Articles

The cream of British rock ’n’ roll has descended on the sleepy Canadian city of Toronto – and is no doubt hitting its bars big time.   James Blunt, Oasis, Coldplay, Arctic Monkeys and Richard Ashcroft have all jetted to play gigs, making it their very own Little Britain - as you can see by my pictures in today's Sun newspaper. James, celebrating being No1 in the US with single You’re Beautiful, was snapped looking far from that on a TV show.   Richard was in the city to support the only teetota

2005 was a very memorable year for Youth Group. They signed to the prestigious Epitaph roster, toured Nth America with Death Cab For Cutie, joined The Music for shows in the UK and also performed on Reading & Leeds Festivals.   You may have heard their latest single, 'Forever Young' which was part of the hit TV show ‘The O.C’ and was featured on the Channel 10 promo campaign. It is one of the most played tracks across commercial radio - Australia wide, with the video also being highly rotate

As the great thaw comes we New Englanders have less cause for joy than, say, those poor souls in Alaska or those penguins God clearly hates from that surprise hit documentary, but nonetheless more to celebrate than most. So as the air warms, the days grow longer, and time outside the cave becomes a bit more bearable, here are some modest suggestions for post-winter blues.   On April 3, Chris Martin takes a night off from stumping for Third World debt relief to play the Verizon Wireless Arena in

TORONTO - Even Oasis guitarist-singer Noel Gallagher is impressed at the wealth of British rock bands in T.O. this week.   Oasis played the Air Canada Centre on Monday night with the Arctic Monkeys opening. The Arctic Monkeys headlined their own show at the Phoenix last night. And ex-Verve frontman Richard Ashcroft opens for Coldplay at the ACC tonight and tomorrow night.   "Oh, well, fuckin' hell, good week for Toronto, eh?" Gallagher told the Sun during a Canadian newspaper exclusive intervi

"You can't come to Cleveland without coming to the back!" Chris Martin declared.   So the Coldplay frontman sprinted to the rear of The Q to serenade the cheap seats with "In My Place." The soul-searching ballad found Martin contemplating his role in the cosmic scheme of things, a favorite Coldplay theme. You could say this arena-rocking British quartet found its niche Monday night in front of a near-capacity crowd.   Concert promoters worry about which latter-day acts will pack 'em in when ve

There's commotion in the background, and Richard Ashcroft sounds distracted.   There are, he explains over the phone, "about 40 planes with little propellers" that are giving him a hard time.   In years past, perhaps when he was struggling to deal with the international success of Bittersweet Symphony, one might have thought the former Verve frontman meant he was on a very bad trip. Today, though, he's just talking about his kids' toys.   Now more Dad Richard than Mad Richard -- the moniker han

Exactly one year ago, I was introduced to a small-town Texas group named Eisley (eyes-lee). I was instantly transported to a place of, although kind of lame, to a place of simple bliss. Their debut album Room Noises is captivating, interesting, and a pure pleasure to listen to start to finish. Although nostalgic in its musical and lyrical characteristics, it also has some depth with dark undertones to a number of the songs. Something I rather enjoy.   Eisley is made up of a family the DuPree fam

Shakira, the Colombian pop star, has two therapists. “I like to get a second opinion,” she explained in a recent magazine interview, though sadly she did not reveal what either analyst thinks of her latest English-language album, Oral Fixation Vol. 2, whose cover depicts her as Eve in the Garden of Eden, naked and holding an apple beside the Tree of Knowledge, in whose branches lurks a small baby determinedly reaching out for the forbidden fruit.   Slick yet emotional, Pink follows in the footst

It’s hard to fail when creating a decent dinner so long as you follow the recipe. In the case of Editors’ debut album, The Back Room, the dinner is actually more along the lines of a microwavable meal where Editors thaw out Interpol’s 2004 knockout Antics, re-cook, add a bit of gloss and serve.   The resemblances between these two albums are so frequent and overwhelming that it’s hard to accept Editors as their own entity.   The song is a great representation of what the band has to offer thro

Moody-man pop double bills don't come much better than David Gray and Aqualung, the two acts that sold out Oakland's Paramount Theatre Sunday night. Rescheduled from last October due to Gray's laryngitis, the concert was well worth the wait.   The show began with that rarity of rarities: an opening act that's nearly as good as the main attraction.   Aqualung is the band headed by 34-year-old Brit Matt Hales, a classically trained musician who has been called — and rightly so — Coldplay lite.

In 1966, David Gilmour was a struggling musician playing tiny Paris venues such as Le Bilboquet with his band, Flowers. Forty years on, the voice and guitar of Pink Floyd is playing the third date of his solo tour in the French capital to promote his No 1 album, On an Island. Fans are begging for tickets outside Le Grand Rex, a very plush equivalent of the Brixton Academy.   Just when you think you're drifting into coffee- table wonderland, the guitarist jolts you with the menacing "Take a Breat

BT Business today launches a search to find the UK’s 20 most exciting entrepreneurs as part of a new initiative to celebrate the achievements of small businesses.   “Essence of the Entrepreneur” aims to identify businesses that are doing something unique and that are finding new ways to do business with the help of technology. To celebrate their achievements, renowned celebrity photographer, Perou, will photograph the 20 chosen entrepreneurs.   The photographs, which are intended capture the lif

Richard Ashcroft feels like he's 'married' to Chris Martin after the pair's duet at Live 8.   The Coldplay singer called the former Verve frontman "the best singer in the world" at the global event last summer – and Ashcroft has found the accolade a mixed blessing.   He says, "It's a gift and a curse. It's a gift to be given an opportunity to communicate to billions of people. The curse comes when, for the rest of your life, you’re going to be talking about it."   Read the full article here [Tha

The British are coming! The British are coming!   Aside from the Coldplay/Richard Ashcroft shows Wednesday and Thursday at the Air Canada Centre, there's enough high-profile English acts coming to Toronto in the next two weeks to fill a soccer pitch.   Tomorrow night, Brit-pop bad boys Oasis and buzzed-about newcomers Arctic Monkeys take over the ACC. On Tuesday night, Arctic Monkeys return to play their own headlining gig at the Phoenix.   Read the full article here

Michael Stipe is best known as the lead singer of the popular band R.E.M., but recently, he's been focused on the ongoing devastation in the Gulf Coast region. To raise money for Hurricane Katrina relief efforts, Stipe recorded six versions of the song "In the Sun," by singer-songwriter Joseph Arthur. For some of the versions, he was joined by other stars, such as Chris Martin of Coldplay and Justin Timberlake. All six are available for download on iTunes, with all the proceeds going to Mercy Co

Peruse any British music magazine which has recently profiled Richard Ashcroft and chances are one of three descriptions — egomaniac, self-absorbed and superior to others — will surface.   Quite surprising, considering he opened his conversation to Metro with an amiable, “Hello. How’s the weather over there?” and maintained a gentlemanly tone throughout. This is the same Richard Ashcroft who reputedly once compared his artistry to Jesus Christ? Apparently someone has a personal axe to grind with

Coldplay. Perhaps you've heard of 'em.   The U.K. quartet is undeniably the No. 1 musical event of the 21st century, to date. No other crew of multi-platinum newbies comes close to matching its international stature. Today the group holds the reins of the U.K.'s music scene -- beloved by fans and inspiring no end of copycats on both sides of the water.   It's also the fuel for the EMI Group. When EMI announced the release date for Coldplay's new album, X&Y, was being delayed, the company's s

Chris Martin gave Coldplay fans quite a start last month when he announced at the Brit Awards: "We won't see you for a long time." COLDPLAY QUIT, the headlines screamed. This was news to the British rock 'n' roll quartet, left scrambling to deny rumors of its demise.   "The thing about becoming a bigger band is your statements get made to be bigger than they really are," Martin says.   The guitar-strumming, keyboard-playing singer and his sidekicks -- guitarist Jonny Buckland, bassist Guy Berry

NEW YORK, NY - One of the world's largest online broadcast networks and a global leader in online video solutions, today launched UndercoverHD.com, one of the first high-definition music websites dedicated to showcasing music videos, performances, news and interviews.   UndercoverHD.com is an extension of ROO's already successful online music video offering, which features a built-in audience of more than 2.5 million unique users worldwide. Over the past couple of years, ROO's Undercover.com.au

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

Film and pop stars are furious over a new website that can publish details of celebrity sightings within minutes - with a map showing where the star was spotted.   Popular gossip site Gawker.com's "stalker map" uses the Google map service to plot the location of the famous face as soon as possible after the tip comes in. Some readers even send in details of their sighting straight away by phone e-mail and extra staff have been employed to sift through the messages, so close to real-time tracking

Dinners, concerts and even some salmon. Now and again, a policeman's lot is not so unhappy.   The PSNI only introduced a register for the receipt of hospitality and gifts last April - years after many other public bodies. Entries for Chief Constable Sir Hugh Orde were kept from the start of 2005, in advance of the new policy taking effect.   There were four disclosed cases of Sir Hugh accepting hospitality from the private sector during the year. Three were for concerts at the Odyssey, courtesy

It sounds like a surreal dream or the beginnings of a corny joke: Portuguese-Canadian singer Nelly Furtado, hip-hop producer Timbaland and Coldplay main man Chris Martin walk into a studio in the middle of the night.   They jam together for hours, Martin provides some comic relief with a James Brown impression, and by the time dawn breaks they've finished an amazing new song.   But sometimes the strangest of bedfellows can make for great musical collaborations, and fans of both urban beats and E

It's a strange time for Gary Numan. At the end of the 1970s, the British science-fiction freak was the king of synth-pop. In the mid-'90s, long after his star had faded, he turned his back on the comparatively lightweight subgenre in favour of a continuing fascination with dark, industrial goth rock. Yet now, 25 years after he first "retired", things sound curiously familiar.   Last year, Coldplay - as traditional a rock band as you'll currently hear - worked Kraftwerk's Computer Love into their

MTV has chosen Grammy nominated Producer and International DJ, Jay-J, to perform at the MTVAustralia Video Music Awards 2006 (MTV AVMAs) at the Sydney Super Dome on April 12, 2006. As the show's official DJ for the red carpet and MTV AVMAs, audiences will experience the 'Godfather's' signature sexy, soulful house sounds, blended with funk, soul, and disco to create his contemporary brand of R&B.   Jay-J's been the Dance Music industry's best kept secret since 1990. Word of his infectious g