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Comedy superstar Ricky Gervais is on his way to Ipswich with his new stand-up show. Gervais, who shot to fame with his multi-award winning comedy drama The Office, will be touring with his third live show, called Fame. Despite its glamorous title, Fame will see the star return to his stand-up roots more than he has on previous shows and is set to include more anecdotal and autobiographical stories of Gervais' life. Reading-born Gervais created the now-famous character of office manager David Bre

LAS VEGAS and TEL-AVIV, Israel, Jan. 8 /PRNewswire/ -- Today at the International CES, WAVES AUDIO LTD., a leading provider of audio signal processing technologies, announced that Sir George Martin [pictured] and his son Giles are endorsing Waves audio technology in a new ad series being unveiled at CES.   These powerful endorsements from music industry titans emphasize the capabilities of Waves technologies to improve mainstream consumer electronic products such as mobile phones, personal compu

With European markets going ga-ga over fair trade products, will those with the buying power in South Africa start doing the same? In the rush up to the silly season, here's how you can ensure that what you're buying is ethically produced.   Coldplay frontman Chris Martin writes the words 'fair trade' on his hand each time he performs. And with his DATA campaign (debt, Aids, trade, Africa), U2's Bono and his wife Ali have launched a fair trade fashion line, Edun, and are intent on hammering away

Ricky Gervais cast himself as a background movie actor in the HBO comedy series Extras. But in real life he has been top-of-mind since The Office, which he co-created, wrote and starred in. It burst onto British TV in 2001, and a remake blossomed into a hit on NBC.   Gervais, 45, has small but standout roles in Night at the Museum and the Oscar-buzz sendup For Your Consideration, both in theaters. This month, he starts a sold-out U.K. stand-up tour (titled Fame). He'll appear in next summer's St

LAS VEGAS – Sony tied its consumer products closer to the Internet by adding a small gizmo that hooks its Bravia TVs directly to the Web. The company also announced a redesigned TV, and several more high-def products.   Sony began its CES 2007 performance here on Sunday with a violin recital from Sony BMG recording artist Joshua Bell, then followed with the real highlights: the biggest of which were several scalable internet solutions that embrace high definition content.   Sony displays conti

This week only, stream the entire Last Kiss Soundtrack, including 'Warning Sign' by Coldplay.   Check it out here:   http://music.aol.com/songs/new_releases_full_cds?defaultTab=4&ncid=AOLMUS00050000000012   [thanks Jessie]

Bloc Party say their upcoming second album will challenge Coldplay in terms of accessibility.   Lead singer Kele Okereke says he has purposefully tried to write lyrics which are more direct than those featured on debut ‘Silent Alarm’ on new album ‘A Weekend In The City’, released next month. He tells Billboard, “I wanted to make something that could be more easily understood, without dumbing it down.”   Bassist Gordon Noakes goes one step further, likening the title track to Coldplay. He says,

An interesting article about Coldplay's video 'The Hardest Part' below. Add your comments to their site here   There’s a memorable scene in The 40-Year-Old Virgin where Paul Rudd and Seth Rogan are playing video games and trading “You wanna know how I know you’re gay?” ad libs. One volley from Rudd was “…because you like Coldplay.“   Rudd’s character probably was using “gay” in the pejorative sense, meaning “lame”. (Straights tend to do that a lot, unfortunately.) Me, I don’t think Coldplay i

The Fray's 'How To Save A Life' has passed Coldplay's 'X&Y' as the biggest selling digital album of all-time.   'How To Save A Life' has earned the band two Grammy nominations and has sold more than 2 million copies.   The Fray's 'Over My Head (Cable Car)' has sold over 1 million digital singles and they are one of the few bands to pass the 1 million sales for ringtones. "It's been an amazing ride this year plus a lot of fun and hard work," says singer and pianist Issac Slade in a statement.

With all downloadable tracks now chart-eligible, the face of our beloved UK top 40 is about to change forever.   With effect from January 1st, the UK singles chart rules have been changed. As well as the physical single rules being relaxed (a single is now chart-eligible if 25-minutes long, an increase from the previous 15-minute limit), a larger change is liable to alter the UK charts forever, be it for better or worse.   Any track now available via download is chart eligible and can make its w

Gwyneth Paltrow celebrated both Christmas and Hanukkah this year.   The actress - who is married to Coldplay frontman Chris Martin - decided to honour her late father Bruce by celebrating the Christian and Jewish festivals with her family. A source told Britain's Daily Express newspaper: "Gwyneth made sure her family celebrated both Christmas and Hanukkah. Chris accepted Gwyneth's desire for the children to be brought up understanding their proud Jewish background, even at this early stage."   T

The music world had something for everyone in 2006. London pop critic David Smyth directs last-minute shoppers towards the year's stand-out CDs...   With no Coldplay or James Blunt to swoon to this year, Britain's mums had to make do with the next best thing. Snow Patrol's Eyes Open (Polydor) had Gary Lightbody's tender voice, nonthreatening guitars and plenty of hummable tunes. It quietly overpowered the Arctic Monkeys hype to become 2006's biggest seller.   Close behind was James Morrison with

LONDON - Starcom has won the £32m media planning and buying account for EMI Records after a five-way pitch, including incumbents Carat and Media Campaign, as well as MindShare and the7stars.   The account is currently split between Carat and Media Campaign. The agencies have held the account since 1997.   The record company is home to artists including Coldplay, KanYe West and Robbie Williams.This is the second win this month for a regenerated Starcom, under the stewardship of chief executive L

Another year, another gazzilion festivals. In 2006 they grew, they buzzed, they fell, they body-popped - much like some of you. From the scintillating to the soulless, this is the year that, erm, still is...   Read any of the reviews of 2006 doing the rounds and they?ll all proclaim what an 'amazing' year it was. To an extent they're right. Music was good, spirits were high, the weather was hot and Tom Chaplain did a stint in rehab. But compared to the last two euphoric summer seasons spent traw

The world's leading live entertainment company, today announced it has acquired the largest concert promoter in Spain, Gamerco, and entered into a definitive agreement to acquire a majority stake in a leading concert promoter in France, Jackie Lombard Productions.   When completed, these acquisitions will expand Live Nation's global presence from five to seven of the top ten recorded music markets worldwide, including, in addition to France (the fifth largest) and Spain (the ninth largest), the

Named after a song his father, Chris Martin (of the British band Coldplay), wrote about his mother, actress and celebrity baby Gwyneth Paltrow, baby boy Moses Martin entered into the world under the unusual moniker of Moses, the great divider of the red sea.   Compared to his big sister, Apple, his name didn't make quite as big a splash. He was born Saturday April 8th, weighing 8 lbs, 4 oz, by cesearean section, at Mount Sinai (how fitting!).   Moses made his pictorial debut on his first trip h

LONDON - IPC Media's flagship music website NME.com is to expend its offering across the Atlantic, with the opening of New York and Los Angeles news offices which, IPC says, along with its London presence will make the site a 24-hour operation.   The publisher will also be enhancing the service with the introduction of NME.com Alerts to user's desktops. In addition to increased news coverage, NME.com will introduce increased user interactivity and feedback through the launch of a news comment fe

The songs of Coldplay and Robbie Williams are instantly recognisable to music fans, but the City is more used to the familiar tune of Eric Nicoli's hokey-cokey.   The boss of music group EMI, which counts the artists among its roster of recording stars, has once again failed to pull off a deal after years of on-off attempts.   Talks to sell the company to Permira foundered when the private equity firm failed to offer north of 320p a share. Now the City expects EMI to get together with rival Warn

LONDON — Shares of EMI Group PLC, whose artists include Coldplay and Robbie Williams, dropped more than 8 percent Thursday after the music company said it had ended takeover talks with an unidentified suitor.   EMI, which revealed that it was in talks late last month, said it had not received an offer that "fully reflects the prospects for and value of the company" that could recommended to shareholders. EMI did not name the potential bidder, but it was widely believed to be European private equ

A private equity firm that part owns America’s Warner Music has held preliminary talks with advisers to EMI about resurrecting last summer’s failed bids.   The recent talks – opened without Warner’s authority – were prompted by interest from rival Permira, which is widely expected to make a 320p bid shortly.   Warner, which floated on the New York Stock Exchange in May last year, is still part owned by Bain Capital, Thomas H Lee, Providence Equity Partners and chairman Edgar Bronfman’s investm

CHICAGO (MCT) -- A new report on digital music sales casts doubt on the power of Apple Computer to reshape the music industry and turn around a long-term slump in music sales.   The report, from Forrester Research analyst Josh Bernoff, showed that sales at Apple’s iTunes music store dropped dramatically in the first six months of 2006. Since January, the number of monthly transactions declined 58 percent, while the number of songs purchased each time fell 17 percent, leading to a 65 percent over

EMI Music has inked a pan-European video agreement allowing consumers to watch its promos on Yahoo! Music.   As a result of the deal, announced Monday (Dec. 11), Yahoo! Music will enable European computer users free access to videos from EMI Music artists including Lily Allen, Corinne Bailey Rae, Coldplay, Gorillaz, Janet Jackson, Norah Jones, KT Tunstall and Robbie Williams.   "As the digital music market grows, we must continue to look for new ways to offer consumers the opportunity to enjoy

Record company EMI is partnering with Yahoo! Music to offer free music videos from its roster of artists including Lily Allen, Robbie Williams and Coldplay.   Under the agreement, users of Yahoo!’s Music service across Europe will be able to watch on-demand, streamed music videos for free.   The service allows users to create their own ‘My Video’ list, which tracks recently played videos and those recommended by the user. Revenue will be made from online advertising. Tony Wadsworth, chairman an

Are Gwyneth Paltrow and Coldplay front man Chris Martin on the move again?   On Nov. 28, the star couple listed their 7,396-square-foot ­Tribeca pad for $13.75 million, according to real-estate records. (They're ­reported to have bought it last year for about $7 million.)   Curiously, the listing was pulled the next day. Some wonder if the unlisting might be related to reports that she made "anti-American" comments on a recent press event in Spain. Paltrow has insisted she was misquoted, saying:

Sergio, Belgian representative in the 2002 Eurovision Song Contest and his duet partner Sandrine André have won the final of the TV show Just the two of us.   The programme features professional singers that are joined by other celebrities that never sang before. In the final round, the actress and the songer defeated television host Rani de Coninck and singer Günther Neefs whose father represented Belgium in the contest twice in 1967 and 1969.   During the final, the duos performed two songs th