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Arctic Monkeys may have been flush with the British success of Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not — which became the fastest-selling debut album in U.K. history after moving more than 360,000 copies in a single week back in January — but while the album notched the Arctics a very respectable U.S. opening at #24, the band couldn't match the success of two tween-targeting pop collections: the soundtrack to the Disney Channel original movie "High School Musical" and the ninth installmen

Sugababes are about to head out on a UK tour, which will see the girls performing a single Scottish date at Glasgow's Clyde Auditorium on March 20, before guesting on Take That's reunion tour.   It's bound to be an exciting year, but Keisha admits she was gutted that her group failed to win a single Brit award - despite selling more than 700,000 copies of their recent album Taller In More Ways.   "The girls will turn around and say they didn't mind but I was disappointed," she confessed. "I wa

Though rumors of their breakup were greatly exaggerated, Coldplay are in fact already writing new songs for their fourth album. Speaking to the NME, the band revealed they have been working on new material during soundchecks on their current world tour.   Drummer Will Champion [pictured] said that the band is considering building their own studio for future recording. "We'll have a month here and a month there - we'll think about writing and where we want to go to next," Champion said. "We're tr

If the members of Coldplay really were sick of themselves, they certainly got better fast.   While rumors circulated that the band would break up after Chris Martin told the crowd at last week's BRIT Awards that "it's going to be a few years before you see us again," Coldplay has apparently decided to hang around for a bit.   The band told NME.com that they have an entire album's worth of new material and are making plans to enter the studio to begin recording.   Read the full article here

As more and more consumers have become aware of digital rights management, they’ve taken to spitting out the technology’s acronym, rather than merely speaking it. “Oh, it’s that darn DRM again!” a consumer will screech, flecks of saliva spewing from his mouth. “Stupid DRM won’t let me do this!” It’s a level of venom usually reserved for overzealous traffic cops, or really annoying telemarketers.   DRM has been around a long time in the form of copy protection for software and games, so why such

Gwyneth Paltrow is taking her critically acclaimed stage performance to the big screen in Proof, just released nationwide. She talks about her excitement at her second pregnancy - and tells Eileen Condon why she and Chris Martin are not as dull as people think   Actress Gwyneth Paltrow is blossoming, not least because of her little girl Apple, the two-year old who has completely transformed her life.   The reason the willowy star has never looked better is that she's pregnant with her second chi

Riaan Wolmarans reviews former Verve vocalist, Richard Ashcroft's latest offering Keys to the World   Tall and gangly, with shaggy hair topping his scrawny frame, erstwhile Verve vocalist Richard Ashcroft sounds more solid, gritty and weary of life than one might expect. He’s been quiet for some time, probably licking his wounds after the failure of his second solo album, Human Conditions (though he did appear on stage with Coldplay at last year’s Live 8 concert in London to perform The Verve’s

We all know that Kaiser Chiefs picked up three awards at the Brits and U2 won five Grammys.   The Baftas have only just been handed out and it's the Oscars next. Tonight, the Shockwaves NME Awards will be broadcast live from Hammersmith Palais in London on E4.   Once again Kaiser Chiefs lead nominations with a record six nods, Franz Ferdinand and Oasis both have five and newcomers Arctic Monkeys have four.   But is it getting confusing? Are there too many award ceremonies around today? Vote in o

The star of real-time TV drama 24 no longer has the time to unearth new music. Can Paul Mardles help him out and do his leg work?   Sutherland is, by his own admission, still hooked on the music that he soaked up as a child. He loves the Beatles, particularly the White Album, and Elton John's three finest Seventies albums (Madman Across the Water, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, Captain Fantastic). Dylan, too, will always have a place in his affections, not least because 'Lay Lady Lay' is indelibly l

There is a highly addictive drug out on the market that leaves no prisoners. It leeches on to men, women, and children. Once sucked in one needs it from the moment they wake up to the moment they go to sleep. It is in every home and every office and it could get to you too. That drug is MySpace.com.   MySpace has swept the nation and could take over the world. Started in January, 2004 in Los Angeles by Tom Anderson, the man with over 56 million friends. The Web site that opened as a forum to pro

Liam Gallagher joined brother Noel Gallagher of Oasis at a press conference in Seoul on Tuesday. Andy Bell, sick with a cold, was absent from the photo session but performed at the concert.   When asked of his take on newer groups from the U.K. like Coldplay, Noel flat out denied feeling threatened in any way.   "Oasis is not Coldplay as is Coldplay not Oasis. The music we make are completely different," said Gallagher but didn’t hesitate to add that Coldplay is one of the most successful bands

First is the bass player in a sweater vest. For those of you who haven't received your latest issue of Cargo, argyle is the new black.   Then there is the drummer in his prep school uniform. The irony should scream at you, that is if Angus Young hadn't popularized the boarding school look 30 years ago. The guitarist is in midflight rock ecstasy, but the trampoline is nowhere to be seen. And finally the girl at the mike is looking bored, probably contemplating how fame became so pedestrian.   Su

MegaStar says: ‘The grass is always greener, Chris.’   When Chris Martin gave everyone a scare at last week’s Brit Awards by saying we wouldn’t see Coldplay for a ‘long time’, what he really meant is that he wants to team-up with other artists.   Sorry about that, Will and er, the other Coldplay lads.   According to reports, mop-haired Martin is rumoured to be moonlighting with rapper Kanye West, and has guested on a track for Nelly Furtado’s third album Loose.Canadian crooner Nelly, who had a o

How EMI and the music industry learned to stop worrying and love the digital download   When Seagram bought Polygram in 1998 for $10.6 billion, the French-born ceo Alain Levy found himself out of a job. Not for bad performance: Levy had turned PolyGram into the world's largest music company by a combination of organic growth and strategic acquisitions at a time when CD sales were booming. After the company was sold, Levy, then aged 51, spent several years consulting and pondering the state of a

It seems to have taken a lifetime for this album to come out. After all, legend has it that it was hearing this record playing in Parlophone HQ that inspired Chris Martin to rewrite Coldplay's X&Y album, and that's been out for ages!   Worth the wait? Well, it's more instantly grabbing and a lot less namby pamby than the Coldplay record, but at the same time there are obvious signs of this being the debut record of a band still to truly find their forte. It seems for a lot of the time that M

As Coldplay veered into "Yellow" territory at its sold-out Pepsi Center show Sunday night, celebrating the song that started it all for the English quartet, the band seemed revitalized and strong and, most unexpectedly, understatedly simple.   Previously, the band has played this single awash in obnoxious yellow floodlights, but here they simply rocked it with a straightforward curl of the lip. No gimmicky yellow, no over- the-top trickery, no redundant eye-poking ... until the giant, canary-co

Few pop stars - saints Bob and Bono aside - have the power to shake the corporate world, but British group Coldplay have achieved the feat not once but twice within 12 months.   Last March, when EMI announced the band were delaying the release of their new album, the company’s shares fell steeply. And when the news broke on Thursday that singer Chris Martin had announced the band’s break-up, anxious selling forced several points off the company’s share price within minutes of the markets opening

Coldplay took the opportunity of the Brit Awards to announce that they were going to split up. Well, not exactly, nothing so reliably final. They're going to go into hiding. "People are fed up with us," said the front man whose colourless name I've already forgotten, "and so are we."   Now, celebrities of all types, and this celebrity in particular, are notoriously chary of using the media to take the public's temperature. We media mislead and often lie - we do it on purpose, because we're bitte

Brit Awards this year slumped to their worst-ever TV ratings.   Just 4.5million viewers tuned into ITV1's coverage of the annual music bash - less than half the audience from 10 years ago. Then, 11.1million watched as Take That and Oasis picked up gongs - even though Jarvis Cocker's infamous protest against Michael Jackson was cut from the show. A music industry insider said: "This is a hammer blow. Everyone is scratching their heads and asking what went wrong."   Ricky Wilson's Kaiser Chiefs

Will there be another U2, Led Zeppelin, or Beatles? Some observers point to Coldplay - the sensitive British band fronted by Gwyneth Paltrow's hubby, currently on tour across the US - as a band with the potential to attain Pink Floydian proportions.   But to do so, Coldplay and other would-be heirs to the throne will have to build a base audience, grow in clubs, thrive in theaters, then move on to arenas and stadiums. They will have to capture a young audience that stays with them as both band a

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

In January, Broadway smash Wicked was the top overall performer with 6.5% of all tickets sold and 30.9% of theater tickets sold. Billy Joel was the top concert attraction with 10.4% of the musical performance tickets and 2.7% of the overall tickets.   Following are the category leaders for January:   Top January Events Overall   1 Wicked 2 THQ Supercross 3 Billy Joel 4 Monty Python Spamalot 5 Denver Broncos 6 Houston Rodeo 7 New York Yankees 8 Boston Red Sox 9 The Odd Couple 10 Coldplay   Source

Last year was the best for British music since 1998, according to figures released today.   Half of all the albums bought in the UK in 2005 were by homegrown acts - a total of 57 million records and the highest share for seven years. The most successful British acts last year were James Blunt, Kaiser Chiefs, Coldplay and Robbie Williams.   In 1998 the UK album charts were dominated by Robbie, George Michael and The Verve, alongside Irish acts The Corrs and Boyzone. The figures were released by t

Austin, Texas – 23 May 2005 – Coldplay’s video for its newest single, “Speed of Sound” debuted today—backed up by Versa™ TUBE units from Element Labs. In an unprecedented application, nearly the entire video shoot was done with LED lights from a total of 700 Versa TUBEs.   Filmed on a massive sound stage, the video features a delicate, half crescent back wall composed of 640 Versa TUBEs placed on approximately 6” centers. Since the TUBEs were used without diffusion sleeves and the surrounding st

The Brit Awards 2006 look set to recognise the emergence of a new wave of artists at the annual ceremony on Wednesday.   Stars like James Blunt, KT Tunstall and Kaiser Chiefs could grab the headlines from more established acts like Oasis and Robbie Williams, while the chart-topping Arctic Monkeys, champions of internet marketing, are in the breakthrough category.   The stars of tomorrow helped ensure some success in 2005 for the British music industry, with seven of the country's top 10 albums