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Would you put off a luxury holiday and give the money to your favourite new band instead? Would you delay buying a new kitchen to help a great new group off the ground? Would you give them your life savings?   About 30 dedicated fans of Leeds band Four Day Hombre have gone above and beyond the call of normal fandom by funding their debut album, which is out on Monday. Many have ploughed thousands of pounds into the group's own label, which they set up after other record deals fell through.   A

Tony Wilson, the founder of Factory Records and moving spirit behind the Haçienda Club, died last week, mourned by the musicians he nurtured, the city he loved and that loved him back, and the people whose lives he changed.   Four weeks ago Tony Wilson somehow summoned the energy to attend a performance at the Manchester International Festival of Joy Division’s Love Will Tear us Apart. He was terribly ill by that stage, but it was the sort of thing Wilson would not miss – a rendition in complete

The next of our featured Mylo Xyloto album review comes from the website Dale & Co - a great current affairs 'mega-blog' from the UK. Their Mylo Xyloto review rates the album an 8.5/10, and focuses on Coldplay's continuing desire to 'take the world by storm' whilst exploring different musical approaches with the fifth album. Here reads their review...   Bono once said during the promotion for All That You Can’t Leave Behind at the turn of the century that U2 were “reapplying for the job of t

If misery really does love company, then Thom Yorke never got the memo. Either that or he simply couldn't read it through the cloud of anxiety that seems to have enveloped him during the making of his melancholy new album, "The Eraser."   Yorke's vocals are presented in a much more natural and naked state than on the typical Radiohead album, with Godrich skipping the processing tricks employed throughout the band's catalogue. Combined with the stark ambient soundscapes, which tend to sound like

And concentrate on albums...   Cult indie label Fierce Panda is to stop releasing its legendary 7” singles this summer. The label has helped launch the careers of a plethora of top bands with its one off single releases including the likes of Coldplay and Keane.   Other bands that have featured on its books include iLiKETRAiNS, Art Brut, Battle, Shitdisco and Boy Kill Boy. According to the BBC founder Simon Williams says that the label now wants to concentrate on albums and developing the compan

Fifteen suitors have been sent financial information about BMG Music Publishing, including four music majors and a number of private equity firms, with first bids due in about a month, the parent company's chief executive said.   Gunter Thielen, the CEO of German media conglomerate Bertelsmann AG, also told Reuters that despite reports to the contrary, there are no plans to restructure its joint venture music company Sony BMG with partner Sony Corp. He added that Belgian financier Albert Frere w

Global court action against music file-sharers has not reduced illegal downloading, an industry report says.   The level of file-sharing has remained the same for two years despite 20,000 legal cases in 17 countries. The International Federation of the Phonographic Industries (IFPI) said it was "containing" the problem and more people were connecting to broadband. The global music industry trade body said sales of legal downloads were worth more than $1bn (£570m) in 2005.   IFPI chairman John K

Singer James Blunt and rock band Kaiser Chiefs are hours away from hearing if they have triumphed at the Brit Awards.   Blunt - who shot to fame in 2005 with his chart-topper You're Beautiful - and Kaiser Chiefs are shortlisted for a total of five awards each. The Brit Award winners will be revealed at a ceremony at Earls Court in London, presented by DJ Chris Evans.   Coldplay, Kanye West, KT Tunstall and Hawaiian surfer-turned-singer Jack Johnson will perform during the show. Coldplay have be

The end of the year is obviously a time of the year for people to reminisce on the music they've listened to these past 366 days, and invariably Coldplay's Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends has popped up with a late year review on the blogs. Here's one such review, posted on the final day of the year:   Rare is the album that can strike the balance between a dominant hit and a larger piece that plays well throughout. However, Coldplay's Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends is not on

Sitting in a pew on Sunday morning seems almost embarrassingly old-fashioned in an era when you can watch a video recreation of the Last Supper on your Palm or get God's word text-messaged to your cellphone.   Bored with your pastor's ramblings? Select a peppier sermon from among hundreds of "godcasts" online. Just pick a topic: Christian dating? Old Testament prophets? Then download it to your MP3 player.   "We dare not change the Gospel. But the method of delivery? We better change it for each

Sitting in a pew on Sunday morning seems almost embarrassingly old-fashioned in an era when you can watch a video recreation of the Last Supper on your Palm or get God's word text-messaged to your cellphone.   Bored with your pastor's ramblings? Select a peppier sermon from among hundreds of "godcasts" online. Just pick a topic: Christian dating? Old Testament prophets? Then download it to your MP3 player.   "We dare not change the Gospel. But the method of delivery? We better change it for each

At 28, Fiona Apple is no longer the fragile teenage flower who languidly strummed her pain on her debut album Tidal. She is no longer the angry, angsty ranter that Chris Rock dubbed Fiona X. She is no longer the combustible performer who might storm off stage minutes into a show.   Question: The SunFest show is the beginning of a few solo dates for you before the start of a longer tour. You were out with Coldplay — what was that like after not touring for so long?   Apple: {.......} the crowds

At 28, Fiona Apple is no longer the fragile teenage flower who languidly strummed her pain on her debut album Tidal. She is no longer the angry, angsty ranter that Chris Rock dubbed Fiona X. She is no longer the combustible performer who might storm off stage minutes into a show.   Question: The SunFest show is the beginning of a few solo dates for you before the start of a longer tour. You were out with Coldplay — what was that like after not touring for so long?   Apple: {.......} the crowds

Fiona Apple, who last toured the US while opening for Coldplay, will get top billing during a summer roadtrip as she continues to back last year's "Extraordinary Machine."   After playing a trio of early May warm-up dates, Apple will tackle a busy itinerary that begins in late June and stretches into mid-August. So far, stops are planned in more than 30 cities. Details are included below.   Prior to its release last October, "Extraordinary Machine," Apple's third studio set, was the subject of s

Fiona Apple, who last toured the US while opening for Coldplay, will get top billing during a summer roadtrip as she continues to back last year's "Extraordinary Machine."   After playing a trio of early May warm-up dates, Apple will tackle a busy itinerary that begins in late June and stretches into mid-August. So far, stops are planned in more than 30 cities. Details are included below.   Prior to its release last October, "Extraordinary Machine," Apple's third studio set, was the subject of s

British record industry bosses have dramatically stepped up the drive to stop illegal music downloading, revealing they are to force five offenders into the courts.   The three men and two women will be sued for full compensation and legal costs - bills which could individually reach tens of thousands of pounds.   They are among some 90 people caught this year by the British Phonographic Industry as part of its mass crackdown on unlawful uploading of tracks by stars such as chart toppers Coldpl

Well, the people have spoken. According to the listeners of BBC 6Music, the best song from the past decade is Clocks, writes What Culture, in a great article on how the world has come to love (or hate) Coldplay. Discuss this article at the messageboard now. Read on for the rest of the article...   I couldn’t be happier with this (Clocks) outcome. Every generation appears to have a band that it’s not “OK” to like. Said band then becomes the butt of every single lazy criticism that can possibly b

Non-rock star rock stars Coldplay endear themselves with music, manner   Way back at the turn of the century, a quartet of nice young working class boys, who met at the University College London, made an album called Parachutes featuring a catchy midtempo ditty with an earworm chorus that touted the emotional versatility of the color yellow.   The band was called Coldplay and it specialized in pleasant, lilting melodies that seemed to easily slip back and forth between mournful and uplifting, pu

Flavorwire recently caught up with the Flaming Lips’ vocalist and master of ceremonies, Wayne Coyne, who amongst other things talked about touring with Coldplay.   The punk-rock born, experimentally-evolved band The Flaming Lips have created a new pinnacle in their psychedelic rock endeavors this week with the release of their twelfth studio album Embryonic. With a strong cult following after albums such as The Soft Bulletin and Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, the hard-core followers (not me, b

An hour before showtime, Chris Martin lopes about the concrete backstage of Winnipeg's MTS Centre in cyan socks and baggy warm-up pants. All around him, roadies bark into headsets, and security guards clench their fists. He seems oblivious. A song is looping in his head – Nickelback's If Today Was Your Last Day – along with thoughts of Marco Polo, a recent obsession, writes The Globe And Mail.   A week earlier, Forbes magazine had named Martin and his bandmates the world's most powerful British

On the surface, Edgar Bronfman and Eric Nicoli would seem to have little in common.   Bronfman is the starry heir to the Seagram whisky fortune, a former songwriter and Hollywood executive. Nicoli is a former food industry boss who launched the Yorkie and Lion chocolate bars. He tucks his T-shirts into his trousers. But for six years the businesses they run have been locked in a sometimes flat-footed waltz.   Last Monday, Nicoli, chairman of EMI, made a call to the New York offices of Bronfman’s

On the surface, Edgar Bronfman and Eric Nicoli would seem to have little in common.   Bronfman is the starry heir to the Seagram whisky fortune, a former songwriter and Hollywood executive. Nicoli is a former food industry boss who launched the Yorkie and Lion chocolate bars. He tucks his T-shirts into his trousers. But for six years the businesses they run have been locked in a sometimes flat-footed waltz.   Last Monday, Nicoli, chairman of EMI, made a call to the New York offices of Bronfman’s

Taken from an article Travis did with The Times, Fran Healy discusses his friendship with Chris Martin:   It is, indeed, interesting to observe how different musicians internalise the pressure. In their latter years, Abba started writing songs about Russian dissidents losing their marbles while waiting for the KGB to knock on the door. The title track of Coldplay’s Viva La Vida concerns an ex-dictator looking back on the immeasurable power he enjoyed. “Exactly,” smiles Payne affectionately. “It’

Travis tell Craig McLean why their fifth album took so long – and why they won’t be eclipsed by Snow Patrol and Coldplay   In the strange setting of a Portakabin dressing room in the Californian desert, Travis are pondering their position as Britain’s favourite purveyors of sensitive, uplifting rock. This, arguably, is the sound they invented. But latterly, in the three-and-half years since the release of their last album, it’s been pinched by Snow Patrol. And before that, it was taken, develope

It's yet another measure of their success. Franz Ferdinand's huge hit Take Me Out has been covered by American satirist Weird Al Yankovic on his new album.   Best known for his Eighties parodies of hits such as Michael Jackson's Beat It, Weird Al has covered the Franz track on Straight Outta Lynwood.   The track, Polkarama, sits alongside parodies of songs by the Black Eyed Peas, Coldplay, Gorillaz, Snoop Dogg and The Pussycat Dolls, among others.   Source: http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk