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Coldplay do not "deflower virgins" while on tour. The clean-living band insist their backstage antics are limited to changing their clothes and they never take advantage of groupies like a lot of rockers.   Guitarist Johnny Buckland [pictured] said: "There's sort of a whole heap of things that we do before the show. "Obviously we get changed, we do a bit of singing, play the guitar and just sort of relax for a bit before. But we don't deflower any virgins or anything like that."   Meanwhile, fro

When Rolling Stone’s Brian Hiatt hit the road with Coldplay for a recent Viva la Vida gig, the band gave him unprecedented access into their behind-the-scenes world — opening up about their sets (”We’re not going to be Springsteen and play for three hours”), stage outfits (”Are we gonna look ridiculous?”) and why Chris Martin is frontman (”He’s like the sort of engine of us”).   Click here for exclusive photos of the band prepping to go onstage, rehearsal shots and live photos, complete with com

When the going gets tough, Coldplay get going - their separate ways...   Fortunately, the UK's biggest rock band always manage to kiss and make up. Until their next big bust-up, that is. Frontman Chris Martin tells us that he and the other three members of Coldplay have parted company a whopping SIX times. The most recent split was just last week after it emerged they were being sued by American guitarist Joe Satriani.   Happily, the fab four - who are currently on the London leg of their incred

How do you make the O2 Arena your own? It's hard to make a gig feel intimate when you have a 20,000 capacity crowd, but you could start by jumping off the stage with your band and bouncing up to a narrow corner to play 'Green Eyes' and 'Death Will Never Conquer', wedged in to the aisle with your mate on harmonica.   Even though your mate happens to be comic genius Simon Pegg, it's hard not to feel you're in a much smaller local space, in a spontaneous lock-in style singalong with the biggest ban

By the time it ends next September at Wembley Stadium, 15 months after it began in Brixton, Coldplay’s Viva La Vida tour will have played 108 dates and taken them to 17 countries. They will have sold well over one million tickets and confirmed themselves as earth’s most popular group until U2 are back.   Last night they returned to the city where they formed, staked their claim for greatness and emerged triumphant. Surely nobody can doubt them now. In truth, we shouldn’t be surprised. Singer, gu

Coldplay formed a new supergroup at the opening show of their three date O2 Arena residency last night with comic actor Simon Pegg, writes Gigwise this morning.   Midway through the set, much to the sell-out crowd's surprise, the band walked into the first tier of the audience. With a solitary spotlight beaming on them, Chris Martin announced: “In homage to Robbie Williams rejoining Take That, we're going to form our own supergroup, ladies and gentlemen it's Simon Pegg!”   A somewhat nervous lo

The date is 29 November. It’s a Saturday night and I’m clutching two tickets for Coldplay’s grand homecoming gig in my right hand. It’s a strange and not entirely comfortable sensation, writes Noripcord.com.   I’ve climbed the concrete steps to Sheffield’s Hallam FM Arena on just two occasions, and for good reason, too; its enormous stage generally plays host to revolving cast of nastiness – Cliff Richard is coming soon, along with a line-up of 80’s has-beens, High School Musical On Ice (I kid y

We've said it before but it bears repeating: Coldplay are unfairly maligned. Just because they make popular songs, are hugely rich and yet don't conform to every rock-band cliche in the book (OK, we'll pass over the one about the frontman marrying a film star), it seems necessary to mock their every move. No wonder they've been taken to American hearts: there they actually like and encourage success.   Perhaps all those who denegrate Coldplay as being whiny bedwetting cohorts of Keane and Snow

Coldplay's UK arena tour arrived in Manchester last night (December 11th) – and you can see exclusive photographs on Gigwise here (a taster is below...)   The band wowed a sold out crowd at the Manchester Evening News Arena. Dressed in their distressed military uniforms, the group rattled through tracks from their new album 'Viva La Vida and Death and All His Friends'.   But it was Coldplay's more established hits such as 'Yellow' and 'Fix You' that created the biggest response from the crowd. T

Joe Satriani's suing of Coldplay has become one of the hot topics of late 2008. And it doesn't look like it's going away soon.   The latest addition to the online debate is a fine article on the Idolator website where their 'Idolawyer' (clever, yes?) muses on how the case might pan out in court. You'll have to put aside any prejudice of whose music is 'better' to appreciate this case, but the potential scenarios are interesting. Idolator's lawyer writes: "Assuming that Joe and his publisher legi

Coldplay.com caught up with Coldplay's latest support act. Here is their interview: London-based bliss-poppers The High Wire begin their run of support slots with Coldplay in Manchester tonight. We called up their frontman, Tim Crompton, to find out a bit more about them.   Hello Tim. Are you all set for your support slots? Oh goodness, no. Not being all that familiar with arena touring, I have no idea how to be prepared for it. I'm just excited that I won't be at work for a few days. Are you lo

That Chris Martin, he’s a dark horse. Actually, what are we saying? No he isn’t. He’s a man who usually screams up for what he believes in and uses the back of his hands like portable billboards for worthy causes.   But apparently, he was capable of keeping one little secret – the band’s crush on Take That, and their desire to be the Manchester four piece’s warm up act. “We were in the dressing room yesterday and, for whatever reason, we started singing Back For Good,” Chris told Coldplay.com la

If there was a book called, Critiquing Music for Dummies, somewhere inside would be a passage about how you must hate Coldplay and anything they put out. In fact, giving Coldplay poor reviews has been a growing trend over the years. The band's latest LP Viva La Vida or Death And All His Friends changed that quite a bit. While it was far from their Joshua Tree, Viva La Vida was a solid album that had the band heading in the right direction.   Only 5 short months later, the most legally downloade

Is it theft, borrowing, unconscious plagiarism or sheer coincidence? Coldplay is being taken to court over allegations it pinched a tune by US guitarist Joe Satriani. Satriani claims Coldplay's song Viva la Vida is a direct rip-off of his melody If I Could Fly and he wants any and all profits from the Coldplay hit.   The two songs have been overlayed on the video sharing website YouTube just to prove the point. Coldplay says any similarity is entirely coincidental and that Satriani did not write

Coldplay have politely responded to Joe Satriani's plagarism claim, The Times Online report today...   In what is turning into the most civilised argument in music history, Coldplay have refuted Joe Satriani’s claim that they plagarised his work while praising his talent and offering up a stream of pleasantries.   The British band broke their silence over the American guitarist’s law suit last night, posting a statement on their website that goes against the usual rules of rock rivalry and would

If ever there was a man who sums up the phrase “dance like there's nobody watching” it’s Chris Martin.   The Coldplay singer jigged and bounced around the ECHO arena stage last night like an over-excited puppy, clearly loving every minute. The packed crowd responded with equal glee, singing, cheering whooping and hollering. That’s the surprising thing about a Coldplay gig. For a band which made its name with some downright miserable lyrics (“Nobody said it was easy, no one ever said it would be

So revered are Coldplay that they practically simply have to turn up at gigs to stoke their fans. Indeed, at times here it felt as if Chris Martin could have just knocked off early, in such good voice was his audience, to the point of almost drowning the singer out.   Yet this was a performance with surprising heart, soul, energy and even intimacy from a band often knocked for being expertly bland. We did get all the predictable arena rock tricks – giant balloons bouncing around during Yellow; a

Leading online music app last.fm has released its most popular songs, albums and artists of 2008. The rankings come from last.fm's database, based on number of listeners. The music had to be released in 2008 to qualify for the charts, reports readwriteweb.com.   The Top 10 tracks is absolutely dominated by Coldplay's Viva la Vida, with 6 songs - including numbers 1 and 2. The title track was number 1, with more than three million listens in about 6 months. Coldplay also features at 5, 6, 8 and 9

They may have met at university in London, but Coldplay will always count Liverpool as home, reports the Liverpool Echo.   They’re now one of the biggest bands in the world, but before they were famous, and while they were first riding the crest of a wave, they were based in Parr Street Studio. Under the watchful eye of Grammy award winning Scouse producer Ken Nelson they recorded their first two albums – Parachutes and A Rush Of Blood To The Head – plus singles Shiver, Yellow, Trouble, In My Pl

In case you missed it the first time round, Coldplaying.com caught up with Oxfam's Pete Lusby to find out more about life on tour, volunteering and Oxfam. Pete is currently touring with Coldplay, promoting Oxfam's campaigns to concert-goers. Joined by teams of dedicated volunteers, Oxfam are raising awareness of, and advising of how we can all take action to overcome, poverty.   Hi Pete! Thanks for sparing some of your time to answer some questions. How did you become involved with Oxfam? I'd a

One trek the group Stars didn't expect to make recently was to Ottawa to open for Coldplay, a spur-of-the-moment offer the band couldn't turn down, reports the Edmonton Sun.   "We had a surprise phone call the day before because the person that was opening for them couldn't get across the border," Amy Millan says. "They called in Stars on the Bat-phone, we pulled our troops together and made it happen. It was really fun."   But don't expect Millan to know what the press thought about it. "I thin

You may remember recently Roadie #42 posted a blog where he talked about Ricardo, the drummer from the Make A Wish Foundation... well now you can watch the a video of Ricardo playing The Scientist with Coldplay here [thanks mimixxx]   The Denver show brings a guest at soundcheck. We are joined by a chap called Ricardo Leon, who's here with the Make A Wish foundation - his wish being to play drums with Coldplay. He makes his way to the stage on a motorised wheelchair, which does make one wonder h

Minutes before showtime in Coldplay's darkened Dallas dressing room, Chris Martin cracks open a bottle of Jameson. He takes a shot, throws his head back and gargles loudly.   At least a dozen pill bottles litter the floor next to Martin's yoga mat. But it's all a lot less decadent than it seems: The pills are vitamins, and the whiskey is mostly to lubricate Martin's throat for the many quavering high notes to come. "It's pretty exciting back here, right?" cracks drummer Will Champion, who spends

Eugene Francis Jnr and the Juniors are supporting Coldplay on the first half of the UK tour. Coldplay.com called up Eugene after the first night in Sheffield to find out a bit more about his band.   Hello Eugene. How was the first night of the tour? It was perfect. I'm here with Pete the tour manager now and we're just reliving it. We were just saying how smooth everything was and how lovely all the Coldplay crew were.   Was it busy when you were on? Maybe I'm bigging ourselves up here but I'd

Coldplay have come a long way since they played Birmingham’s Ronnie Scott’s in 2000, just as their album Parachutes was hitting the headlines.   Now they are commanding three nights at the National Indoor Arena and are on the crest of a wave after the success of their most recent album Viva la Vida. When the concert opened with Strauss, it was as if we were in for a classical spectacular – and in some ways we were. The show was nothing if not a spectacle with Coldplay pulling out all the stops f