Coldplay closed out the North American leg of its tour with an exclamation point last night.

Befitting their status as radio kings, thanks to the success of their fourth album "Viva La Vida," the quartet gave a big performance on a big stage with a big audience singing along to the big choruses. (Speed-dial friends U2 would've beamed with older brotherly pride).

Whether it was the presence of front man Chris Martin's famous wife, Gwyneth Paltrow, and mother-in-law, Blythe Danner, with special guests Jerry and Jessica Seinfeld at the TD Banknorth Garden or the hero's welcome the band received, the British hit makers signed off with a giddy, high-energy performance that seemed as much for their own enjoyment as for the hyped-up, sold-out crowd.

Read the full review article here

Coldplay stopped at the Verizon Center for the "Viva La Vida" tour

WASHINGTON – For music fans concerned about who will continue the arena rock tradition once the veterans have walked away from the stage for good, now would be a good time to turn your attention to Coldplay.

Is their music and cultural impact as timeless as The Rolling Stones or Bruce Springsteen? No. At least not yet. And can Chris Martin command a stage with the bravado and swagger of Bono or Jon Bon Jovi? Not quite. What Coldplay offers live are well-designed Big Rock Band trappings – video screen the width of the stage, a rainbow of lasers, neon butterfly confetti – but instead of coating them with the cool self-assurance of a thousand other rock stars, the band projects an endearing warmth.

Read the full review article here

Whenever I have a conversation with someone about this strange job I do, the question always comes up: "How do you keep an open mind?"

It actually gets easier with time. I've been at this music-critic thing for 10 years and if going to shows every other night has taught me anything, it's that I should allow myself to be surprised. Sometimes you know what awaits. I'll be attending my seventh Backstreet Boys show next week, for instance and I can say right now that I will loathe every minute of it.

Sometimes, though, you find the evening's dreaded assignment morphing into an altogether pleasant night out. Which is exactly what happened this past Wednesday when I grudgingly stepped out to catch Coldplay at the Air Canada Centre.

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Two years and 5 months after Coldplay last rolled into Toronto, I once again found myself back in the rigidly designed bucket-seats of the Air Canada Centre for their second of a two night stop along the Viva La Vida Tour. One of the great things about a Coldplay concert is the people. We all know on one level or another that Coldplay fans love good music. It was with little shock that the fan seated next to me was into such sonically pleasing artists as Radiohead, Sigur Ros and U2. It was funny to me when an thought struck my mind, going to a Coldplay concert is a little like attending church, except the people are friendlier. It was also a great night because my father was with me and he loves the band (what a cool dad eh?).

The opener, Santogold, left little to be desired. She sounded somewhat like a banshee in heat, and it seemed as though she couldn’t figure out whether she wanted to be Duffy or Beyonce. At any rate it was probably a little ridiculous to have an R & Besque (if that’s a word) artist at a Coldplay concert - it’s akin to having Carrie Underwood…well open for anyone. But I digress.

Read the full review here [thanks mimixxx]

Normally close-cropped Chris Martin was showing off a fuller head of hair than usual this week. The Coldplay frontman had allowed his 'do to grow into a funky afro-inspired style to play a sell-out gig in Toronto.

The musician, who's on the North American leg of his tour with bandmates Jonny Buckland, Guy Berryman and Will Champion, debuted the look as he thrilled fans with songs off new album Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends. The electrifying set was also interspersed with renditions of older hits such as Yellow and The Scientist.

And, so loud were the audience's cheers as the gig finished on a high with The Escapist, Chris and co were enticed back on stage for a second, unrehearsed encore.

Source: hellomagazine.com

Chris Martin isn’t coy about it. He freely admits Coldplay gathers its strength from Radiohead the way Superman draws his powers from our yellow sun.

Recently asked how much he paid to download Radiohead’s pay-what-you-want release “In Rainbows,” Martin explained he dropped 10 British pounds three separate times trying to get the album onto his hard drive. Finally, he gave up and bought the vinyl.

“But I don’t mind,” he said. “I owe Radiohead a bit more than 30 pounds. Let’s face it. We owe them a career, really.”

Read the full article here

Why Radiohead is the past

Why Coldplay is the future

Long live the kings. And you too, Coldplay. The world's biggest band hit Toronto's Air Canada Centre for the first of two sold-out concerts on Wednesday, leaving the impression that while its members are a nice young foursome of Englishmen capable of writing gorgeous anthems and performing them wonderfully, they just aren't the conquering types.

Appearing as if they hadn't cleaned the dust from Sunday's Pemberton Festival in B.C. off their raggedy military garb, the CD-selling giants starting grandly, entering with the swelling instrumental Life in Technicolor that ushered them to an audience that greeted its heroes with something like a soccer-stadium chant.

Ninety minutes later, after a sweeping, grandiose show of it, the band left with a brief encore of an unexpected older hit – "We haven't rehearsed this,” singer Chris Martin said of 2000's Don't Panic – and a happy new jig apparently called The Dubliner.

Read the full article here and pictures from this show here [thanks mimixxx]

To take a phrase from Coldplay's latest album Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends, they didn't get to heaven but they made it close last night at Toronto's Air Canada Centre.

The British quartet, perhaps the heirs to U2's "greatest rock band in the world" moniker, wowed the sold-out crowd during the first of a two-night stand at the venue as part of their current North American tour.

Whether it was the giant balls suspended from above that showed up-close images of the group, confetti or the fact that the quartet of singer Chris Martin, drummer Will Champion, guitarist Jonny Buckland or bassist Guy Berryman seemed to nail one song after another during the course of roughly 100 minutes, it was definitely a spectacle.

Read the full article here and pictures from this show here [thanks jenjie]

Coldplay is interested in universals, not small statements.

The U.K. chart-toppers take a beating in some quarters for desperately wanting to be all things to all folks, but in a way, they are: they're almost impossible to dislike when placed in front of you, no matter how cool you think you are.

Personality helps, of course. At the Air Canada Centre last night for the first of two sold-out Toronto shows, pathologically energetic frontman Chris Martin and his rather more heads-down bandmates – guitarist Johnny Buckland, bassist Guy Berryman and drummer Will Champion – managed to project an air of slightly awkward, everyman affability even while multicoloured lasers carved the air in front of them and black-lit confetti butterflies rained down in the thousands from the ceiling.

Read the full article here and pictures from this show here [thanks jenjie]

Drummer says ACC shows tonight and tomorrow feature intimate atmosphere, 'fantastic' supporting act

Leading up to their two Toronto dates at the Air Canada Centre, tonight and tomorrow, Coldplay fans should be delighted to know the band is gaining momentum on its current tour, at least according to Will Champion, the band's drummer. The man should know. He's probably got the best seat in the house and has watched the show come together over the first few weeks of the latest world tour.

"It always takes a while to get up and running. ... It's not until you actually play in front of an audience that you realize what works and what doesn't. We're kind of really hitting our stride around now, which is great," he said on the line from last week's tour stop in Philadelphia. "The stage show is something we've been working out the past few months. It's just really, again, you don't know what looks good until you have a full audience in order for you to see how the dynamic works with the visuals and the sound. It's gotten a lot better than what it was right before the tour started."

Read the full Toronto preview here

Enjoy a Toronto show preview, courtesy of martiniboys.com:

This is a begrudging FYI. 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.

Enough so, that when they come to town, it's always newsworthy. So I couldn't in good conscience ignore it. For those who don't know, Coldplay play a non-offensive brand of arena-ready (good for the Air Canada Centre crowd) 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. Yes, that's a thing. So get out your lighters (or these days cell phones) and get ready to soft rock!

Toronto is a busy place. With restaurants and bars opening and closing everyday, concerts being performed nonstop, and news developing faster than it can be reported, it's hard to stay afloat. You need a guide. Martiniboys is here to help.

Keeping our ears to the ground and our eyes to the blogs, we've collected all the hot buzz that you need to stay informed about your fair city. Whether it be a new store opening or a shocking political scandal, you'll find it here. There's no need to thank us, we're just doing our jobs. Okay, you can thank us.

Love-ins of this magnitude don't happen often. British rock band Coldplay held court last night, bringing its soaring, anthemic pop to an enraptured crowd of 19,000 fans at the Bell Centre.

It's no secret that Coldplay wants to be the new U2. A lack of musical heft aside, the group appears to be well on its way. The standing ovation started the moment the lights dropped, and didn't let up until the end of the encore. Cheers were deafening and singalongs were omnipresent.

Leaning heavily on material from their new album Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends, Chris Martin and crew - guitarist Jonny Buckland, bassist Guy Berryman and drummer Will Champion - made a point of not resting on their laurels. Rather, they showed a continued determination to perfect the art of the unifying, larger-than-life rock concert.

Read the full article here and see pictures from this show here

Coldplay guitarist Jonny Buckland says Eno's presence definitely had a hand in the band's latest Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends.

"He kind of had an influence on the psychology of it if that makes any sense, of how to create an album," Buckland says prior to a Philadelphia show last Friday. "It's not like he sits there and makes you get the right drum sound. He's much more interested in the broader strokes of production. It's not that he doesn't have ideas about drums sounds, but he's an incredible fountain of ideas."

And as for the new material, Coldplay perform a good chunk of the record live. Buckland says he's quite surprised at how well Chinese Sleep Chant fares and Lost! comes off in concert. "I think it works the best of anything of the new ones really," he says of Lost!. "But you never really know when you get to a live arena and things that you thought were sure things just sound rubbish. But Lost! is something that really has worked."

Read the full article here and discuss it here [thanks Suzana Fong]

When Coldplay originally set their North American tour dates earlier this year, Winnipeg, Calgary and Edmonton were definitely in the loop.

Unfortunately production delays meant the group reshuffling the touring itinerary and those three Canadian cities were sadly left out in the cold. But fans of the band in those cities can rest assured they will be back sometime in 2009.

"I think we'll definitely be replacing those in the New Year," Buckland says. "I'm not sure exactly when to be honest, we've got it planned all the way up until the end of December. But the only plans we have for the New Year are playing those ones in Western Canada and in Calgary. I've got quite a lot of family in Calgary and they would be very disappointed if we didn't play there."

Read the full article, including how the band are feeling warmer towards each other here [thanks mimixxx]

An interesting article (and a rare Coldplay caracature) written by the New Yorker:

In a 2005 piece in the Times, Jon Pareles called the British rock group Coldplay “the most insufferable band of the decade,” and he placed the blame on the band’s front man and singer, Chris Martin, whom he called a “passive-aggressive blowhard.”

Earlier this year, in a study sponsored by the hotel chain Travelodge of the bedtime habits of 2,248 people in the U.K., Coldplay topped a poll of music choices that would help people fall asleep. Coldplay apparently relieves what Travelodge called the “pressures of modern living.” Martin may use the same metric to judge his band’s music. On coldplay.com, you can find a handwritten note, dated “Thursday 12 June London,” that addresses the recent release of the band’s fourth studio album, “Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends.” “I feel very relieved that the album is finally released out into the big wide world today,” it says. “I hope there’s songs on there that will make a shit day slightly less shit, or a good day even better.”

The album sold more than seven hundred thousand copies in the first week of its release in the United States. (Since the group’s début album, “Parachutes,” was released, in 2000, news items about the troubled entertainment conglomerate EMI routinely correlate the health of the corporation with the health of Coldplay.)

Read the full article here

Chris Martin has transformed English diffidence into a masochistic religion

PHILADELPHIA -- Bill O'Reilly's ears must have been burning Friday night.

After an evening of super-sized anthems and even bigger sing-a-longs, Coldplay left the stage and completed their main set in the back of Wachovia Center Friday night, surrounded by a sold out crowd of 20,000 fans as they performed a pair of acoustic songs in section 105.

After finishing an acoustic, guitar-based "The Scientist," singer Chris Martin received celebratory fist bumps from fans. "There are terrorist fist jabs all over the place," Martin said, joking about a Fox News anchor who used the phrase in June to describe Barack Obama's fist bump with his wife, Michelle. "Don't tell Fox News!"

Read the full review article here

The world’s most palatable rock and roll band came to the sold-out Wachovia Center in South Philadelphia on Friday, working hard to please.

An hour and half spent with Coldplay is like enjoying a light summer meal, spread out on the lawn on a humidity-free late July evening. Chris Martin and his bandmates make for mildly engaging company, and even when they aim lasers to the rafters, the bombast goes down easy. Airy melodies carry the day, and it never threatens to develop into a hot and sticky situation.

The British foursome - along with Martin, guitarist Jonny Buckman, bass player Guy Berryman and drummer Will Champion - took the stage half-obscured behind a scrim, with Martin strumming an acoustic guitar on “Life in Technicolor,” the vaguely exotic instrumental that leads off the band’s formula-tweaking fourth album Viva La Vida, Or Death and All His Friends.

Read the full review here [thanks mimixxx]

Coldplay's second album, A Rush of Blood to the Head, was nearing completion when an excited Chris Martin arrived at the studio late one night. At the keyboard, he played the tune running through his head. Lead guitarist Jonny Buckland was impressed. "He picked up his guitar [a sure sign that he likes a song] and played these brilliant chords," Martin recalls. "It was like a chemical reaction process."

The pulsing, cyclical riff – inspired, according to Martin, by the band Muse – was edgy, hectic and suggested an uneasy passage of time. The band all agreed: this was the sound to herald the next phase in Coldplay's musical development.

But, for now, they had enough songs on the second album and, under pressure to get them out and running low on studio time, they quickly cut a demo of the new composition and filed it under "Songs for #3" – ideas for a projected third album.

Read the full article here

How a village in B.C. came to host one of the summer's hottest music festivals

VANCOUVER -- When a band as big as Coldplay decides it wants to produce and headline a European-style music festival in North America, you find a place to put it. The person charged with that responsibility, on a tight, one-year deadline, was Shane Bourbonnais, president of touring and business development for concert promoter Live Nation Canada.

Bourbonnais chose Pemberton, B.C.

Pemberton, for those who haven't had the pleasure, is a village with about 2,200 full-time residents in the Coast Mountains about 30 minutes up Highway 99 from Whistler in the Lillooet River valley. It's a take-your-breath-away kind of place: lush, green and spectacular. In the winter, it's a popular accommodations alternative to Whistler.

Read the full preview article here

When: Wednesday, July 23

Where: The United Center, Chicago

As a concert-minded songwriter, one of Chris Martin’s best moves was to name his biggest hits after colors — or colours, as he might say.

Just ask the 11,000 strong at last night’s Coldplay show, who over the course of the night heard hits of a vivid trajectory: the early highlight was “Violet Hill,” sans the thirty seconds of white noise that precedes it on new disc Viva La Vida; the ultimate peak was a singalong version of “Yellow,” the sole concert cut from debut disc Parachutes; and the show ended with an acoustic take on “Green Eyes” from the excellent Rush of Blood to the Head LP.

Even if you don’t particularly care for these tunes, they sure make sense in the midst of a lights show — which sure makes sense to do in an arena. Coldplay’s entire set, in fact, could be summed up as songs that made sense.

Read the full article here

Every year, Drexel students repeatedly excel in academia-related competitions around the world, but this summer, one music industry junior has rocked-literally. Singer/songwriter Jonah Delso won a contest to open for the popular British group Coldplay July 25 at Philadelphia's Wachovia Center.

Delso submitted a video for his song "Elevator" through 93.3 WMMR's "Open for Coldplay" contest. Through an online voting process, Delso's music video was chosen as one of the top three contenders in the competition. From there, the members of Coldplay picked their favorite artist to play a 20-minute opening set to kick off the Philadelphia stop of their 2008 Viva La Vida Tour. Along with the performance, Delso received $2,000 and 10 tickets to the show for his friends and family members.

Read the full article here

With their fourth studio album firmly entrenched on the charts, Coldplay easily filled the United Center with fans for their two-night concert stand this week, a far cry from their last relatively intimate appearance at The Metro.

The enthusiasm we saw from the Chicago stop on their worldwide Viva la Vida tour is arguably a testament to Coldplay’s longevity: ponder all you want about the quality of the music, but a whole lot of people still like the band. The 90-minute set mainly drew music from their newest album, but Chris Martin and co. still managed to fit in all of the band’s former singles, like “Fix You,” “The Scientist,” “Speed of Sound,” and of course, “Clocks” and “Yellow.”

Although we think their recent material is drifting away from their music’s main draw – the catchy hooks and the guilty pleasure of singing along to Martin’s nonsensical lyrics – Coldplay has reached the point as a band where they have built a solid musical catalog, combining old music with new to deliver an enjoyable, feel-good performance.

Read the full article here

Brits try hard to stay up close and personal with their fans

Even after several million albums sold, British art-rockers Coldplay are still conflicted about their status as an arena act, and that's one of their most endearing traits. On the one hand, front man Chris Martin and his bandmates do everything they can to maximize the big rock spectacle, the grand theatrical gesture and the musical bombast.

On Tuesday, the first night of a two-night stand at the United Center, the musicians came out dressed in pseudo-Napoleonic uniforms and began to perform in front of a giant backdrop of Delacroix's French Revolutionary painting, "Liberty Leads the People," which happens to be the cover of their new album, "Viva La Vida."

Read the full review and see pictures here [thanks Carolyn Marie]

As part of a tour to promote their newest album, Coldplay’s Viva La Vida concert Friday night the HP Pavilion did exactly what it was supposed to do. The band performed all but one of the songs from the new album, along with several gems from previous albums.

Frontman Chris Martin is a consummate performer who knows just how to walk the line between modesty and self-assuredness. He had the audience in the palms of his hands all night. Looking at times like the scarecrow from the “Wizard of Oz” and at other times like Mick Jagger on happy pills, he hopped and skipped and emoted and blushed his way into our hearts and minds.

All four members of the band--Martin on vocals, keyboards and occasional guitar, drummer Will Champion, bassist Guy Berryman, and guitarist Jonny Buckland are virtuosos. Their vocal harmonies were studio-perfect on every song. By the look of things, Martin and his bandmates were at the top of their game, having great fun and enjoying the energy from the enthusiastic crowd.

Read the full review here and more pictures from this show here

Group skilled at making big rooms feel small

He looked like a muscle spasm incarnate, a drunken ballerina, twitching, trembling, leaping, lunging, posing and pinwheeling about the stage, as if his flesh were a prison he was trying to escape from.

Through it all, he smiled like the cat who not only ate the canary, but devoured most of its kin as well. Coldplay frontman Chris Martin is not prone to small gestures -- he's the kind of guy who favors bear hugs over handshakes, wet kisses over dry eyes -- and his band follows suit: their tunes spin on an axis of melodrama and emotional extravagance, with even their quietest moments tending to build toward something grand and deafening.

As such, they're an ideal arena rock band in an age where increasingly few contemporary acts sound at home in large halls. But as they demonstrated at a packed MGM Grand Garden on Saturday night, this bunch is skilled at making big rooms feel small.

Read the full review here and more pictures from this show here (14th) and here (15th)