The very first Pemberton Festival takes place this weekend on a farm near Mount Currie in the beautiful Pemberton Valley.

Presented by Live Nation, the three-day event is billed as a “European-style rock festival.” What exactly does that mean? We’ll tell you.

It means a mainstage boasting headliners such as gargantuan U.K. rock band Coldplay, hip-hop head honcho Jay-Z, classic-rock ruler Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers and industrial metal grinders Nine Inch Nails. It means a selection of A-list groups in the daily lineup, ranging from Canuck legends The Tragically Hip to indie-pop darlings Death Cab for Cutie, Australia’s howling Wolfmother to cult chairmen of the board The Flaming Lips. It means super buzz bands such as Vampire Weekend, Black Mountain, Wintersleep and Metric, as well as the rootsy Kathleen Edwards and reggae singer Matisyahu.

Not to mention the fully pounding DJ stage, where everyone from Junkie XL and Booka Shade to DJ Shadow and Cut Chemist will be spinning and mixing. Heck, there are even time slots for many of the hottest local club DJs to do their thing and a Barndance stage to, well, dance in the barn.

So pack your bag for the misty mountains and be sure to bring sunscreen, a big hat, earplugs and this helpful guide with complete info on all the main artists appearing and a whole lot more. Look for daily countdown stories in this week’s Province and complete coverage of the event in the paper and online at theprovince.com.

Source: http://www.canada.com/

One knows it's not a run-of-the-mill, overly serious Britpop show when, 10 minutes before the band goes on, the crowd launches into a terribly giddy version of the wave.

Is that what Coldplay's career come to: playing to American arenas full of people who don't know they're supposed to take this band more "seriously?"

Yes and ... yes, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, especially if you aren't one of the music snobs who clung to the band after its first two albums. Coldplay's career arc has gained it a certain level of commercial success that Chris Martin and his mates were in no way eschewing Friday night at HP Pavilion at San Jose. In fact, they were pushing it, with a crowd-friendly, clap-along, c'mon-get-happy show that, at times, would've fit nicely in Las Vegas.

Read the full review here

Video Hits has hit the big time, scooping their music TV rivals - the world over - with an exclusive interview with Coldplay's Chris Martin.

Currently living the life on assignment in Los Angeles, co-host Nathan Sapsford scored the hit of his career with the promo chat for the band's new album Viva La Vida. While Martin is married to one of the world's most desirable women, Gwyneth Paltrow, it was Aussie pop princess Kylie Minogue that he wanted to talk about.

"You could just be on a bus with Kylie and you would have fun," Martin said, confirming the band are recording a song with the diminutive diva for their next album. The lovefest for all things local continued, with Guy Berryman gushing the band watch Channel 10 when in Australia, confessing to being huge Neighbours fans. A trip to Ramsay St when they tour next year, anyone?

More on this here and here (news.com.au)

A brilliant article by Bob Lefsetz

So I’m wandering the Forum floor, looking for Lisa and Brooks, and I run into Dave. He’s just upgraded a young couple from the cheap seats to the first five rows. They’re giddy, in a state of disbelief, and I say I want to go on his next mission, into the stratosphere, to rescue some more real fans.

Dave’s eyes light up, we get ready to ascend the stairs, but we can’t lay our hands on any more tickets. They’ve all been given away. All five front rows have been populated.

So Dave asks if I want to meet the band.

Read the full article here

Coldplay has put itself at the service of one of the world's oldest famine relief organizations, the British-based Oxfam.

The group opened its Viva La Vida World Tour at the Forum in Inglewood on Monday night with Oxfam volunteers busily working the corridors, where they handed out fliers urging action against poverty and social injustice. The Oxfam website (www.oxfam.org/coldplay) was projected onto a large rotating sphere in the middle of the arena after the show.

Coldplay lead singer Chris Martin has been a strong supporter of Oxfam's Make Trade Fair campaign, which seeks to end the dumping of cheap goods into poor countries.

Martin -- who has visited Africa, the Dominican Republic and Haiti with Oxfam -- witnessed firsthand how the practice has undermined the local economies. Farmers and manufacturers, struggling to compete, end up out of business and in debt.

On its 2003 world tour, the band collected 10,000 postcards calling for fair trade agreements. This time around, the U.S. presidential election is also a concern. (Small booklets urging people to vote were handed out at the Forum show.) Oxfam's Pete Lusby, who will be traveling with the band members as they make their way across three continents in the coming months, blogged about the experience on the relief organization's website Monday night. He noted that more than 700 people had signed up for more information on Oxfam.

Lusby wrote: "On the way out, people were still singing the chanting chorus to 'Viva La Vida,' " a soaring peace anthem.

He added: "It didn't take the crowd long to learn the words."

Read the full article here

An interesting article courtesy of the bloggers at UK's Guardian newspaper:

We knew Coldplay were popular, but did we know they were this popular? Amazingly, their latest album, Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends, has been the number one-selling album in an astonishing 36 countries. Are there any nations left untouched by Chris Martin's gang?

There are some other staggering statistics bubbling away. Viva La Vida set the record for the highest first week sales ever on iTunes around the world. It was the biggest album, pre-order, in iTunes' history. It is the biggest selling digital album ever in the USA. "Enough!" I hear you cry, possibly. "We can't take any more." If so, what we want to know is whether you are alone in resisting Coldplay's march towards world domination.

Thirty-six countries is not - yet - every territory in the world, which got us thinking: is there any country in the world which is proving particularly, annoyingly resistant to the Coldplay massive? Are they struggling for sales in Iceland? Do they not rock Argentina? Are they struggling to sell their soul in Seoul?

Read the full article here [thanks alejaluvscp]

Chris Martin knows why you hate his band. For the first time in his career, he couldn’t care less

Blame it on their selling a zillion records—or perhaps it has to do with a singer who shows up in tabloids as much as music mags (thanks to a movie star wife, a daughter named Apple and a son named Moses). Whatever the reason, Coldplay is the most polarizing band this side of U2.

From the dubious homophobic joke heard round the world in Judd Apatow’s “The 40-Year-Old Virgin” (“How do I know you’re gay? You listen to Coldplay”) to the New York Times brazenly labeling them “the most insufferable band of the decade” (what, they’ve never heard of Nickleback? I kid!) it’s not easy being a Coldplay fan—especially for a dude.

Read the full article here and discuss it here

Cover:

“The revolution according to Coldplay”

“The band that everyone likes but doesn’t admit”

Article:

“Long live the revolution”

“In the eve of their return, Coldplay invited James McMahon to visit their secret headquarters. He found a band insecure about its past, but with a new and dashing musical manifesto (or something). The revolution of Viva la Vida is served hot.”

“Somewhere in the north of London, where Camden ends and Primrose Hill begins, in the middle of a nameless alley, there is an old bakery. It isnt used for years, at least for making bread. It isn’t the type of place where it is expected to be the cradle of one of the most discussed musical returns of the year.

See the scans and read the full article here [thanks Live4Coldplay]

When they met during university, in London, Chris Martin, Jonny Buckland, Guy Berryman and Will Champion simply wanted to make music. Something that, once they became Coldplay, was transformed into a form of full-time job.

It is now almost ten years and thirty million records since then and no album, in 2008, is awaited with more anxiety than 'Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends', the ambitious fourth piece of work of Gwyneth Paltrow's husband and his three companions, produced by Brian Eno (U2, David Bowie). We had a long chat with Chris and Jonny in the group's headquarters, The Bakery. And we met a band in excellent form, who still hardly believe they're no longer nineteen years old.

Read the full Italian article (translated into English) at Coldplayzone here (cover below)

Meanwhile, you can now download a set of 4 Coldplay promo photos (Poster sized!) and also the new official Coldplay logo style here [thanks yamfox]

Andy Miller of the Telegraph reviews On Some Faraway Beach, the life and times of Brian Eno, Coldplay's latest music producer

Seek out your copy of the second Roxy Music LP, For Your Pleasure, and turn to Karl Stoecker's portrait of the group. You see the man on the far left posing with a mean guitar, in platform boots, peek-a-boo feather blouson and glamour-model pout? That man is Brian Eno. Last month, he turned 60.

Eno's journey from pop-star androgyne to Liberal Democrat youth affairs adviser has no precedent in modern politics. Vince Cable may have dallied with ballroom dancing, but has he also collaborated with David Bowie, invented several musical genres, synthesised new perfumes, or appeared as himself in Father Ted? Not that we know of.

Read the full book review here

They’ve been called everything from “nouveau French revolutionary” to “ragbag military uniforms.” We’re talking, of course, about the at-once-dingy-and-colorful European marching-band getups that Coldplay have been sporting in promo photos and appearances in support of their album, Viva La Vida.

It’s part Michael Jackson paramilitary look, mixed with a dash of the color from the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s album cover and a hint of U2’s penchant for donning uniforms that last an entire album/tour cycle. The outfits have raised eyebrows and prompted questions about what inspired the unusual sartorial selection.

The new image debuted in the “Violet Hill” video, and so far, the band has been wearing the expensively disheveled-looking rainbow rags during promotional performances like at the MTV Movie Awards.

Read the full article here

Echo & the Bunnymen’s Ian McCulloch tells Eamon Sweeney why he’s looking forward to Oxegen, why he told Coldplay their songs weren’t good enough and why he just had to be in the ‘best band in the world’

McCulloch was mysteriously credited as an "associate producer" on the second Coldplay album, A Rush of Blood to the Head. "That made me laugh!" he cackles. "Brian Eno just took over my role! I was amazed when I read that. I just came in and did a bit of Bowie dancing and a few impressions. Then I told them the songs weren't good enough, and just f***ed off or hung around in the bar. I'd basically just crack jokes and make them laugh. It was great that they recorded in Liverpool. I immediately got a sense that they were a band that was just meant to be together. I had to be in the best band in the world because that's why I was born. It wasn't because I needed to write music."

Mac the Mouth is on a roll. "People think being in the gig guide of the local paper means something," he continues. "For Coldplay, they'd already written Yellow when they started. From day one, they had a blueprint. Chris (Martin) would say, "Hey Mac, I think we've done our Ocean Rain." I'd say, "Give us a listen," and tell him it's nowhere close and that I never want him to darken my doorstep again. It was just funny hanging out. I was a Bowie impersonator and a gag-teller, not an associate producer."

Read the full article here [thanks jenjie]

Stereogum have posted an article entitled 'Chris Rock Was The Only Black Guy At The Coldplay Show' which you can read at WikiColdplay and also discussion here.

The Repubblica article which we mentioned yesterday, has been roughly translated to WikiColdplay (hopefully a neat translation to come soon).

On a different note, we ask: 'Is Jonathan Ross’s lewd wit justified?' With the

Finally, you can now read a review here of On Some Faraway Beach: The Life and Times of Brian Eno (by David Sheppard), which is available to buy from Amazon.

It’s amazing how far Coldplay has come in the past decade: At this time in 1998, they were a college-based band in London. By 2000, with the release of “Parachutes” and their hit “Yellow,” they got big. “A Rush of Blood to the Head” then made Coldplay both a critic and fan favorite, winning the Grammy for Best Alternative Album and selling over 12 million copies worldwide.

By 2005’s “X&Y,” the band was huge: It had released the world’s second best-selling album of 2005 and was the first British rock band to debut in the U.S. Top 10 since The Beatles. Nowadays, the band is so huge that even their shy bassist, Guy Berryman — worth over $25 million — is one of England’s richest people under 30.

But discontent has been growing among the Coldplay ranks for the past few years. The band’s popularity began to outpace their artistic growth, and after winning nearly universal praise for their earlier releases, “X&Y” fell flat with most critics. A New York Times reviewer famously labeled Coldplay “the most insufferable band of the decade.”

Read the full article at WikiColdplay here

How do you have a hit without releasing a single?

Coldplay's stirring anthem Viva La Vida is number one on both sides of the Atlantic, making them the first British group to achieve this feat since the Spice Girls in 1997. This would be remarkable enough in itself, but, in a sign that the music business is undergoing top-to-tail transformation, they have done it by accident. Coldplay's current single is officially Violet Hill, which, to complicate matters further, they gave away free. It was downloaded more than two million times (enough to have outsold the combined top 40 in the US and UK).

Meanwhile, the title track of their album, Viva La Vida, was made available through iTunes as a (non-chart eligible) taster, with a 30-second video advert. When the album was officially released last week, so many people downloaded that track that it became Coldplay's biggest ever hit.

Read the full article here

New Coldplay article from Spin Magazine, who talk about the new album and Phil Harvey.

Trampolines, imaginary 16-year-olds, and decisions, decisions, decisions. For the world's biggest band not called U2, there's just no rest for the bleary. An exclusive look behind the scenes of Coldplay's new album.

In a slightly sketchy part of north London, a cockney blonde whom we'll call Myrtle smokes a cigarette in the driveway of the plain white-fronted former bakery that serves as recording studio, office, and grown-up clubhouse for the members of one of the worlds' biggest bands, Coldplay. Myrtle says she works at the office next door, and when asked if the guys are good neighbors, she hedges.

"I guess so. They're pretty quiet. Always comin' in and out with guitar cases and such." Raising one eyebrow, she confides, "They say they're musicians -- but you never hear any music comin' from there. Could be selling heroin for all I know. Or maybe they are musicians. I think they're just crap at what they do, is what I think."

Read the full article here [thanks mimixxx]

Patrol mazazine have got a Coldplay special edition out this week. Here is an excerpt along with links to the full articles and reviews:

There are a number of ways to mishandle a new Coldplay album. Particularly this Coldplay album, the second to be widely linked to EMI’s financial welfare. In all sectors of society, from business to technology to the arts, Viva la Vida has managed to whip the pre-release frenzy to a pitch even more feverish than three years ago, the last time we spent the month of May in agonized anticipation.

Read the full Patrol Magazine articles below:

Official review of Viva la Vida

Staff reviews of Viva la Vida

Chris Martin, Zen Maestro: Why Viva La Vida might be Coldplay's treatise on Buddhism

[thanks David Sessions]

Chris Martin has a theory. In two years, his songwriting will dry up.

After penning plenty of big hits, picking up Grammy and Brit Awards and selling 30million albums worldwide, the Coldplay singer says his talents are about to wear thin, so he’s been cramming in as many songs as possible. “I feel like you’ve got to write as many songs as you can between the ages of 28 and 33 because those are your last few years before you get a belly,” he says, bearing his wide-eyed, jokey grin.

Joking aside, the 31-year-old singer is in high spirits, but it could have been so different. Renowned for his intense personality — one minute he can be riding high, rushing around like a kid who has had too many sweets and the next, intense, moody and self-deprecating. Today, SFTW has witnessed both sides of Chris Martin.

Read the full article here [thanks sunonline & mimixxx]

The Independent Blogs have hit back at the today's article by Andy Gill: Why I Hate Coldplay. Here is the response from within their own camp:

I like Coldplay. I do. I know, I know - very unfashionable, but there it is. I like their music. Always have. In fact, I like them so much that I'm convinced at least half the people who claim not to are lying in order to be cool. And I don't mind Chris Martin either. I mean, I've never met the man, but he's never done anything in public that could explain the rage he seems to inspire in my friends, my colleagues and, it seems, a good portion of the media.

So it was with a kind of resigned weariness that I learned The Independent's esteemed rock critic (!) Andy Gill would be joining the ranks of Coldplay-haters in this morning's paper. This will be another 2,000 words of undeserved bile tossed in the faces of poor Chris and his pals, I thought. And I was right. The commenters have been raging all morning, both for and against the band. I'll gladly be a witness for the defence.

First, Coldplay's music. In the interests of full disclosure, I should mention that I own pretty much all of it - and I paid for it with my hard-earned pennies, not by nicking it from the internet or being sent it by eager PRs with the misguided impression that journalists hold any sway over the Coldplay-loving public.

However, I also have a large collection of perfectly respectable records that Mr Gill and others would, I'm sure, happily spend a few days with. There's plenty of genres in there, and plenty of interesting, envelope-stretching artists (no, not just Radiohead). I like music, honest.

But too often I'll take home a record by a so-called avant-garde act who's been handed five stars by various members of the music press, only to find that, in among all the clattery percussion or the dance crossover pretensions, there's only a couple of tunes fit to grace my iPod.

Sometimes, when I buy a new record, I want to do so safe in the knowledge that I'll get my money's worth in muscular melodies and crashing chord changes - even if it turns out to be just G, C, D. Coldplay have invariably fulfilled that requirement, and I rely on them to do so. They're the best at it, and their continued existence means I needn't trouble myself with lesser bands of a similar persuasion.

Another distinguished rock critic, the late Ian MacDonald, once wrote something along these lines: listeners' tastes are shaped by a heirarchy of three distinct elements - a band's music, a band's lyrics, and a band's image. Even if you're infuriated by his vague lyrics or his sensible attire, only the hardest heart could honestly claim they'd never been moved, even an inch, by one of Mr Martin's melodies.

The lyrics, then. OK, they're hazy. Some of them are downright predictable, and they espouse the sort of simplistic sentiments that evidently make "serious" rock fans cringe. But I'm afraid that's their strength as well as their weakness. You can use Coldplay's songs as a painkiller when you're feeling low, or as a complement to euphoria. I hardly need to present evidence for the breadth of the band's appeal. What did X&Y sell again? Nine million, was it? Ten?

I also want to address the issue of Chris Martin. How can such an inoffensive man make so many people so angry? So he does some charity work. That's, er... a good thing, isn't it? He's a darn sight more bearable than Bono, yet without the pair of them the man in the street might never have heard of Greenpeace or making trade fair.

So he's not Johnny Rotten. I'd prefer, for once, a singer who's honest about being as middle-class as his fans, rather than another of the countless young stars who spend Saturday nights in Camden pretending they've always been into sex, drugs and rock'n'roll, before heading to their parents' place in Hampstead for a Sunday roast.

As to the Gwyneth thing, we all know how easy it can be for a famous couple to fill the limelight by appearing on the red carpet or in Hello! magazine together at every given opportunity. Such couples face a tough job evincing sympathy whenever they feel their privacy has been invaded a little too much.

Chris and Gwyneth, by contrast, go out of their way never to let anyone legitimately call them a "celebrity couple". Chris does all the necessary press for his new album, Gwyneth shows up in a short skirt for the premiere of her new film. They separate their work from their private lives, and instead of respecting them for it, we pour scorn on their choice of baby names. Yes, I know, "Apple" is a bit silly, but she'll probably end up pretty enough to get away with it.

Finally, may I point out that, in spite of his professed "hatred" for Coldplay, Gill managed to find it within himself to reward their new album Viva La Vida a reasonably respectable three stars. If you're already a fan, or open-minded enough to be converted, you can translate that into (at least) a healthy four.

Source: http://blogs.independent.co.uk

Confessions of an anxious rock god: The Coldplay frontman sits down with Rolling Stone for his most in-depth interview yet.

When Chris Martin emerges from a town car on a quiet West Village street one afternoon in May, he's dressed like a stagehand — black khakis, black hooded top. You'd never notice him, which is probably the idea.

But then he starts singing Talking Heads' "Girlfriend Is Better" loud enough to be heard from across the street. The guy can't help it: He's a ham. The paparazzi siege that came with marrying Gwyneth Paltrow and having two angelic blond children with her has forced a certain public guardedness on him, but it seems he can't keep it up. As Martin sits down for what he calls "an epic interview" — seven hours over three sessions — the band are about to release its fourth studio album, Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends.

Read more on this here [thanks zsub]

Tomorrow's release will be a make or break for Guy Hands' £3.2bn takeover

In an industry well used to hype, for once it was no exaggeration when EMI chief Guy Hands hailed it as "the most anticipated album of the year".

Not only does Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends signify that Coldplay are at a stage in their career where they can get away with pretentious album titles, it could also set the tone for whether Hands' controversial £3.2bn takeover of EMI last year ultimately succeeds.

The album, released in the UK tomorrow after a marketing campaign that included giving away the first single, Violet Hill, free and promoting a series of free concerts beginning in London on Monday, is being seen as a litmus test for Hands and his vision for a new EMI.

Read the full article here

'Chris Martin came across the image and said he wanted it for a Coldplay LP cover'

I did this [image] for the fashion magazine Dazed and Confused in the late 1990s. They wanted something with a technological feel, something all white. As a photographer, you try to do stuff that hasn't been done before, which is virtually impossible, so I suggested taking a shot with a three-dimensional scanning machine.

These devices use technology that was developed for American air force pilots, to get their helmets to fit their heads better. You sit still while a computer goes all around you, hanging from an arm. Afterwards, you can look at the scan from any angle.

The model, named Mim, had to wear all-white makeup, because you get the best results that way, but in this image she was also wearing a cape with a coloured twill. The computer couldn't read the colours, so it replaced them with spikes. I decided to keep them. The machine only scanned in 30cm segments too, so it chopped her head in half.

When I first saw the result, I was terrified. I thought it was so beautiful, but I was sure the magazine was never going to run it. The fashion editor absolutely adored the pictures, however. They were the lead story that month.

Then Chris Martin saw the magazine. He approached me and said he wanted the image for the cover of Coldplay's latest LP, A Rush of Blood to the Head. He wanted something really iconic, he said, and asked what we could do for the singles. I suggested scanning the four members of the band for the four different releases. I suspect they were hugely disappointed when they met me - I think they expected some kind of German scientist. The album was hugely successful, which was nice. I can think of a lot worse images to be associated with. It is unique.

More on this here [thanks Zemy101]

The "ethical" brand Fairtrade, backed by A-list celebrities and £2million of taxpayers' cash, leaves Third World farmers worse off, according to a damning new report.

Huge publicity, including a Government-sponsored education campaign in schools, has attempted to persuade the public to pay more for goods such as coffee, chocolate and bananas to ensure a better deal for producers in impoverished nations.

And stars such as Coldplay singer Chris Martin have been queuing up to endorse its products.

Read the full article here

Fair play? Chris Martin visits a farmer's cooperative in Mexico in 2003

In early 2007, EMI was a mess. The U.K.-based music company — the smallest of the four major labels — had lost $500 million in a year, its market share had slipped to nine percent, and marquee artists Radiohead and Paul McCartney had jumped ship.

When private equity firm Terra Firma bought the label for $4.7 billion in May, many speculated that CEO Guy Hands would dismantle the company, retaining the profitable publishing arm and back catalog. Instead, on January 15th, he announced a vast overhaul that he hopes will transform EMI into a smarter, leaner and more profitable company, offering the rest of the failing music industry a road map for the future.

When Terra Firma bought EMI, many in the industry accused Hands of attacking a business he didn't understand, and top EMI artists Robbie Williams and Coldplay complained when U.K. chief Tony Wadsworth was pushed out.

Read the full article here

Until last week's events, the pair had not been seen together for months - even by the paparazzi photographers who like to haunt their every move. The past few months have been tough for Gwyneth Paltrow. Rumours of her marriage being on the rocks, her comeback film The Good Night taking just £90,000 at the box office, and now a late-night dash to the hospital pushed in a wheelchair by her husband Chris Martin.

When a visibly upset Chris attended the funeral of his beloved uncle Angus on the Scottish Isle of Arran in August he was alone, without the support of his family. That they clearly live their lives so separately has led, inevitably, to question marks being raised over the couple's relationship.

And the rumours are fuelled by the fact that the pair refuse to talk about each other at all - or be seen together. In an interview this month with the Mail's Weekend magazine, Gwyneth said: "There's obviously an appetite for gossip," and "we're not into doing stuff in public together".

Read the full article here