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 teetotal rocker there, Chris Martin, and his band, while Arctic Monkeys, who have supported Oasis, were due to do their own gig last night. Meanwhile, Morrisey has done a Noel Gallagher by jumping on the Arctic bandwagon after slagging them off. Yesterday I told how Noel said last year he’d put money on the Monkeys not making it big.

Now he’s a huge fan. Morrissey is on the wagon with him after moaning at the Texas South By South West Festival that the lads hadn’t worked hard enough for success – then backtracking. He has apologised to Alex Turner and his mates saying: “I was wrong about their success being too sudden. That’s how it happened for THE SMITHS. I should shut it.” Big Mouth strikes again...

Source: thesun.co.uk

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 rotated across Channel V, Video Hits & MTV. Last week the single debuted at #2 on the ARIA singles chart and again firmly holds it’s position this week, a monster result for this Sydney quartet.

The year ahead is already gearing up to be another hectic one. Youth Group are set to support Coldplay on their sold out Australian tour in June/July. They also recently wrapped up a national Big Day Out tour and then headed back to the US where they are currently playing more shows including the prestigious Coachella & Noisepop festivals.

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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 Manchester with his band Coldplay, where he will kindly relieve you of a mere $39.50 to $75 and, one imagines from his stated convictions, redistribute it to someone poorer than himself … Like Gwyneth maybe, or Apple certainly. (Apple is his daughter. Kids are poor. It is not part of their charm.)

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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 interview on Monday night at the ACC. "It doesn't really get any better than that, does it?"Gallagher says this particular confluence of artists would never happen in his native country.

"Promoters wouldn't put Coldplay and Oasis in the same city in the same week. I'm sure the bands wouldn't give a f--k. I'm sure they'd (sell) but I'm not sure whether (promoters) would be prepared to take the risk of whether they would or not."

Gallagher said he was unable to stick around Toronto to see any of the gigs by his fellow British rock stars as Oasis was flying down to Milwaukee last night for a gig as they finish off their last two weeks of a world tour that began in March 2005.

Gallagher, who doesn't write on the road and is planning on taking the summer off, doesn't expect the band to be back in the studio until at least the fall with "no serious work" until next year.

"I don't sit down and write words 'cause I think that's not a very noble thing to do on the road," he said. "I think on the road, you should drink and f--kin' live the life. Working and touring doesn't mix for me. I'll write when I get home."

Oasis last album, Don't Believe The Truth, was largely seen as a return to form with Gallagher sharing more songwriting duties than ever before with brother-singer Liam and other members of the band. But Gallagher was wary of the theory that increased competition will only make his songwriting better the next time out.

"I don't know. Every time we have a successful album, we always f--k the next one up," he only half-joked.

More seriously, Noel said he doesn't consider Liam a songwriting competitor nor vice-versa.

"Liam doesn't look at it like that either," he said. "It's not a case of competition really. I couldn't write a song called The Meaning Of Soul, lyrics like that, 'cause I'm almost 20 years into being a songwriter. Liam couldn't write a song like The Importance Of Being Idle, 'cause it's just not in him yet. Liam's songwriting is very youthful. Like Love Like A Bomb and The Meaning Of Soul is kind of very youthful songwriting. I've had that with Rock 'N' Roll Star from a long, long, long time ago."

Ultimately, Gallagher said, their sound will never change drastically from record to record.

"We're really pleased with what we sound like," he said. "We're really pleased with what we are. The identity we've carved out over the best part of 15 years. That's not something that we're about to toss up in the air and become a space-reggae f--kin' band, because I'm not just into that. I don't want to challenge my audience because they're friends of mine. I don't want to be like f--kin' saying to them, 'Well, I'm on a musical journey come along if you want but it might go a bit jazzy.' It's like we make Oasis music man and you all know what it sounds like."

Judging from Oasis' longevity, Gallagher may be on to something.

"The songs are not tied to any particular era or the lyrics don't deal with any ... you know we've never had our George Bush era," he said. "Or our 'Let's save the world, famine-in-Africa, album,' or our weirdy-beardy album. The songs are timeless. The lyrics, they're either profound or it's nonsense. That always lasts forever."

St. Paddy's Day toasts started at 'half-nine that morning' for Liam

Liam Gallagher gave whole new meaning to the term "Top Of The Morning" this past St. Patrick's Day.

Brother Noel Gallagher told the Sun in a Canadian newspaper exclusive this week in Toronto that his sibling hit the green beer early that day in New York City.

"I've got to say that Liam did it for all of us," said Gallagher. "I bumped into him in Soho, it would have been about mid-day and he'd been drinking since half-nine that morning. I was with my girlfriend so we were kind of furniture shopping 'cause we're moving house (in London) but I'm glad Liam was doing it for the lads."

When it's suggested that Noel, 38, has finally grown up, he responds: "I find drinking at half-nine in the morning is a bit excessive. I can kind of start drinking at half-nine at night, do you know what I mean?, and I can kind of go on drinking til half-nine in the morning. I wouldn't start at half-nine in the morning. I'd be in bed by mid-day."

Unbelievably, Gallagher experienced his first-ever St. Patrick's Day in The Big Apple.

"They do take it very seriously don't they?" said Gallagher. "I've seen Chinese people with green bowler hats on and I'm not sure the Chinese people knew what the f--k was going on, to be honest. To see them walking around the streets, as if someone's just stuck this green bowler hat on them (and said) 'Smile!'"

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Source: http://jam.canoe.ca

"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 veteran top draws such as U2 are no longer on the road. Martin, guitarist Jonny Buckland, bass player Guy Berryman and drummer Will Champion proved they're up to the task and made good on the "U2 of their generation" hype. These eager-to-please blokes from London are still in their 20s, but they can work an enormo-dome like old pros.

Read the full review here

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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 handed to him by the British press during his '90s heyday -- Ashcroft is comfortably immersed in domestic life.

And while it led to a long break leading up to his third post-Verve solo album, this year's underrated Keys to the World, the Britrock icon -- opening for Coldplay tonight and tomorrow at Air Canada Centre -- claims fatherhood as a source of creative inspiration rather than stagnation.

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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 family and a family friend, who plays drums. Growing up playing music, the family was signed to Warner Brother Records and has toured all over the country with Coldplay

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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 footsteps of Alanis Morissette, who brought anger and anguish to adult-oriented rock on Jagged Little Pill (which Pink seems to allude to when she sings about a “bitter little pill” in “Long Way to Happy”). Whereas male performers such as James Blunt and Coldplay make emotional music that says little about their emotions, Pink follows a tradition of young female singers who manage to sound simultaneously overwrought, candid and polished.

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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 throughout the record. It’s what a drunken late-night jam with Coldplay and The Bravery might sound like.

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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 his too-brief 35-minute set, keyboardist Hales and his trio (drums, bass, guitar) played seven songs, mostly from Hales' first American release (a compilation of his two British CDs), "Strange and Beautiful."

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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 Breath", whose majestic sweep recalls "One Slip" from A Momentary Lapse of Reason. The song features a blistering solo suggesting that Gilmour is the missing link between Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton and younger players such as Coldplay's Jonny Buckland.

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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 lifestyle of the entrepreneurs as well as what it is that makes their businesses unique, will go on to feature in a high-profile London exhibition.

Perou has photographed celebrities from Coldplay and U2 through to Tracey Emin, Damien Hirst and David Beckham. He has worked on high-profile fashion campaigns for Vivienne Westwood, shooting her two most recent campaigns and has shot covers and features for Vogue, GQ, Arena, and Dazed and Confused amongst others.

A panel of experts, including Coffee Republic’s Sahar Hashemi, Teresa Graham OBE, John Dunsmure, the managing director of British Chambers of Commerce Enterprises and Gavin Dollin, head of Business Link National Partnerships, will choose the 20 small businesses.

Source: Various

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 [Thanks Nik]

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.

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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 Corps.

In January 2006, Stipe traveled to New Orleans and returned shaken by what he saw. Several weeks later, he spoke to Beliefnet about the trip, his efforts on behalf of Katrina's victims, and the role of God and faith in natural disasters and their aftermath.

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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 the former Verve frontman.

Yet renewed interest in Ashcroft was truly sparked when he joined Coldplay for a rendition of Bittersweet Symphony during London’s Live 8 concert last July. It was there that Coldplay frontman Chris Martin introduced Ashcroft as “the best singer in the world.”

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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 stock price plunged. That's real power in the industry.

The evolution from nobodies on the bill at a University College of London mixer to megastar stadium fillers was fast as lightning. The three huge-selling albums to its credit came out faster than Radiohead takes to record one project.

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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 Berryman and drummer Will Champion -- headline a concert Monday at The Q. "We're having such a good time on this tour," Martin says by phone from Tampa, Fla. Coldplay was there earlier this month to shoot a video for its next single, the R.E.M.-inspired "The Hardest Part."

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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 music site has featured video interviews of a wide range of both mainstream and up-and-coming recording artists including All American Rejects, Blink 182, Coldplay, INXS, James Blunt, John Legend, Keane, KT Tunstall, Linkin Park, The Magic Numbers, My Chemical Romance, Rob Thomas, The Subways, and Yellowcard. Now launching in the US, UndercoverHD will showcase new, exclusive music interviews and live performances from the SXSW Music Festival 2006 in Austin, Texas.

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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, punctuated with anthemic choruses worthy of U2. With the testosterone-fueled nu metal crowd near the top of the charts and Radiohead confusing fans with the prickly, electronic-laced Kid A, Coldplay's familiar, alt-rock sound seemed like an oasis for folks who like to wave their hands back and forth and sing along at concerts.

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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 is possible.

The Gawker Stalker site was launched yesterday in New York and among the first Hollywood stars mentioned were Julia Roberts and Colin Farrell, while Chris Martin, of pop group Coldplay was also seen.

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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 of the centre itself, and the fourth was for a dinner from HP Ireland.

Two of Sir Hugh's Odyssey concert nights were just before Christmas - December 21 and December 23 - when Coldplay and Rod Stewart were in town.

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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 English wisp rock can hear the results of the unlikely trio's session later this month when Furtado releases her new studio album, Loose.

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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 Talk. Perhaps 2005's best Australian album, Beams, by the Presets, was created largely on keyboards. And it seems everyone who hadn't caught on in 2004 has finally bought the synth-tastic Hot Fuss, by the Killers."It is funny, isn't it?" Numan says. "This whole sort of synth thing now appears to be bigger and bigger everywhere and I've kind of gone the other way. But I think, just, that's the nature of the way I am. I am so anti-nostalgia.

"The easiest way to describe it is: I'm much more interested in what I'm gonna be doing tomorrow, musically, than what I did yesterday."

He points to his reluctance to re-release a couple of his songs that have re-entered the public consciousness thanks to other artists: the Sugababes's Freak Like Me - "which was really my Are Friends Electric? with a different vocal" - and Where's Your Head At? by Basement Jaxx, which speeded up a loop from Numan's 1979 track M.E.

"I'm very flattered and very proud that Sugababes are No. 1 with it again, but I'm proud that they're No. 1 with it again. If I was No 1 with it again - yeah, the money would be nice, but I'd feel like I'd sold my soul. It's just not what I want to do. I want to be successful with the music that I'm making [now]."

It wasn't always how Numan felt. His most famous song, Cars, was re-released in Britain in 1995 as the soundtrack to an advertisement for Carling Premier lager. The new version was titled Cars (Premier Mix).

This turned out to be the "lesson that made me realise that that's not the thing to do" after he wound up on the English chart show Top of the Pops. "I get there and I think, 'What the f--- am I doing?"' Numan says. "There I am, doing a song which was, y'know, a hit a decade before, and everyone else is doing their new stuff and I'm, 'Never again."'

The music he has been making since has culminated in a new album, Jagged. The obvious reference point for its brooding soundscapes and abrasive electronic rock is the US industrial powerhouse Nine Inch Nails.

Numan acknowledges the kind of symbiosis that exists between him and such bands. "I tend to listen to things that I think I can learn from. If you talk about Marilyn Manson and Nine Inch Nails, for example, they've covered my songs and they talk about me being influential on them. And now I definitely listen to them to try and get ideas.

"It's not something where you take an idea and just repeat it. You're looking for little sparks that will ignite your own imagination and your own ideas that you then, hopefully, can turn into something which is unique to you.

"I think that is a win-win situation for everybody. Y'know, the music that we are making constantly improves and progresses, the music that the fans are being given is constantly evolving and fresh. Who loses out of that? Nobody."

Source: smh.com.au

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 grooves has spread quickly since his 2005 CONNECTED world tour and caught the ear of Ean Thorley, Executive Producer, MTV AVMAs, in his search for DJ talent for this year's show which is being broadcast live to a potential worldwide audience of 1 billion people via television, radio and Internet.Adding Jay-J to the lineup promises to give MTV's audience the element of surprise they've come to expect. Says Thorley, "We are really excited to have Jay-J play at the MTV AVMAs 2006, it promises to be a great night."

About MTV Australia and the MTV AVMAs 2006

MTV Australia is a 24-hour music and entertainment network targeting 12-32 year olds on the FOXTEL, Optus, AUSTAR and AUSTAR Digital platforms. The MTV AVMAs acknowledges the best in Australian and International music in a variety of viewer-voted categories. Winners in each category of the MTV AVMAs will be determined by viewers via SMS and web voting. Nominees for the MTV AVMAs 2006 include: U2, Madonna, Mariah Carey, Coldplay, Kanye West, Green Day, 50 Cent, Black Eyed Peas, Snoop Dogg and Kelly Clarkson. The show will be broadcast live from the Sydney Super Dome across MTV's global network of music channels and syndication partnerships as well as programming on VH1, Austereo Radio, FOXTEL, AUSTAR and OPTUS platforms.

With over 120 releases bearing his name, a Grammy® nomination for his remix of Jill Scott's 'He Loves Me' (2003), Jay-J's brand of contemporary R&B has largely remained privy to patrons of the world's most elusive nightclubs, where A-list clientele can be veiled from paparazzi. As both a DJ and Producer, Jay-J has consistently generated quality music earning him recognition from his peers as one of the most influential, respected and prolific individuals in the dance music industry. He also produces syndicated DJ mix shows for XM Satellite, Music Choice, KNGY 92.7 FM (San Francisco), KBIG 104.3 FM (Los Angeles) and creates over 50 special mix shows per year for additional radio stations worldwide.