ATLANTA—I only imagine what sorts of emotions would proceed a live performance were I in the 'world’s biggest band,' reports PatrolMag.com.

Coldplay have bested their critics a great majority of the time, and no greater testament to their ongoing, colossal popularity was the packed out Phillips Arena on Wednesday night; all races, genders (including some ambiguous ones), creeds, age groups, and artistic and political demographics stood closer together than many had in their whole lifetime, and when the lights went down, the air tingled with something magic.

Opening the night with the instrumental warm-up “Life in Technicolor” and Viva la Vida’s lead single “Violet Hill,” Coldplay began with business as usual. Both were mostly by the book, stripped of improvisation or extra live grandiosity. Even so, those around me took belted out “If you love me, won’t you let me know?” periodically, eliciting (if nothing else) the laughter of band mates Martin and Buckland, who it seems have completely adopted a Bono/Edge relationship—only without the intimidating strides, gentle kisses, and damnable sunglasses.

Breaking up the introduction with audience participation and one laughable conversation between Martin and an adoring (presumably female) fan who cried “I love you, Chris,” the always-smiling front man launched into a diatribe detailing the band’s struggle to adjust to the Georgia heat. Martin removed his jacket, revealing his underarms to a squealing gaggle of teenaged girls and (oddly enough) used the moment to segue into “Clocks” and “Speed of Sound,” which I will finally admit sound so similar I couldn’t definitively indicate where one began and the other ended. With an impressive laser display and a light show harkening back to 80s new wave, the night took an unpredictable turn.

Walking off stage directly into the crowd, the band wielded electric guitars and a handheld drum machine, performing a self-described “techno” fusion of “God Put a Smile Upon Your Face” and “Talk,” with pulsing dance beats and elaborate, wailing string parts. The experiment was immediately lost on the crowd, who could not identify the opening of “God Put a Smile,” eventually catching on in time to hum along with the Kraftwerk sample at the center of “Talk.” Another surprise came in the form of drummer Will Champion’s acoustic performance of “Death Will Never Conquer” in the “nosebleed” section, preceded by the band’s volley through the crowd, shaking hands and clapping high fives to brave fans forceful enough to make their presence felt.

Coldplay closed the night by redeeming a track that, for me, never quite took off on the album (“Lovers in Japan”), the band rained flurries of glowing paper butterflies folded to hover over the crowd and eventually becoming so thick in the air that the stage became nigh invisible.

Epic is an understatement, and not simply because of the extravagant sums Coldplay must invest to make their live highlights possible, but mostly due to Chris Martin’s joyful swagger and jovial references to Barack Obama’s election victory and a prevailing sense of relief in such trying times. In the evening’s small moments—the band’s interaction with their adoring mass, streamlined presentation of their latest album, Martin’s classical piano interludes, and a foray into dance music—Coldplay had defended their reputation in the popular music canon, shining new light on Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends. It was a great day in Georgia.

Here's another excellent review of Coldplay's forthcoming Prospekt's March EP, this time from British most popular tabloid newspaper, The Sun:

If you thought Coldplay were just purveyors of precision-tooled, arena-slaying big rock ballads, you ain’t heard nothing yet.

Their new Prospekt’s March EP, which I’m the only journalist on the planet to have heard, is their most wildly eclectic offering to date. Thumping hip-hop jams, thundering metal workouts, Indian tablas and colliery brass bands all jostle for space on their brilliant, bold and, at times, bonkers eight-tracker.

I revealed back in August how the boys — frontman Chris Martin. Guy Berryman, Will Champion and Jonny Buckland — had recorded far more songs than they could fit on their most recent album Viva La Vida. They have since collected the tracks together and will issue them later this month.

The EP kicks off in relatively conventional territory. Life In Technicolor ii is the opening instrumental from Viva La Vida with lyrics strapped on. Chris intones ominously about the end of the world, over the familiar, euphoric music.

Glass Of Water, meanwhile, showcases a pulverisingly heavy and never previously heard side of the band. It reminds me of Muse at their most epic. Synths scream over thundering drum crashes and molten axe-riffage.

If only Chris still had his unruly mop of curls, they’d be perfect for him to head-bang along to this monster. He howls about someone “spending their whole life living in the past, going nowhere fast”.

Echoes of Beck’s landmark hip-hop album Odelay are writ large through Rainy Day. Chris confronts the pressures of life in the public eye while a funky Californian breakbeat and sweeping strings motor the track along. The title track is woozily psychedelic with guitars gently chiming and strings sweeping. Chris asks: “Don’t you wish your life could be as simple as fish swimming round in a barrel when you’ve got the gun?”

Lost+ and Lovers In Japan (Osaka Sun mix) are both just moderately tweaked versions of tracks on Viva La Vida. But it’s the final track, Now My Feet Won’t Touch The Ground, which is the most audacious thing the lads have ever recorded. It begins in standard Coldplay ballad territory with delicate guitars and mysterious lyrics. Chris sings: “Push my bones from the highest cliff to the seas below/Swoop down from the sky and catch me like a bird of prey.”

Then Indian finger drums and a swelling array of trumpets and tubas arrive to take the track off into an extraordinary place.

It’s brilliant. As is this EP. It’s out on November 24, just five days before the lads hit the UK for their arena tour. Not to be missed.

Read all the discussion on this review here onwards [thanks Aprophet]

It was obvious that Coldplay -- on tour in support of its enigmatic fourth album, Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends, would focus on its new material. What was unexpected was how dynamic the British band could make the show, and how well the more recent songs would mesh with the classics, reports the Miami Herald.

Frontman Chris Martin -- equally charismatic sitting at the piano, strumming a guitar or roaming about with just a microphone -- has never been a wallflower. But the singer has truly evolved into a master showman.

Sunday night at the sold-out BankAtlantic Center in Sunrise, Martin and the rest of the band -- lead guitarist Jonny Buckland, bassist Guy Berryman and drummer Will Champion -- offered 90 minutes of pure emotion and adrenaline, mesmerizing and uniting the crowd with its shout-out-loud anthemic rock.

Throughout the show, Martin was an unstoppable marvel of energy and precision. Over the first four songs, he jumped from playing guitar on Violet Hill, the first single from Viva La Vida, to rocking the piano on Clocks (and he literally rocked it, almost falling off his chair), to hopping around the stage's side catwalks on In My Place before returning to the piano for Speed of Sound. Wherever he wandered -- sometimes skipping, sometimes jerking around like a marionette, sometimes writhing on the floor -- Martin's voice rarely faltered or hit a sour note, whether howling Viva La Vida's chorus or finessing the tender falsetto of 42.

The visuals were as impressive as the band. Two high-definition screens flashed a mash-up of video from the stage, and other images were projected from inside six giant floating balls that were suspended from above.

Before the new Cemeteries of London, during which videos of the band's faces flashed on the floating balls, Martin looked up at the ads around the arena and cracked, ``Let me point out that we didn't pay for all those Hooters signs. Coldplay has nothing to do with Hooters, although we'd like to.''

All of Coldplay's albums were well-represented except for its first. The band waited till the one-song encore to play Yellow from 2000's Parachutes. Microphone feedback -- the one chink in an otherwise flawless performance, temporarily flustered Martin, but he recovered quickly.

Highlights were abundant: Martin crooned the hymn-like Fix You while the crowd sang along bathed in soothing blue light. The new Strawberry Swing felt like a friendly, front-porch jam, with the line ''It's such a perfect day'' summing up the evening's mood. The forceful Politik and Lost! were even more powerful live.

The band didn't confine itself to the stage, either. Coldplay set up on the right catwalk for a medley of God Put a Smile Upon Your Face, Talk and The Hardest Part, and later thrilled fans in the cheap seats (if you can call $97.50 cheap) by venturing up into the back corner for an acoustic, bluegrass-style performance of The Scientist, with Martin adding capable harmonica solos.

No one seemed to mind that the concert was fairly short. As the crowd poured toward the exits, many sang Viva La Vida's ''Whoa-oh-ohh!'' at the top of their lungs in celebration. Like rowdy British football fans, only without the violence and vandalism.

More on this article and more pictures from this show here

Better Than: You’d Expect

Say what you will about Coldplay (and most folks do), but unlike a lot of so-called arena acts – nevermind their smaller setting counterparts – they’ve at least got sense enough to make a spectacle of themselves when they come to town, report Miami New Times.

Case in point: last night’s BankAtlantic sellout, which was perhaps the single most spectacular rock show to hit our stretch of the peninsula since the invention of the verilight.

Okay, so I hyperbolize. But when a band takes the time to thrill an audience with each and every component of their concert, hyperbole is the least I can do. I mean, live these guys go all the way and then some, from what they wear (think post-apocalyptic patriot) through the very air itself (a millions-strong Mylar butterfly drop). They have lights (from a rig that seemed positively anthropomorphic); they have camera (tracking the stage and beaming out on spheres and screen); and they have action, manic action (for that’s the only way to describe singer Chris Martin’s patented brand of mad dashing).

Mostly though, Coldplay has a vision -- a keen-eyed idea that big bands should put on big shows -- and last night that vision was realized. Of course when the tracks that back your big idea all happen to be even bigger hits, well, the vision a lot easier to see. It also gets to be grandiose, and from the moment the scrim rose to reveal a mammoth backdrop of Delacroix’s classic "Liberty Leading the People" it was clear that this was to be an evening as grand and as sweeping as grandiose can go.

“Life in Technicolor” launched the aural assault, and charged mightily into huge versions of “Violet Hill,” “Clocks,” “In My Place” and “Speed of Sound,” each larger and more powerful than its predecessor. These are the kinda bright and shiny bombasts Coldplay is best at -- and which they made most famous -- and live they take on the size they deserve.

Three lesser known Viva La Vida tracks quickly followed (“Cemeteries of London,” “Chinese Sleep Chant” and “42”), and I forgot them the minute they ended. But then came the collective hush of “Fix You” and fifteen thousand hearts could be heard singing as one and I remembered the reason Coldplay was so successful in the first place -- they encompass everyone.

After the anthem had gone, the band swung the single “Strawberry Swing,” adjourned to one of the stage-side extensions for bass heavy versions of both “God Put a Smile Upon Your Face” and “Talk,” and then left Martin alone at the piano to croon through “The Hardest Part,” which enabled them and us to brace for booming renditions of “Viva la Vida” and “Lost!”

But it was when Coldplay jumped stage, snaked swiftly down the side of the arena floor and set up in the theoretical cheap seats for “The Scientist” that the venue truly blew a fuse. In one fell swoop, the band proved its populism wasn’t just an angle, and that its populist appeal would never, ever be taken for granted. They came to play for all, and to give all a good night.

Yes, they followed that crowd-pleasing stunt with three more quiet roars (“Politik,” “Lovers in Japan” and “Death and All His Friends”), and it’s true that the fluttering of millions of multi-colored butterflies while the band played on transfixed everybody in attendance, but there still remained one move for Coldplay to make before they finally sealed the deal.

And that move of course was the very moving “Yellow.” Like the mega-hits for which this song seems to serve as a sort of blueprint, Coldplay’s first foray into chart-topping territory is not only anthem incarnate, it’s perhaps the only pop ditty in existence that can sway a swoon outta just about anyone. Last night was no exception, and a full house folded at last, full of big fun and utterly undone.

There’s nothing really revolutionary about Coldplay, despite the revolutionary trappings, and they know that as well as you do. Which means they’re completely at liberty to do what they set out to do from the get-go, and that is to write singalong songs and provide huge throngs a big night out every once in awhile. Is it gonna change the world? Of course not. But it might just cause a large part of the world to smile, and there’s nothing wrong with that at all.

Critic's Notebook

Personal Bias: I too sometimes have huge hopes and dreams.

Random Detail: Chris Martin did not remain still for a single instant throughout the entire 99 minute show.

By the Way: The Coldplay Messenger offers up all kinds of goodies, from free tracks (for a limited time) to sneak peaks (of limitedly released clips). www.coldplay.com

The first reviews are in for Coldplay's forthcoming Prospekt's March EP. First up, The Ephemeric website, who failed to comment on the final track 'Now My Feet Wont Touch the Ground', which hints that the review is based purely on the previews released by EMI last week:

Apparently one Coldplay album this year is not enough for us. Viva La Vida was a very good album too by the way, a vast improvement on the mediocrity that was X&Y. But even so I don't think anyone really expected they would release any more music this year, even a small half-album such as this, but credit to them.

I think it is a better idea to release music in small chunks rather than one big album every three years, it's too long to wait and then when it comes it's harder to appreciate all those new songs at once, I hope it's something that catches on, though I'm sure I'll be eating my words in a minute if this EP turns out to be crap, so without further ado here is my review of Prospekt's March.

Well I won't have to eat my words because it's pretty good. In fact I think a number of these songs are better than some of the weaker numbers on Viva La Vida, and I can't help but feel they should have put some of these on there.

Starting of with Rainy Day, this is a very nice song, vintage Coldplay, but it suffers from being, frankly, too similar to the song Viva La Vida and perhaps isn't the fresh sound we'd hope for from the first song on the album.

The title track Prospekt's March/Poppy fields is something pretty special. A somber and melodic tune full of emotion that yields to the second half of Poppy fields, and does so, in my opinion, much more effectively than any of the two part songs in the proper album. This is certainly one of the key songs from this release.

Glass of Water is... decent, it builds up to a pretty satisfying conclusion, though much of it feels a bit throw-away compared to some of the other songs. It is still better than a number of the lesser viva la vida songs.

Life In Technicolor II is a song that had given me very high hopes, being billed as life in technicolor, one of the best songs in the viva la vida album, except fully fleshed out to a full length song with vocals. Sadly only half of that is true. This song basically turns out to be the same tiny bit of music with vocals laid on top. Mind you that's not a terrible thing, it's a great piece of music, probably the best that Coldplay have written in terms of pure musical excellence.

Lost+ is a re-release of the song Lost, which I never much cared for, except with the rap stylings of Jay-z on top... which actually makes it a bit better, this works much better as a rap song than as a pop song and adds another kind of dimension to the music, good call on this one.

Lovers in Japan was one of the better songs from Viva La Vida, and so this Osaka Sun Mix is very welcome here. It is definitey the definitive mix, and skips out the rather redundant 'reign of love' segment attached to the end of it on the album release.

Postcards from Far Away is a song I can see a lot of fans not liking, but it's something I wish I would see the band do more often. Stop relying on electronics and pop synthesizers and return to the old coldplay style with real guitars and pianos, as they have done here A very pretty piece of music for sure, but not something that's going to be setting the charts alight any time soon.

So in closing, this is a welcome addition to my music library, brief though it is, but while these are pretty decent songs, I can't help but feel most of these are good enough to have replaced the filler on the viva la vida album, but perhaps not much better. There's nothing here that you'll remember ten years from now, but if these songs had replaced some of the dross from the big album then that really would have been one hell of an album, but alas.

You can discuss this review here (and hopefully read more to come in the next few days).

First came U2 to argue that profundity is not a cardinal sin or character flaw in rock music-making: It's cool to be grandiose if you write good hooks, reports the Sun Sentinel.

Enter Coldplay, who have worked even harder than U2 at building up a musical language to express ambition of design and largeness of feeling. To that end, frontman Chris Martin and his three band mates have absorbed many of the acoustic and melodic strategies for communicating rock majesty. Sunday's sold-out Coldplay concert for 15,000 people at BankAtlantic Center was an exuberant demonstration of the best and worst of those tricks.

One moment Coldplay were swimming in orchestral sound as effortlessly as Pink Floyd; the next they were making whale noises. One moment they were rising impressively on spires of sound; the next they were arpeggiating like John Tesh.

It was a frustrating night to try and lose oneself completely in the spirit of vague uplift that Coldplay provides. They kept interrupting the sublime with the ridiculous.

In the former category was the mostly instrumental Chinese Sleep Chant, a not-quite-hidden coda to a song called Yes on the band's new CD, Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends. The rough atmospheric beauty of Chant's two droning chords recalled My Bloody Valentine -- music with a skin that is both luminous and bruised.

There were too many bruises on one of the new CD's riper title tracks, Death and All His Friends, which sounded like Yanni with lyrics.

In its quest to perfect slow-motion arena rock, Coldplay has absolutely turned out exceptional songs. Clocks and its younger, dressier sibling Speed of Sound set elegant keyboard lines to a skipping rhythm. Martin sang both in a voice that seems to get its somber weight from congestion. It's as if he can close his sinuses on command.

The rhythm section of Guy Berryman and Will Champion, on bass and drums, respectively, played with a hard-hitting punctuality that put them in good company. They're less like U2's Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen Jr., and more like AC/DC's rock-steady tandem of Cliff Williams and Phil Rudd.

A good, unpretentious backbeat goes a long way. In Coldplay's case, it didn't redeem every watery power ballad or mushy anthem. But it helped the band make the best of its good work and get away with everything else.

More on this review here onwards.

XL Video is supplying a substantial projection system, cameras, PPU, Catalyst and Hippotizer digital media servers and crew for the current Coldplay "Viva La Vida" world tour.

Working closely with Edinburgh-based Pufferfish, XL has also jointly developed 6 unique internally projected spheres - and steel cage housings - which are a major scenic feature of the show. The show's inventive set and lighting was created by Paul Normandale, with video playback content specially commissioned and produced by Justine Catterall, technical support by Richard Turner and live video directed by Andy Bramley. Des Fallon is International account handler & project manager for XL. Normandale's brief included the instructions to come up with something new that avoided using LED screens, and so the idea of the projection globes originated.

Five 2 metre diameter globes are onstage, three attached to the two rear trusses (which are horizontal ladder beams shaped like waves), and the other two downstage left and right at the sides of stage, flown on two more wave trusses. All these move in and out during the show on a fixed speed Kinesys automation system. The sixth globe - 3 metres in diameter - sits above the FOH mixer position.

Read more on this enlightening article here and if you have a particularly good magic ball shot for our favourites shortlist please post it here

Coldplay are still one of the biggest bands in the world right now, enough so, that when they come to town, it's always newsworthy, reports martiniboys.com in an online article this weekend.

While I'll conceal my own personal feelings towards the band (I think you can guess), I have to grit my teeth and admit that Coldplay are still one of the biggest bands in the world right now, they go on to say. So I couldn't in good conscience ignore it. For those who don't know, Coldplay play a non-offensive brand of arena-ready bombastic rock anthems that have been compared to Jeff Buckley and Echo and the Bunnymen, but in reality are more comparable to Rod Stewart and Peter Gabriel. Oh, and U2. It's impossible to forget U2, what with Chris Martin's Bono Complex.

So get out your lighters (or more likely, cell phones) and get ready to soft rock! Coldplay play Sunday at BankAtlantic Center.

More discussion on tonight's show at the Ft Lauderdale live thread here onwards.

Despite its success, Coldplay is perhaps destined to remain the poor man’s U2, reports the Orlando Sentinel.

In a spirited performance on Friday at Amway Arena, however, the band enlivened its grand songs with an obvious sense of frivolity. With self-importance scraped away, the band is easier to like. "Whatever you’re doing, do it with enjoyment," singer Chris Martin told the packed house in the early going. He was obviously ready to follow his own advice.

For 90 minutes, Martin was a kinetic presence, bouncing around, taking big looping waist-high strides, falling to his knees and rolling on his back as if he were Bruce Springsteen. After addressing the band’s new Viva La Vida album in the opening moments with a somewhat moody "Violet Hill," the band offered a crowd-pleasing dip into the hits.

"Clocks" elicited one of many sing-alongs, although the real highlight was the harmonies on stage between Martin and drummer Will Champion. It was Champion’s hard-pounding beat that introduced "In My Place," another song that allowed Martin to release energy. Thrusting his arms skyward, he savored leading the crowd in yet another anthemic chorus. In a big finish, he collapsed to his knees and rolled over on his back.

Each time the melodrama threatened to become too much, Martin was ready with a nod or a wink. Several times, he expressed astonishment at the raucous reception: "Are you sure you didn’t get us confused with the Jonas Brothers?" he asked. At one point, the band left the stage to perform acoustically in a section of the lower bowl. There, Martin was sassy again, crediting John McCain’s "Joe the Plumber" with writing 'The Scientist'. "We asked him if he would share the wealth with us," Martin told the crowd, "but he refused. So he was out of the band."

If the band’s approach was exuberant and fun, the elaborate stage setting was beautiful. Above the audience, there were beams from multi-colored lasers as well as half a dozen giant orange orbs that framed wild graphics and images of the band members.

And don’t forget the massive confetti drop of shiny paper butterflies that left the floor a colorful mess for the encore of "Yellow."

Yeah, that song is perhaps as vapid as it gets, but the whimsy fit nicely. It wasn’t a grand statement, in the U2 mold, but something equally fine: It was a spectacle and it was fun.

More on this review in the 26th October Izod thread here onwards.

Pictures courtesy of the Orlando Sentinel.

Chris Martin realizes Coldplay has some critics, but that's not stopping him from living la Vida, reports the Sun Sentinel.

Chris Martin was working out the knots. As his handlers hovered, the usually affable Coldplay singer stretched out on the carpet in a dim and airless room backstage at the Jimmy Kimmel show. It was hours before showtime and the singer's muscles were tight and his expression sour. Finally, he looked up with pleading eyes. "Can we escape? Let's go somewhere else. Maybe some place with trees? I have a car and a driver ..."

A few minutes later, the lanky Brit ducked through an alleyway behind the talk show's Hollywood Boulevard studios and climbed into an ebony SUV that whisked him and his visitor up the hill to Griffith Park. "This looks good," he said, tapping the window. "Yes, let's stop here." As soon as his sneakers hit the grass, the black-clad Martin was as perky as the Labrador that trotted past him on a path. Enough so that he started making confessions and jokes which, for him, are hard to separate.

"Like millions of people in the world, I can't listen to Coldplay," Martin said with a daft wink. "But my reason is professional. You see, I'm always thinking about the next thing. I'm also always looking for something that will inspire the next thing. Look, we're the one band we can't plagiarize. So really there's no point in me listening to it. If I think, 'Well, that's good,' then I'll want to use it, which won't work. And if I think, 'Hey that's terrible,' then I'll be depressed over breakfast. It's a classic lose-lose situation."

If you listen to Coldplay — and many people do, considering the 11.2 million albums they've sold in the United States alone — then you already know that Martin is an earnest voice in an ironic age. That has opened the band up to savage insults (Noel Gallagher once sneered that they were "four Didos with willies") but instead of retreating, Martin decided to join in the sport. No one gives Chris Martin more grief these days than Martin himself. He makes fun of his hair, clothes, diet and famous falsetto. He even mocks himself for thinking, deep-down, that he's cool for not being cool: "We've never been about being cool and we never will be. And I think in a way that's quite cool. But I can't think about it too much — because if you think about it then you automatically aren't cool. Wait, I've gone too far. I'm not cool. Again."

Coldplay has a new album, Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends, which arrived with considerable heat. The lead single, Viva la Vida, hit No. 1 on Billboard's Hot 100 and, at iTunes, the pre-orders for the album were the largest in the history of the digital merchant. The band became famous for polished, piano-based songs of soaring pop exultation and rainy-day reflection, but with this new studio album, their fourth, they have made a bid at reinvention. The songs are still from the heart but maybe more from the gut.

No matter what, Coldplay, booked Sunday at BankAtlantic Center in Sunrise, won't be able to win over a certain constituency that, frankly, has detested them too much and for too long to start listening now. Jon Pareles of The New York Times once called them the "most insufferable band of the decade," which might say less about the band and more about how fashionable it has become to slag them. Martin said it's because he wears his heart on his sleeve when he sings. "If you allow yourself to be vulnerable in your music, people will feel it a lot more," Martin said. "But a lot more people will also hate it or mock it. It's almost like a deal with the devil, but I'm happy to take that deal. It doesn't feel right to me to sing about stuff I don't believe in."

Campus catalyst

In September 1996, a shy freshman named Jonny Buckland, fresh from a Welsh town called Mold, arrived with his acoustic guitar at University College London. His plan was to look at the stars (he was studying astronomy) but his life took a different path when, during orientation week, he met Martin, a gangly kid from leafy Devon, who coaxed him into a music partnership.

They would be joined by bassist Guy Berryman, a handsome Scot who came to the university to study engineering. He had heard Martin's amateur attempts at songwriting and, after a few rounds at a pub, lurched across the room and demanded membership in the band. Will Champion, an anthropology student who knew more about tribes than he did drums, was brought in to keep the beat. They called themselves Starfish, but the name didn't stick. They pinched a better one from Child's Reflections, Cold Play, a 1997 collection by American poet Philip Horky.

Their 2000 debut album, Parachutes, yielded the yearning, breakthrough hit Yellow and the 2002 follow-up, A Rush of Blood to the Head, came with a flurry of hit singles: In My Place, Clocks and The Scientist. That's when things got complicated. Relentless tour dates, the tug of their personal lives and the turbulence of success put Coldplay in a shaky place.

The members say they felt pressured by their label, EMI/Capitol Records, to create a followup with similar scope and sound. The album was delayed and EMI's stock dropped (literally) as a result, turning up the tension. The result was X&Y, a 2005 album that sold well but, in the band's view, lacked clarity.

To steady themselves, Martin said, Coldplay looked for a place to "make it homemade again." They found it in a blind alley in London.

"We found this little bakery, and we bought it and turned it into a, well, it's like a youth club," Martin said. "Do you read the Harry Potter books? It's a bit like that train stop they use, the platform 9 3/4, which you can't find unless you know where it is. If you drive by quickly, it doesn't look like anything is there. If you go in, it's like a little band heaven. Everything is hand-painted. There was a dartboard, but it's gone now. We banned some of the leisure activities. The last thing you need when you're trying to reinvent yourself is a pool table. Drummers tend to love pool more than they love drumming. It's a bigger stick."

Uniform appeal

The group also rang up Stella McCartney for some guidance in creating uniforms. Their vision was to create a look for themselves that was a mix of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and a rag-tag Salvation Army quintet. A Norwegian tailor made jackets and trousers, which they individualized with ribbons and piping.

"It's a little nerdy, but we turned into seamstresses for a few days," Martin said. "It's a nice feeling to wear clothes you really had a hand in. It's the closest we'll get to Roc-A-Wear, I think. It's not an original idea, but it's a good one. The Clash did it and Green Day did it. Adam Ant. Lots of people. It makes you feel more like a performer."

There's also a brother-in-arms message: "I think with each band there comes a point where they have to find a place to be together, otherwise they end up living in different countries and just meet on stage. When you get famous, there are two reactions to your other band mates. You either think, 'I could do this without you.' Or you think, 'I really couldn't do this without you.' You're luckier if you are in the second category. We've always been very grateful for each other."

Coldplay

Where: BankAtlantic Center, 2555 Panther Parkway, Sunrise

When: 8 p.m. Sunday

Tickets: $49.50-$97.50; Ticketmaster.com and 561-966-3309, 954-523-3309, 305-358-5885 or box office (954-835-8000)

Change. That word has been thrown around a lot lately, especially in the past couple weeks leading up to Tuesday's election, report The Villanovan.

The night after Chris Martin pretty much endorsed Barack Obama at the end of his performance on "Saturday Night Live," Coldplay proved that change is exactly what it needed this time around and that it is still the biggest band in the world right now. The Izod Center in East Rutherford, N.J., isn't the greatest venue for a concert; it's an ugly, bland and steep building, but this didn't hinder the show's impact at all. Coldplay filled the room with light and color.

As the lights grew dim, the sounds of Jay-Z and Austrain composer Johann Strauss blared from the loud speakers, emphasizing the R&B and classical feel to Coldplay's multi-platinum album "Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends."

Hit after hit filled Coldplay's set, and not a moment was wasted here, which isn't hard for Martin, who thrives on being the center of attention and keeping the crowd on its feet. Coldplay did not hesitate to pull out the big guns early, beginning with three mega-hits - "Violet Hill," "Clocks" and "In My Place" - the latter getting the crowd to erupt in an enormous sing-a-long. Even the light show added an extra effect to the trite singles like "Speed of Sound," which the band played in complete darkness save for black-lights and giant glowing globes hanging above the stage.

Say what you want about Coldplay, but there's no beating these guys when it comes to playing music that reaches the rafters in an arena, both metaphorically and literally.

After the most massive performances of the night - "Viva La Vida" and "Lost!" - the band members immediately ran into the crowd, making their way to section 104 way in the back of the building.

There, standing shoulder-to-shoulder, they performed a beautiful acoustic version of "The Scientist," as well as the b-side "Death Will Never Conquer," which was performed by the multi-talented drummer Will Champion with Martin on the harmonica.

The ever-humble frontman apologized for his harmonica-playing, saying, "You paid good money to hear someone play an instrument very badly." In reality, though, it was quite good.

The set was filled with anthems like "Fix You," "42," "Politik" and "Lovers in Japan," as well as a couple of curveballs like the indecipherable "Chinese Sleep Chant" - a hidden track on "Viva" - and a mashup of "God Put A Smile Upon Your Face" and "Talk." It was an odd choice to perform those particular songs like that, but again it was a change for Coldplay, and change is good.

The night drew to an abrupt close in a strange and confusing fashion. The show was moving along well until the band members left section 104 to go back to the stage. They did not make it back to the stage for about five minutes, and all the while, a remixed version of "Viva La Vida" played through the speakers. Was this their encore break already? It felt like the show had barely started.

Sure enough, they came out to play three more songs in what seemed to be the start of the second half of the show.

But then they left the stage again, only to come back to play one more song for the encore, "Yellow." A one-song encore was bizarre and insulting to fans.

Coldplay certainly fell a bit short, as it felt like the band short changed the audience. If artists who are more than twice Coldplay's age, like the Rolling Stones and Paul McCartney, can play for nearly three hours, why can't Coldplay? It doesn't make any sense. Nevertheless, the show succeeded in pleasing the fans, which is what's been most important to Martin and Co. these days.

Coldplay put on a thrilling performance while it was on the stage, even if it was just for a little over an hour and a half.

More on this review in the 27th October Izod thread here onwards.

Exciting, colorful, engaging, and thoughtful, the British rock band Coldplay showed New Jersey its rainbow last week, reports Columbia Spectator.

The group played East Rutherford’s Izod Center (home to the New Jersey Nets) before a crowd of 20,000 people as part of their Viva La Vida Tour on Tuesday. The tour began in New York City’s Madison Square Garden in June with a free concert for fans who won tickets. Though this concert was far from being a giveaway, the New Jersey concert was just as impressive.

Chris Martin, lead singer of the band, claimed they aren’t used to playing in such large venues, but with the band’s increase in popularity, arenas have become inevitable. Nevertheless, Coldplay created the illusion of an intimate environment, which was achieved with spectacular lighting that reached all areas of the stadium. From the ceiling hung large spheres on which images were reflected, and during the performance of their song “Death and All His Friends,” metallic confetti shot down, wowing the crowd.

The band played their most famous songs from all three albums and made an effort to satisfy their audience. They used a variety of odd instruments and altered the hits. For example, “God Put a Smile Upon Your Face” was performed using an eerie mix of string instruments. In addition, the band members actually joined in singing with the audience for their acoustic performance of “The Scientist,” and they left their most famous single, “Yellow,” for the encore, as requested by the crowd.

Martin’s onstage banter was also fairly dynamic. When he muddled the lyrics, he stopped the song, asked the crowd whether he had made a mistake, and started over. He spoke to an audience of thousands as if there were no more than a dozen people in the room. “Recently in Ohio there have been terrible problems with drainage because a lot of the plumbers have been busy doing interviews around the world,” he joked before the song “The Hardest Part.” He dedicated it, deadpan, to those with “drainage problems.”

Coldplay pulled out all the theatrics at the end. A large flag with the word “Viva” dropped down behind the band as they finished playing their last song. The cheering went on for at least ten minutes until the band finally came out for an encore. “Yellow” is always a crowd-pleaser, so the wait was worthwhile.

While Coldplay’s energy impressed, the opening act was lackluster. British soul singer Duffy was unable to rally enough enthusiasm from the crowd, and although she admitted to never having played for such a large audience before, she was still awkward. The performance was average, the lights were lacking, and the listeners were uninterested.

In all, though, that night in Jersey was an exhilarating whirlwind from America’s favorite chart-toppers.

More on this review in the 26th October Izod thread here onwards.

In November, Coldplay will release the Prospekt's March EP - eight tracks that they failed to finish in time for Viva La Vida. "We're English so it takes us a while to be really ambitious," says Chris Martin, checking in from the Bakery, the band's London studio, report Rolling Stone.

"They aren't ambitious in a Kid A way," he adds, but songs like 'Postcards From Far Away' and 'Rainy Day' definately broaden Coldplay's sound. "It's a risk for us," says Martin. "But what else are you going to do? Can't keep on trying to make 'Yellow' every day." Martin was in the midst of prepping for the band's current US tour. "There's no question that, at the moment, we're better live that we've ever been. Not quite as good as Pearl Jam, but we're getting there."

We agree, after kicking it with our homeys Jay-Z and Beyonce at the band's intimate warmup gig at New York's Hammerstein ballroom. Later, we got wasted with bassist Guy Berryman on Irish Car Bombs (Guinness with a shot of Baileys and Jameson). "That last drop is so good," he said.

More on this article here [thanks CookyMnstr]

Coldplay is often dismissed as being square, and doesn't pass the muster of the hipster tastemakers who decide what is cool and what is uncool, report detnews.com.

If that's the case, then Monday night at the Palace of Auburn Hills the British foursome made the case that coolness is overrated. The sold-out crowd of 13,330 - a rarity in these times of economic woe - seemed to agree. During a joyous, grand and sometimes magical 95-minute set, Coldplay proved that arena rock spectacle doesn't have to involve pyrotechnics or fire, just a whole lot of heart.

Led by frontman Chris Martin, wearing a colorful revolutionary war-style costume that appeared to have been lifted from the wardrobe closet of a local high school's theatre class, the band launched into "Life in Technicolor" and "Violet Hill," both from this year's "Viva la Vida," one of the year's sturdiest rock albums.

The band, mounting its most extensive and lavish production to date, was innovative in its presentation throughout. Images and live video were projected onto a handful of "puffer spheres," globe-shaped bulbs that hung above the stage and the crowd. Elsewhere, laser beams shot over the crowd during "Clocks," while an old-timey television showed video of the group on-stage.

Monday's concert was a make-up date from a planned July show that was scrapped, along with a handful of other early tour dates, due to production concerns. But while that term is often used as a scapegoat for other internal tour problems, this time it seemed legitimate, as the show utilized crisp, tightly executed production elements throughout its set.

The band walked out to an auxiliary stage at the foot of the crowd to perform an electronified, slightly sci-fi version of "God Put a Smile on Your Face," and later jogged through the audience to a satellite stage at the back of the house, where they performed an acoustic version of "The Scientist" amid a sea of fans.

Drummer Will Champion proved himself to be an essential and underrated force in the band, his pounding drums driving "Clocks," "Lost!" and a hammering "Politik."

For his part, Martin was candid and loose, slipping a lyric about Kid Rock and Eminem into "Politik" and apologizing to fans for the inconvenience of cancelling the July concert date. Acknowledging the Presidential election, he announced "we're happy to be with you on what we're calling the last night of the Bush administration," and he dedicated "The Hardest Part" to Jennifer Hudson.

The show's peak came during "Lovers in Japan," as confetti butterflies rained down from the ceiling onto the audience. Any band can make it rain confetti, but it takes a special group of lads to shower butterflies onto an audience. The always dependable "Yellow," the band's very first hit, closed the show, as Martin and his bandmates bowed to the audience at its close.

The obvious comparison to Coldplay is U2, who also use their earnestness as their chief weapon in their rock and roll arsenal. But while Coldplay doesn't have the grandeur or the scope of their heroes, Monday proved they're well their way to one day being able to wear their crown. Just give them time.

More on this article here onwards [thanks mimixxx]

It was an evening of pretty melodies, plaintive piano ballads and arena-sized charisma as Coldplay stepped into the Palace of Auburn Hills Monday night, reports Freep.com.

The English quartet arrived at the Palace with an increasingly valid claim to the title of world’s biggest rock band, delivering the latest in a line of stellar Detroit shows for a multigenerational crowd of about 13,330.

Coldplay’s trick is making intimate music sound grand: Monday night, songs such as “Clocks,” “Speed of Sound” and “In My Place” were equal parts lovely and epic, accompanied by an elegant light show and illuminated spheres overhead.

The rapt but relatively low-key Palace audience occasionally broke into full voice to sing along, welcoming both older staples and the more sonically expansive material from the band’s recent “Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends.” Vocalist Chris Martin treated the concertgoers as old friends, slipping into an amiable patter between songs and eliciting roars as he made generous trips to a pair of side-stage ramps.

The new material showed well, most markedly with the jagged-edged suite “42” and a rousing, all-together-now rendition of “Viva La Vida.” Coldplay is quietly learning how to get adventurous without becoming inaccessible.

The group aimed for rock communion with its crowd during the 110-minute show, frequently bringing up the house lights and even sandwiching itself amid some lower-level seats for a quick acoustic set. “We can’t come all the way to Michigan without coming to the back of the room,” Martin quipped to the frantic nearby fans.

As always, the mobile Martin was an easy focus of attention, his shimmering tenor serving up warm melodies over Jonny Buckland’s chiming, ice-white guitar. During a trip to a B stage out on the Palace floor, he apologized for this show’s postponement – it was originally slated for July – and dedicated the poignant “Hardest Part” to grieving fellow star Jennifer Hudson.

Martin is the perfect rock star for an age of no rock stars: affable and approachable, quick to self-deprecate, happier to bond than to bask. At the Palace, swapping between guitar and electric piano, he revealed a sense of showmanship that continues to sharpen. If the breezy demeanor is practiced, it’s getting hard to tell.

Coldplay’s music, even in concert, isn’t muscular enough to lend itself to the verb “rocking,” at least as traditionally understood. But the pumped-up twofer of “Viva La Vida” and “Lost” during the show’s homestretch certainly came close — an emotional cascade in a set that skillfully pushed the right buttons at the right times.

It wasn’t the best Coldplay concert Detroit has seen: That honor still belongs to the band’s 2005 show under the stars at DTE Energy Music Theatre. But it was good — very good — from a band that seems positively empowered by its own success.

More on this article here onwards [thanks mimixxx]

Performing in Coldplay - performing in the world’s biggest band - could get comfy. Too comfy, even, report Popmatters.

For bassist Guy Berryman, though, the nightly thrill is intact. Even after all the massive stadium shows, all the mega festivals, stepping on stage still brings a tingle - that rush of blood, you might call it. “I don’t get nervous anymore. But I still get that great sense of excitement,” he says. “I love that moment right before we go on, that anticipation of the lights coming down. It never tires for me.”

Coldplay is on a global tour supporting “Vida La Vida or Death and All His Friends,” the British band’s fourth album of moody, edge-of-artsy piano rock. In a year of music industry struggles, the album is a big-time standout, having enjoyed the biggest debut yet for Berryman, vocalist-pianist Chris Martin, guitarist Jonny Buckman and drummer Will Champion: In the United States alone, the album sold 720,000 copies its first week, according to Nielsen SoundScan - more than 300,000 of them on the first day.

With sales of the album continuing to pile up, the band has been on the road nearly nonstop since June, including a U.S. summer sprint.

“We’ve got four records now, so we have to get the balance right between the new album and the old songs people want to hear,” he says. “We try to make it as dynamic as possible from beginning to end. It took us awhile - it took most of the first American tour to knock that into shape. The show pretty much runs in the same order now, because it’s working.”

A revamped production team has brought a new visual look to Coldplay’s stage production, and even introduced what Berryman describes as “a few things people haven’t seen before at other concerts.”

For the decade-old band, life on the road is low-key these days. Berryman says he has learned to pace himself to endure the rigors of touring, eschewing the high life in favor of stints in the gym and daily jogs. Hopping from hotel to hotel, spending long stretches in air-conditioned spaces, it’s too easy to get ill. And “it’s not fun having a cold on tour - you can’t call in sick.”

“We destroyed ourselves a few times by not looking after ourselves - partying every night, staying up late,” he says, recalling the band’s early days. “Certainly, for me in particular, we’re really just trying to keep healthy. It’s that age-old thing: healthy body, healthy mind. I’d have laughed at myself a few years ago if I could hear myself saying that. But it’s true.”

Coldplay will wrap up its year of touring with a series of U.K. dates in December. After a month break, the band will regroup in the studio to begin cutting material for a fifth album.

“The plan, in an ideal world, is to have something finished by the end of 2009,” says Berryman.

That would mark a notably fast turnaround for a band that’s been known to take its time between records, including three-year gaps between each of the band’s past three albums. And fans even get a treat in the interim: the Nov. 25 release of “Prospekt’s March,” an eight-song EP featuring material left over from the “Vida” sessions and a new version of the single “Lost,” remixed by fellow A-lister Jay-Z.

Coldplay has been quick to stress that these aren’t throwaway tracks. Indeed, says Berryman, much of the material could have fit seamlessly on “Vida.”

“We didn’t want to make the album too long. We thought the third record was too long, and we didn’t want to make that mistake again. But these songs were too good just to be B-sides on singles,” he says. “It’s kind of meant to be an amendment to ‘Vida La Vida.’ We wanted people to hear that record as a standalone first, and not bombard them. We’re really proud of it.”

Coldplay.com spoke to Jim Ward from Coldplay's latest support act. WithTexan alt-country dudes Sleepercar beginning their run of dates supporting Coldplay in Detroit tonight, they called up frontman Jim Ward to find out a bit more about them.

Are you excited about your shows with Coldplay?

Yeah, I am for sure. I've been friends with those guys for a long time and we've tried to do shows before, so I'm glad it's happening now. I feel that it's the right time.

Where did you meet them?

In the hotel at KROQ's Almost Acoustic Christmas show in LA in 2000. They were out there on Parachutes and I was with a band called At The Drive In. We were both playing that show. And then a few weeks later we both went on tour on Big Day Out in Australia and I ended up spending a lot of time with them, getting to know them. We've been friends ever since.

Read the full interview at the Coldplay website here

Top violinist Davide Rossi was exclusively interviewed by Coldplayzone.it in which he answers questions on working with Coldplay on their last album 'Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends'. The musician talks also about coming back to the studio, to record the forthcoming Prospekt's March EP.

Rossi revealed that the EP would contain three songs featuring his Violectra and the EP itself is a quality release, full of fresh and powerful songs. He said in his interview, "In my opinion... the EP is actually on par with ‘Viva La Vida’. Fans should not expect a 'B-sides' album but instead a unique and equally impressive record. As a matter of fact, I actually prefer the EP to the album!'

The songs where Rossi's electric violin can be heard are Life In Technicolor, Lovers In Japan, Cemeteries Of London, 42, Yes and Strawberry Swing (the chunky bass groove and didgeridoos come a little while after the beginning of the song, is one of the many examples of the sound of his Violectra).

You can read the full interview, translated into English, here [thanks coldpatrix]

They call it Detroit Rock City for a reason.

As Coldplay brings its mega-tour back to the Palace of Auburn Hills Monday night, it turns out they started coming up with one of the songs on their newest album on an earlier trip here.

According to a June interview with MTV, the band began plotting "Lost!" during a soundcheck. "We were listening to a song called 'Sing' by Blur, and I think we were in America somewhere... in Detroit, and we were listening to that song in our dressing room. And we went on stage to do a soundcheck, and we were trying to write a song like that, and it's sort of evolved in various ways and has lots of different versions of itself." bassist Guy Berryman said.

Chris Martin said: That's often how we write, is we listen to something and we think it's incredible, and we feel stupid for not having anything as good as that, so we go and try to play it. And then, of course, because we don't know how to do that, we often come up with something new.

Wonder what they'll come up with this time around?

Lots of bands give music away free, but few superstars do it. Coldplay did and did it right. This guest post from Australian music industry veteran Nick Crocker shares some lessons learned.

Earlier this year, Coldplay gave away a free mp3 of "Violet Hill", the first single from their album "Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends". By delivering genuine value to fans in an original way, Coldplay generated press coverage worldwide. It was the act of a band at the top of its game and extended Coldplay's fan database, almost overnight, by 300,000.

A Coldplay single in exchange for an email address and a postcode is a fair swap. But the true value of the exchange lay in the connection Coldplay made with those 300,000 fans. From that initial exchange, the challenge was how to use email to turn that list of email ad-dresses into a global tribe of passionate Coldplay advocates.

Read the top ten list at the Coldplay forum here

Coldplay frontman Chris Martin has revealed he is preparing for a downturn in income with the collapse of the world’s money markets.

In an interview for next month’s end of year Q magazine (published at the end of November), Martin said sales of albums and tickets were likely to be down as people tighten their belts. But he has avoided any great collapses in his own personal wealth because he has no shares, he explained.

“In honest terms, it probably means that you sell five per cent less tickets. It’s a fact. People have less expendable money for things like concerts and albums,” Martin said. “McDonalds is doing really well because it’s cheaper but you just can’t take everything for granted in terms of putting shows on or movies."

Asked whether his house prices had plummeted, Martin said: “Only the same as yours! We have houses and we live in them. “None of us really ever got into shares so we’re lucky. None of us are really that big on the old financial markets. We can tell you every Talking Heads b-side but we can’t tell you how pork bellies are doing!”

More on this article here

Performing in Coldplay -- performing in the world's biggest band -- could get comfy. Too comfy, even, report Freep.

For bassist Guy Berryman, though, the nightly thrill is intact. Even after all the massive stadium shows, all the mega festivals, stepping on stage still brings a tingle -- that rush of blood, you might call it. "I don't get nervous anymore. But I still get that great sense of excitement," he says. "I love that moment right before we go on, that anticipation of the lights coming down. It never tires for me."

Coldplay will visit the Palace of Auburn Hills on Monday, latest stop in a global tour supporting "Vida La Vida or Death and All His Friends," the British band's fourth album of moody, edge-of-artsy piano rock. In a year of music industry struggles, the album is a big-time standout, having enjoyed the biggest debut yet for Berryman, vocalist-pianist Chris Martin, guitarist Jonny Buckman and drummer Will Champion: In the United States alone, the album sold 720,000 copies its first week, according to Nielsen SoundScan -- more than 300,000 of them on the first day.

With sales of the album continuing to pile up, the band has been on the road nearly nonstop since June, including a U.S. summer sprint that initially included a metro Detroit show. (The date was bumped when the tour's start was delayed because of production snags.)

That means the Palace audience will get a Coldplay that is firmly locked into its live groove.

"We've got four records now, so we have to get the balance right between the new album and the old songs people want to hear," he says. "We try to make it as dynamic as possible from beginning to end. It took us awhile -- it took most of the first American tour to knock that into shape. The show pretty much runs in the same order now, because it's working."

A revamped production team has brought a new visual look to Coldplay's stage production, and even introduced what Berryman describes as "a few things people haven't seen before at other concerts."

For the decade-old band, life on the road is low-key these days. Berryman says he has learned to pace himself to endure the rigors of touring, eschewing the high life in favor of stints in the gym and daily jogs. Hopping from hotel to hotel, spending long stretches in air-conditioned spaces, it's too easy to get ill. And "it's not fun having a cold on tour -- you can't call in sick."

"We destroyed ourselves a few times by not looking after ourselves -- partying every night, staying up late," he says, recalling the band's early days. "Certainly, for me in particular, we're really just trying to keep healthy. It's that age-old thing: healthy body, healthy mind. I'd have laughed at myself a few years ago if I could hear myself saying that. But it's true."

Coldplay will wrap up its year of touring with a series of U.K. dates in December. After a month break, the band will regroup in the studio to begin cutting material for a fifth album.

"The plan, in an ideal world, is to have something finished by the end of 2009," says Berryman.

That would mark a notably fast turnaround for a band that's been known to take its time between records, including three-year gaps between each of the band's past three albums. And fans even get a treat in the interim: the Nov. 25 release of "Prospekt's March," an eight-song EP featuring material left over from the "Vida" sessions and a new version of the single "Lost," remixed by fellow A-lister Jay-Z.

Coldplay has been quick to stress that these aren't throwaway tracks. Indeed, says Berryman, much of the material could have fit seamlessly on "Vida."

"We didn't want to make the album too long. We thought the third record was too long, and we didn't want to make that mistake again. But these songs were too good just to be B-sides on singles," he says. "It's kind of meant to be an amendment to 'Vida La Vida.' We wanted people to hear that record as a standalone first, and not bombard them. We're really proud of it."

Perhaps those of you who actually have tickets to Friday night's Coldplay show can fill us in — is this something one wears a costume to?

There's nothing particularly scary about Chris Martin and Co.'s ultra-safe brand of rock, but perhaps audience members will be feeling the spook-vibe nonetheless. Either way, if "Viva la Vida" floats your boat (and, admittedly, it's hard not to get jazzed by those uppity string instruments), you'd probably be going to see them no matter what else was going on that night.

Hit up the concert early and then go adult trick-or-treating (you give a bartender money, he or she gives you a drink) around the Verizon Center.

More discussion on the Washington show here onwards.

It's hard to dislike someone who's determined to please you. So for all you Coldplay haters - and your numbers are strong - here's a bit of advice: See the band live before you judge.

No one wants you to love Coldplay more than lead singer Chris Martin. With a perpetual bounce in his step, he worked hard at TD Banknorth Garden last night, bounding like a clumsy toddler down the two side stages that led into the audience. On the swooping chorus of "In My Place," he swept his arms out to the crowd, midriff exposed, as if he had just hit a home run.

And when the house lights came on so he could get a good look at his loyal subjects, you got the genuine feeling this was where he belonged - and wanted to be. He also thanked everyone for selling out the Garden again just two months after Coldplay's last show at the venue.

And the music? Shockingly good. Martin is the backbone of Coldplay, but the quartet gets its flesh and blood from drummer Will Champion, bassist Guy Berryman, and especially lead guitarist Jonny Buckland, whose solos on "Green Eyes" and "42" added dimension and unlikely textures.

Coldplay has solved the age-old dilemma of how to make a stadium feel like a living room. Its solution: play somewhere where your audience least expects it - and far from the front row. At one point, the band bolted to a surprise spot halfway up the Garden and launched a mini acoustic set.

Martin then offered an odd preface to "The Scientist": "This is a romantic song about the governor of Alaska." Once the boos died down, his retort was decidedly more crass: "Politics aside, she's a [expletive] superbabe!"

Earlier in the evening, as a makeshift side stage materialized, the quartet huddled close for "God Put a Smile Upon Your Face," which bled into a snippet of "Talk." That gave way to Martin's solo piano rendition of "The Hardest Part" (made famous by Hall & Oates, "and we made it less famous," Martin cracked).

But the heartfelt sentiment was over soon enough, as the intro to "Viva la Vida," the big hit and title track from the band's latest album, thundered out of the speakers and launched the requisite sing-along.

That dazzling showmanship made opener Duffy seem just that. Like a '50s pin-up plucked from a Phil Spector recording session, she slinked onstage in shiny red heels to the opening chords of her breakthrough hit, "Rockferry." The young Welsh singer got down and dirty on "Delayed Devotion" and "Mercy," but even they couldn't mask a voice that was often paper-thin and borderline shrill.

More discussion on this review here onwards.

Coldplay’s the biggest band in the world? How is that even possible?

It’s not the lite rock radio hits or monochromatic albums that make Coldplay rock champions. It’s the live show. And everybody at last night’s sold-out TD Banknorth Garden shows knows that. Chris Martin’s got a rock star bio - married to starlet, kid with weird name, known the world over - he just doesn’t have Bono’s ego. But he doesn’t need it. In front of thousands, he’s (almost) got Bono’s charisma.

The band began with “Life in Technicolor,” but life didn’t go from black and white to high-def until “Clocks.” Louder and brighter than on the album, the song was the starting gun for a show with a shockingly furious pace. “In My Place” jolted the audience into a singalong that lasted an hour and a half and had Martin whirling and bouncing around the stage like a top. When Mr. Paltrow wasn’t pounding out piano chords, he was sprinting and shouting and dancing and collapsing in (maybe) mock exhaustion.

Throughout the night, songs flattened on albums were inflated into stadium rock: “Cemeteries of London,” “Fix You” and the expected encore “Yellow” became fat hooks that elated fans.

And for a band with a blah reputation, it took loads of live risks. The electro set of “God Put a Smile Upon Your Face” and “Talk” had the whole band at the end of a catwalk including drummer Will Champion on electronic kit. The sound hiccups helped make it chaotically un-Coldplay. The acoustic set had the band popping up in middle of the audience in some lower loge seats. Coldplay didn’t sell out the Garden for the second time this year because of a few hits. The band did it because they legitimately rock.

Opener Duffy - the latest female retro soul singer - overcame some early sound problems to put on a decent show.

More on this review here onwards [thanks mimixxx]