Articles

While tickets for 2006's festivals sell out one after another in the absence of Glasto this summer, Mean Fiddler Managing Director Melvin Benn has announced that a large new festival is to emerge.   Benn told 6music that the festival would be a Mean Fiddler venture, and would take place in the east of England. As yet he has revealed no further details, but commented: "More and more people are growing up with festivals being on the TV, and festivals being on Radio 1 and 6music, all that sort of

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

Promoters auction off best seats   Concert promoters used to sell tickets at set-in-stone prices - even if those prices went up every year.   But a new trend has artists and promoters forcing fans to bid on the best seats in the house - something they only experienced before from rogue Internet entrepreneurs or scalpers.   Frustrated by the astronomical prices some Internet companies get for resold ducats, America's largest ticketing agency, Ticketmaster, has convinced top artists from Coldplay

This year’s Twenty-First Annual Induction Ceremony into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame will be held on March 13, 2006 in New York at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel. The artists being inducted this year are: Black Sabbath, Blondie, Miles Davis, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Sex Pistols, and receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award are Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss.   The Sex Pistols entered the British invasion in the second wave (1978-1985), where the strength of the “new wave” inflated the popularity of British musi

U2 has maintained their longevity with well-crafted songs and a great live show. They exposed themselves on the world's stage in 1985 on Live Aid showing that anthemic quality they still possess. They became the biggest band in the world with 1987s sadly beautiful album The Joshua Tree and Rocks Hottest Ticket on the cover of Time magazine.   They reinvented themselves with 1991s Achtung Baby incorporating industrial and electronic influences creating another masterpiece and arguably their best

Nestled in the antebellum capital of Georgia, the campus of Georgia College & State University boasts traditional college fare: spacious greens, historic architecture and a steady stream of students scurrying about with familiar white headphones dangling from their ears.   But here, the students listening to their Apple iPods while walking between classes or glancing at them before catching a bus might just as well be studying for calculus as listening to the latest from Coldplay.   At least

A Young songwriter is aiming to follow in the footsteps of Coldplay star Chris Martin after making it to the final of a music award.   Peter Ellis, 16, a fifth-year pupil at James Gillespie's high school, has beaten hundreds of hopefuls from across Britain to become one of 30 young people through to the finals of the Make It Break It (MIBI) awards.   Now songs written by Peter and the other contenders will be listened to and evaluated by some of the best-known figures in the music industry, inc

Liz Phair struts her stuff, Anthony Kiedis has an Oasis moment   Liz Phair, supermodel? The singer-songwriter made her catwalk debut in Los Angeles recently as part of a GM pre-Academy Awards showcase for cars, fashion and music. If it sounds surreal for the architect of Exile in Guyville to be strolling down the runway alongside Lindsay Lohan, Mischa Barton, Eva Longoria and Carmen Electra, Phair thought the same thing at first. "I was kind of shocked," she says of the invitation to participate

Teasing festival fans by declaring that there will be 'a lot of surprises' at next year's Glastonbury, Michael Eavis has given a glimpse of what could be in store by revealing he's in talks with Dire Straits...   Speaking on XFM's breakfast show this morning, Eavis refused to be drawn on who might be playing at next year's festival - that was until presenter Shaun Keavney joked that Dire Straits should be asked to headline.   Eavis cooly replied: "Oh, we're talking to them. They might be there .

Coldplaying's friends over at Rolling Stone's the Smoking Section report further on Coldplay in New York...   The Strokes kicked off their U.S. tour in grand style in New York -- you'll dig the new light show and, finally, encores! In the house were friends and family, including the dudes in Coldplay.   CP fans freaked after Chris Martin declared at the Brit Awards, "We won't see you for a long time," fueling speculation that the band might split up. But Martin assures the SS that the end is not

We've spent three decades laughing at soft rock and its fluffy-haired fans. So why is it suddenly OK to like it again?   You could argue that the soft rock revival has been with us since the turn of the century. The epic piano ballads of Coldplay and their opportunistic brethren may have their roots in Radiohead's more elegiac moments, but over the years their surfaces have been sanded down and glossed until they sound like something else entirely.   One online encyclopedia's definition claims "

EMI is kicking off a review of its £14m UK media planning and buying business.   The record company, home to artists including Coldplay and KanYe West, has already embarked on a market-bymarket review across Europe which excluded the UK.   However, it is understood EMI will now hold a separate pitch for its UK media account, which Carat has held since 1997. Reports have linked the7stars to the EMI account. However, sources said that the account will be reviewed thoroughly with other major agenci

Carey Ott's melodic pop is catchy and appealing   Former Chicagoan Carey Ott's new LP is one of a good-sized handful of anticipated 2006 releases from Nashville's rock and pop community — and judging by early tastes of it, might be one of the discs with the widest appeal.   Due out in May on Nashville label Dualtone, Ott's Lucid Dream straddles a couple of melodic lines comfortably, with sounds that fit in the pop singer-songwriter landscape with fellow Nashvillian David Mead and former Nashvill

A Year to Remember at Halifax's 2006 Junos Awards   The Juno Awards have been getting bigger and bigger every year, but it looks like this year's trip to Halifax could prove to be the best destination yet for the music awards with a number of announcements over the last month that are sure to inspire fans. Among the 11 musical performances that have been announced, some of the biggest names include Coldplay, Michael Bublé, Nickelback, the Black Eyed Peas, and Massari.   Since CTV took over broa

Steve Jobs has had much to celebrate lately. But the Apple CEO was particularly happy in February when he announced that the iTunes Music Store had sold its billionth song, to a teenager in Michigan who had bought a copy of Coldplay's "Speed of Sound."   That milestone is all the more impressive when you remember that Apple (Research) has numerous competitors in the digital music world. Yahoo (Research) Music Unlimited and the legal incarnation of Napster are gunning for iTunes customers. Sony (

TAIPEI (Billboard) - Yahoo China's music search engine has turned up bad news for the music industry and possible legal action against the global Web portal.   In a situation that seems to mirror that of market-leading -- and already sued -- local portal http://www.baidu.com, Yahoo China's music pages link directly to unlicensed downloads and streams of songs by domestic and international artists.   Other links to such acts as Eminem and Coldplay represent the remaining major labels. Independent

MUMBAI: MTV International is looking to grow the brand in Europe further through the mobile route. It has announced a deal with T-Mobile to deliver MTVNI’s diverse portfolio of entertainment brands to mobile TV subscribers across multiple European markets.   The deal, which sees MTVNI’s premier content being made available for the first time to T-Mobile subscribers for mobile TV in Germany and Austria and later in the UK, is a significant step forward in building the company’s European digital

A new CD-trading website, launching Tuesday, could be the first of a new wave of sites that give consumers a way to legitimately get nearly free music.   The site, Lala.com, carries no inventory; it's more like eBay than used CD sites such as Djangomusic.com.   How it works: Users start by listing all their CDs. Then they look at menus of available CDs or through other people's CD collections, clicking on those they'd like to receive.   A request, say, for Coldplay's X&Y, generates a blind

Music companies including EMI, the company behind Coldplay, are under investigation for alleged price fixing in the surging online market.   In the latest blow to the troubled music industry, officials from the US Justice Department are poised to issue subpoenas to leading players as they open an inquiry into the issue.   Although the investigators were tight-lipped yesterday, it is understood that the UK’s EMI, along with Germany’s Bertelsmann, Warner Music of the US and Japan’s Sony are centra

Patio season is coming to Halifax two months early this year thanks to the Junos.   Although restaurants and bars normally open their patios in May, Halifax regional council voted Tuesday to change the rules to accommodate the crowds expected for the big music event. Patios will now open on March 27, four days before the Juno festivities are set to begin.   The awards gala on April 2 will be hosted by former Baywatch babe Pamela Anderson, and will feature performances by Coldplay, Bryan Adams an

“Dylan’s got the greatest song library ever."   "Of course, Bob Dylan can’t sing, can he, Chris? He just sort of whines away about some old shit and he can’t really play harmonica, can he, Chris? And anyway, what do you mean he wrote that Guns N’ Roses song? I don’t believe it. Anyway, he can’t even sing properly and what with that harmonica… blah blah blah, Chris… blah blah blah… [keeps going till end of life as we know it]."   Of all the world’s millions of misconceptions and generalisation

US music lovers are fuming about copy-protected CDs but in the UK they are rare. Is it because the record labels trust us - or fear us?   If you only read blogs, you could have believed that last November all CD buyers were convulsed with fury over Sony BMG’s use of copy-protection software to prevent people ripping some 50-odd CDs - from internationally known artists such as Foo Fighters, Alicia Keys and Santana - to MP3s. True, some bloggers were, but in the UK it was a non-issue: none of the

Pop and rock musical acts have been crossing the pond in waves ever since The Beatles came to America more than four decades ago, and many signs seem to indicate that 2006 will be another big year for performers from the United Kingdom.   Coldplay, Franz Ferdinand and Keane have brought big shows to America during the past two years. All three were among the nominees at the Grammys earlier this month, as were hip-hop act Floetry and the animated supergroup known as Gorillaz -- also both British

GWEN STEFANI [pictured], JAMIE FOXX, 50 CENT, DAVE MATTHEWS, COLDPLAY, SEAN "DIDDY" COMBS and BONO all star in the new thirty-second ad for the One campaign to fight extreme poverty and AIDS.   The spot, which also features actors TOM HANKS, GEORGE CLOONEY, CAMERON DIAZ, PENELOPE CRUZ and BRAD PITT, debuts Wednesday exclusively online at aimtoday.com.   One was founded in 2005, and includes an international coalition of over two million people and seventy of America's leading humanitarian and ad

After lingering at No. 2 for three straight weeks, James Blunt's "You're Beautiful" tops the Billboard Hot 100 this week. As reported yesterday (March 1), the U.K. singer/songwriter thus becomes the first British artist to reach No. 1 on the chart since Elton John achieved the feat with "Candle in the Wind 1997/Something About the Way You Look Tonight."   "You're Beautiful" ends the five-week run of Beyoncé's "Check on It" featuring Slim Thug, which falls to No. 2 on the Hot 100. The Blunt track