing music that brings stadiums to their feet. Chris Martin writes songs you can sing to the rafters and lyrics that are bigger than himself. The songs were always there, but the main reason they are still relevant lies completely in the transition between X&Y and their newest release, Viva la Vida.

In case you missed it, Viva La Vida was the best selling album worldwide in '08, dropping 6.8 millions copies and inciting more than its fair share of awards, commercial opportunities and collaborations. Don't get me wrong, whatever Coldplay threw out after X&Y would have moved a million or two, garnered at least one arena tour, and been nominated for an award or two. But they would have seen nothing like this.

After the release of X&Y, Coldplay had that brit-pop, U2 leaning sound mastered. They could craft hits that would make their way on to the radio and sell out some shows, but they had encountered a problem. "Speed of Sound" sounded a bit too much like "Clocks", and the album didn't hit with critics in quite the way that 2002's "A Rush of Blood to the Head" did. They were coasting. Another album in the same vein and there is no doubts the seats would not be filled, but Coldplay recognized this. They enlisted notoriously electronic producer Brian Eno and crafted a group of songs that were as risky as they were good. They gave away first single "Violet Hill" for free and launched a worldwide marketing scheme that involved free concerts in Barcelona, New York, and London.

The set of nearly flawless songs that comprises Viva La Vida is a career milestone for Coldplay. It was their Achtung Baby, their Kid A. They needed this album to stay important, to "fill the seats". U2's newest release was good, but their music hasn't been culturally relevant since "All That You Can't Leave Behind." They fill seats because Bono is an icon and a legend, but Chris Martin doesn't have his swagger, his flair of arrogance. Besides, U2 fills seats for what they have done, not what they're doing. Coldplay sells out arenas because of what they're doing.

In the current state of the music business, records aren't selling today like they did ten years ago. Hell, in 1998, Shania Twain put up nearly the same numbers as Coldplay did in 2008. Touring is the new revenue. Coldplay has this revenue because there is no "Speed of Sound" to be found on Viva La Vida. There is no "Clocks," only "Lost!" and "Violet Hill." Chris Martin knew what had to be done, and he did it.

Source: andwitheverythingelse.blogspot.com/

Coldplay won't be coming back to Abu Dhabi in a hurry if they see that the city's local press writes articles such as the one published online in The National (.ae) today:

Great news! Mercury Rev are playing in Abu Dhabi. The downside is that it costs Dh300 and if you don’t leave as soon as they’ve finished, you might get some Coldplay on you. I joke, I joke.

Yet for many, ragging on Chris Martin and chums is no laughing matter. From all the pained, po-faced column inches proclaiming this popular North London outfit to be, in the words of The New York Times’s Jon Pareles, “the most insufferable band of the decade”, you’d think they spent their days feasting on endangered species. Oh, Coldplay’s flaws are obvious enough: the simpering, samey songs, the worthiness, the smugness of the Martin ménage, etc.

And yet none of this detracts from their talent: they write memorable tunes with a chilly, contemporary mood. Whenever Martin’s melodies have shown up without him attached, the effects have been perfectly pleasant. Who can deny the charm of Jamelia’s See It in a Boy’s Eyes? Or of Jay-Z’s Beach Chair? Thus history, furnishing a control test, refutes the sceptic. Besides, as Nietzsche once advised, “battle not with monsters lest you become a monster”. It’s a terrible thing when the hipper-than-thou haters start seeming less fun than Chris Martin himself.

In any case such admonitions may be unnecessary, for who can hate in the presence of Mercury Rev, surely the closest thing the world of sweeping indie rock possesses to an anti-Coldplay? Where the latter are cold, modern and sensible, the Rev trade in a sort of wayward, Tiffany-glass warmth. Even on their latest album, Snowflake Midnight, in which the band branches out into electronic textures and borrows a few shock tactics from their spiritual successors Animal Collective, the mood is as swooning and starry-eyed as ever. Rev fans tend to be die-hards, too, which is another reason why they make an intriguing choice of support for Coldplay. The Emirates Palace may find itself hosting to two very different tribes on Saturday. Somehow, I’d be surprised if it came to blows.

The Bolshoi ballet is coming to the Abu Dhabi Music and Arts Festival this week with a gala performance of excerpts from Minkus, Tchaikovsky, Driges and others, followed a couple of days later by a gallop through Giselle. That the ballet is one of the great wonders of the cultural world – a 200-year-old company that has survived the rise and fall of Communism to stand as the iconic and definitive exponents of their art – is surely beyond question. They do grand shows, full of shameless magnificence. That has to be worth experiencing at least once, doesn’t it? Or twice, seeing as they’re offering.

Finally, if you fancy a sneak preview of the UAE’s pavilion at the Venice Biennale, head to Gallery One at the Emirates Palace on Thursday evening. The show, which includes work by Lamya Gargash and Tarek al Ghoussein, bears the oddly apologetic title It’s Not You, It’s Me. A phrase more usually associated with the gentle break-up let-down, this may seem to strike a pessimistic note; after all, the UAE’s relationship with the world’s most august biennial has just begun. Here’s hoping the exhibition is the start of something beautiful.

More on this article and the forthcoming Abu Dhabi concert in the Coldplay Live forum here onwards.