Of all the strange sights that Live 8 threw us during the summer (Madonna dancing awkwardly with a famine survivor, Snoop Dogg extolling the crowd to eradicate poverty by waving their "motherfuckin' hands in the air"), one of the strangest was Richard Ashcroft's guest appearance with Coldplay.

Now Coldplay are a fine group who have written some great songs and don't deserve half of the critical bile that's thrown at them. But they've never written a song as attention-grabbing as Bitter Sweet Symphony, as moving as The Drugs Don't Work or as nigh on perfect as History. Richard Ashcroft has - is he really now lining up next to Embrace in the "Chris Martin saved my career" category?

Read the full review here

Performing at the Big Day Out and landing a heavy-duty national support gig might just be signs of the times for Youth Group, Christine Sams writes.

When his band Youth Group scored the supporting slot with Coldplay for their Australian tour in the middle of this year, singer Toby Martin found himself getting unexpected attention.

"My mum's friends were suddenly saying, 'Oh, you're playing with Coldplay'," Martin says, with a soft chuckle. "It's one of those things where people who aren't involved in the music scene have suddenly taken notice."When it comes to Youth Group's music, there are plenty of people now paying full attention. The foursome from Sydney appear to be on the cusp of major mainstream success, with their first appearance at the Big Day Out in Sydney on Thursday and the Coldplay support slots booked in.

But beyond any name-dropping and high-profile gigs, Youth Group are gaining profile simply on the strength and quality of the band's songs. Skeleton Jar was easily one of the best Australian albums last year.

Martin and his bandmates - bass player Patrick Matthews (formerly of the Vines), fellow founding member and drummer Danny Allen and guitarist Cameron Emerson-Elliott - have also forged a reputation on the live scene.

"We do love performing, I really like playing live," Martin says. "You get those moments when you do a song in a particular way and it's never going to happen like that again. You can lose yourself playing live - it's a bit freeing actually."

Martin, 30, is softly-spoken, mild-mannered and humble, but he is undeniably the creative force behind the band. As chief songwriter, guitarist and vocalist, he has managed to weave his poems and lyrics into songs that resonate.

"I do tend to start with lyrics before music," Martin says. "One of the most important things in songwriting are words that sound good ... when I first started writing I wanted to say something about the world, but now I'm thinking more about resonance - the resonance of the words. Our next record will be all about words."

That's not to say the music itself - with the band's live performances - isn't also a priority. The band, which began in Sydney seven years ago, has had several line-up changes but Martin says the mood (and the chemistry between the musicians) has never been stronger.

"It's good, the spirits are high," he says. "The morale is good amongst the fellas. At the moment there's a very good camaraderie."

The singer seems quietly chuffed that he can work pretty much full-time as a musician these days, after many years of juggling full-time work and a burgeoning music career. "It's so much easier rehearsing two days a week, rather than one night a week when everyone's tired from work and that sort of thing," he says. "We're really enjoying being full-time musicians and travelling, so of course I really hope this can continue."

When it comes to Youth Group's music, there are plenty of people now paying full attention. The foursome from Sydney appear to be on the cusp of major mainstream success, with their first appearance at the Big Day Out in Sydney on Thursday and the Coldplay support slots booked in.

But beyond any name-dropping and high-profile gigs, Youth Group are gaining profile simply on the strength and quality of the band's songs. Skeleton Jar was easily one of the best Australian albums last year.

Martin and his bandmates - bass player Patrick Matthews (formerly of the Vines), fellow founding member and drummer Danny Allen and guitarist Cameron Emerson-Elliott - have also forged a reputation on the live scene.

"We do love performing, I really like playing live," Martin says. "You get those moments when you do a song in a particular way and it's never going to happen like that again. You can lose yourself playing live - it's a bit freeing actually."

Martin, 30, is softly-spoken, mild-mannered and humble, but he is undeniably the creative force behind the band. As chief songwriter, guitarist and vocalist, he has managed to weave his poems and lyrics into songs that resonate.

"I do tend to start with lyrics before music," Martin says. "One of the most important things in songwriting are words that sound good ... when I first started writing I wanted to say something about the world, but now I'm thinking more about resonance - the resonance of the words. Our next record will be all about words."

That's not to say the music itself - with the band's live performances - isn't also a priority. The band, which began in Sydney seven years ago, has had several line-up changes but Martin says the mood (and the chemistry between the musicians) has never been stronger.

"It's good, the spirits are high," he says. "The morale is good amongst the fellas. At the moment there's a very good camaraderie."

The singer seems quietly chuffed that he can work pretty much full-time as a musician these days, after many years of juggling full-time work and a burgeoning music career. "It's so much easier rehearsing two days a week, rather than one night a week when everyone's tired from work and that sort of thing," he says. "We're really enjoying being full-time musicians and travelling, so of course I really hope this can continue."

Source: http://www.smh.com.au

CANNES, France (Reuters) - Nobody said it was easy for EMI, the world's third-largest record company and the home of British band Coldplay, as the music industry has weathered six straight years of falling sales.

Yet EMI Chairman Eric Nicoli and others in the industry are seeing signs of hope coming from the very source of many of the industry's woes -- the Internet.

Downloaded music sales on online services such as Apple Computer Inc.'s iTunes Music Store are surging, and made up 6 percent of industry revenues in 2005. Nicoli said digital revenues are now expected to offset flagging CD sales within a few years."We've seen a tripling in the last year and we've hardly gotten started," he said this weekend in an interview with Reuters at the music industry's annual conference in Cannes, where he also delivered the keynote address.

Digital music sales topped the $1 billion mark last year, according to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, compared with $380 million in 2004.

"We've moved on from the days when the main impact of digital technology was to harm our industry by facilitating rampant online and physical theft," he said. "The day is surely within our sights when digital growth outstrips physical decline and we can all compete for share of a growing pie."

Digital music is expected to make up 25 percent of EMI's and the industry's revenues by 2010.

"Our belief is that the (total) market will be bigger in 2010 than it is today -- and potentially much bigger," Nicoli said.

But even if growth returns, the industry's rules have changed irrevocably.

Industry analysts expect sales of albums -- a format whose popularity is commonly credited to the success of the Beatles 40-odd years ago -- to fade now that consumers can buy individual songs online and thus avoid the scenario of a few good songs padded by mediocre filler.

Nicoli, citing the success of Coldplay's third album, disagrees that the format is on the wane, but he admitted that the "unbundling" of music is here to stay.

"The pessimists will say that's a problem, but our research suggest that the net effect of unbundling is a positive," he said.

He acknowledged that in a complex and rapidly changing sector, predictions and projections are an inexact science.

"We thought subscriptions (services such as Napster and Rhapsody that offer unlimited music for a monthly fee) would be huge -- it hasn't been," he said.

Mobile music, apart from phone ringtunes, has also developed more slowly than many had hoped.

"We're at year zero -- if that -- with mobile," Nicoli said.

Nicoli refused to be drawn on persistent speculation that EMI would eventually merge with its smaller rival Warner Music, a deal that was blocked by European regulators in 2000 when Warner Music was still a part of media conglomerate Time Warner.

Since then, Sony and BMG have merged, leading many analysts to suggest that EMI and Warner would have to follow suit to stay competitive.

Asked if there would still be four major music companies in a year's time, Nicoli said: "Yes. Or no."

Source: http://go.reuters.com

Chad Dunham worked two years with the U.S. Embassy in Bogota, Colombia -- yet he "attended" worship each week in South Florida.

The link: A streaming video, or online broadcast, of Fort Lauderdale's Christ Church, United Methodist, on his computer. He and Gloria Nancy, his Colombian-born wife, often gathered to watch along with as many as 10 family members.

Some ministries have begun to major in the technological reach. The Relevant Media Group publishes an e-zine for Christians in their 20s -- dealing with music, videogames and life issues -- and runs a new 24/7 music channel online. Relevant.tv plays not only Christian artists like Switchfoot, but also secular groups like Coldplay.

Source: http://www.sun-sentinel.com

In a world awash with celebrity merchandise, you have to hand it to 50 Cent. It seemed that every star endorsement had been tried - dolls, scent, clothes, books, even coffins - but Fiddy's come up with the 50 Cent dildo. His dream is to produce a sex toy modelled on himself: big but not so big that his female fans' boyfriends will object. It's still a, ahem, pipe dream, but, if it goes into production it's likely to get a better response than Get Rich Or Die Tryin', the singer's film (out this week).

A dildo from the 'Candy Shop' singer makes sense. A film by Oscar-nominated director Jim Sheridan just doesn't. Consumers aren't stupid. They're happy to buy celebrity products, but no one wants to be sold a pup. If a product fits with a star's persona, fans buy it, whether it's Jordan's range of ultra-pink jewellery at Argos, Jennifer Lopez's best-selling Glow perfume, Girls Aloud's dolls or Tom Ford's Estee Lauder make-up range. But when Coldplay's 'Talk' ringtone was promoted on CSI: NY, both the band and the show's fans felt cheated. Where's the link between melodic anthems and murder, for heaven's sake? David Beckham's M&S boys' clothing designs was a similar mismatch. Kids like Becks for his skill, not his style. The range was dropped.

Merchandise makes huge profits for celebrities. Is it too much to ask that they give it just a little thought?

Source: http://observer.guardian.co.uk

As the lead singer of indie rock darlings Rilo Kiley, Jenny Lewis spent most of last year on the road touring behind the group’s breakthrough album, “More Adventurous,” and warming up the stage for a set of arena shows with Coldplay. Now the 30-year-old former child star is setting off on her first solo tour in support of her brilliant debut, “Rabbit Fur Coat,” recorded with the Watson Twins, out this week on Bright Eyes leader Conor Oberst’s Team Love label. Lewis and the Watsons play Feb. 3 at the Swedish American Hall.

Q: It’s kind of like getting to open for Coldplay but then having no one in the audience while you’re on. You can relate.

A: I can. Actually, it’s more like there’s someone in the audience but they’re eating a hot dog.

Q: You mean they found the hot dog more interesting than you?

A: Certainly more delicious.

Q: You would think Coldplay fans would take any opportunity to look up and see an actual girl.

A: That’s a good joke. You know, I think there were some people there who were open. But when you’re staring down 10,000 people, for me at least, I tend to focus on the negative.

Source: http://sfgate.com

Read a review of Jenny Lewis's new album here

The world’s top women golfers - including the world’s undisputed No 1 Annika Sorenstam - are in South Africa for the Women’s World Cup of Golf, which started on Friday and ends on Sunday at the Gary Player Country Club course at Sun City.

But Michelle Wie, the one they call the female Tiger Woods and who is the most-spoken about golfer on the women’s - and the men’s - circuit is not here. And she’s missing because of the selection process in which Paula Creamer, who qualified to represent the US by finishing second behind Sorenstam on the LPGA moneylist, was given the option of choosing her partner and she decided on sixth-ranked Natalie Gulbis over the 16-year-old whizzkid.

Nicknamed “Big Wiesy”, away from the golf course Michelle says she likes listening to Coldplay, watching TV and going shopping with her friends.

Source: http://www.int.iol.co.za

What does it take to draw jaded Hollywood hipsters out to the barren Southern California desert besides outlet malls, gleaming Indian casinos and the promise of cheap methamphetamines?

Six years ago, the organizers of the Coachella Music and Arts Festival bet that an enormous two-day European-style concert that bills alternative-rock heroes alongside buzz-worthy new bands and fashionable electronic artists would do the trick. Since then, nearly 50,000 music fans from all over the world have faithfully made the annual pilgrimage to a polo field in Indio (Riverside County) to witness once-in-a-lifetime performances by the likes of Radiohead, the Stooges and Pixies, as well as a slew of lesser-known acts that are just as feverishly worshiped.

This documentary attempts to cram all the highlights from the past six years of the festival into just under two hours. Mostly it hits the mark, give or take the odd pointless backstage interview or lingering clip of an inscrutable on-site art installation. But it also leaves out a lot, including much-talked about live sets by Nine Inch Nails, Beck and Queens of the Stone Age. Even last year's headliners Coldplay get the shaft.

Read the full article here

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Recognizing how tough it can be for developing artists to build a career, concert promoter/venue operator House of Blues has launched the Ones to Watch program.

Each quarter, five acts will be profiled online at the HOB Web site (hob.com/artistfeatures/onestowatch). HOB staffers pick the artists based on music they love. The site will feature a free song download and a podcast of each act being interviewed. The site also will include biographies, photos and links to purchase full albums.

"The core idea was to expose fans to new sounds," says Jim Cannella, director of corporate partnerships for HOB. "This is a 'love of music' program that does not include input from sponsors, agents and labels. We are not looking to monetize this."

Cannella says Ones to Watch was inspired by the company's Web-based Emerging Artist of the Month program, which focuses on better-known acts that are still in the early stages of their careers. Artists featured in that program have included Kanye West, Coldplay and Linkin Park.

Read the full article here

A reader points out that Hollywood überproducer Jerry Bruckheimer has funneled his billion dollar, mass appeal instincts into Apple’s "starfucking meets the art of the mixed tape"-hybrid, the iTunes celebrity playlist. You’ll need to have the iTunes software installed to access the list, but here we offer a sampling of Bruckheimer’s selections accompanied by some thoughts on why he chose them:

'In da Club' - 50 Cent: Moving rhythm and melody, makes you want to dance.

'Oh' - Ciara: A one-of-a-kind blending of great rhythms and melodies.

'Clocks' - Coldplay: The band many people call the next U2; this song is a great theme song for just about anything.'Lonely No More' - Rob Thomas: Matchbox 20 meets Sam Cooke; my favorite song off of his solo album.

'Yeah!' - Usher: This might jus tbe the number one party song of all time! The rhythms and melodies make it so much fun.

'People Get Ready' - Alicia Keys: This song is on the Glory Road soundtrack. I think Alicia has an amazing voice, and her singing reflects the heart and soul of this film. I loved working with her.

Thank heavens for celebrity playlists. Else how would we have clued in to some of Bruckheimer’s edgier and more obscure offerings? Leave it to Hollywood’s most influential tastemaker to turn us onto the “moving rhythm and melodies” of this 50 Cent fellow’s sounds. But the coup de grace really came when Keys sang her final note (now available on the Glory Road soundtrack!), and our iPod spontaneously erupted into a giant fireball, lodging shards of plastic into our face and eyes–a final reminder that this playlist was yet another in a long line of spectacular Bruckheimer branded entertainment productions.

Source: http://www.defamer.com

When a band gets as big as Coldplay—and no group to emerge this century is bigger—it is tempting to attribute the achievement to some form of artistic compromise. So cynical have we become that we think it nearly impossible for artists to reach the top of their field strictly on their own terms. Judging by the critical consensus on such current megastars as 50 Cent, Norah Jones, and, yes, Coldplay, a person might reasonably conclude that each of them is holding something back, consciously repressing some vital artistic streak for the sake of sales. In short, you might be convinced that these folks are charlatans.

Coldplay frontman Chris Martin is a lot of things—a magnetic frontman, a one-man hook-writing machine, the least-threatening rock star on the planet—but he hardly seems like a fraud. If his band’s hits seem like they were designed to convince us that life’s not so bad after all, it isn’t because Martin is coldly manipulative. Really, he’s just being himself.

Read the full article here

Morning Runner have been described as an edgier Coldplay and are set to be one of the biggest bands of 2006. But if there's one thing guaranteed to get lead singer Matt Greener on edge, it's being compared to Chris Martin's all-conquering kings of melodic rock, who they supported on a nationwide tour last year.

The band head to North Wales as part of their own headline tour to promote their debut album Wilderness Is Paradise Now, out on March 6 and expected to be one of the best records of the year. Matt, who also plays guitar, is adamant he wants to leave the Coldplay comparisons behind.

And if anyone was thinking of likening them to another piano-tastic pop-rock act, let's get one thing straight: Morning Runner are nothing like Keane. "I don't think we sound at all like Keane," says the 23--year-old.

"I don't understand that, apart from the fact we've got a piano. We sound as much like AC/DC as we do Keane. That's the same with Coldplay, they've got melody and piano but apart from that we don't sound anything like them."When people ask us about the Coldplay tour, that was a great tour to go on and we're very grateful for it, but I don't see the relevance of it anymore to our album.

"We're a band that's never been influenced so much by albums as by individual songs, " he adds,, listing some of the album tracks. "Have A Good Time sounds like Ed Harcourt, Gone Up In Flames sounds like early Supergrass, whereas another song might sound like The Strokes - but I don't think we have one song that sounds anything like Keane."

Morning Runner hastily formed in Reading in 2003 when Matt bluffed about having a band in order to get a gig.

The next seven days saw bassist Tom Derrett, now 26, keyboard player Chris Wheatcroft, or Fields, 23, and drummer Ali Clewer, 21, join with Matt. Just two years later they were supporting the biggest band in Britain.

But with their forthcoming single Burning Benches getting national radio airplay, they now want to carve out their own place in history.

Their own travels see them playing a gig venue that is fast growing in importance and attracting bigger and better bands - Wrexham's Central Station. On a tour schedule that includes London, Manchester, Cardiff, Bristol, Leeds, Newcastle and Nottingham - why choose Wrexham??

"We wanted to do a lot of places on the tour where we've never been before. We've never played in Wrexham but there's people who buy your CDs there too. It's always nice to play for a fresh audience and win people over.

"The more places we play the more people hear of us, and I'm sure people in Wrexham will appreciate us playing there."

The name Morning Runner, Matt says, is a metaphor for a constant desire for self-improvement - something he says is part of the band's ethic.

"It's about people's pursuit to better themselves. I've never wanted to get stuck in a rut and just be good at something. I want our band to get better and better. I want us to make the best album we can, I want our band to be respected and our name to be established and able to stand on its own - so in a few years people will be describing other bands as the new Morning Runner instead of us as the new Coldplay."

So, does that mean he hopes that one day other budding rockers will be equally annoyed by constant comparisons to Morning Runner, then?

"Yes," Matt replies,, tongue-in-cheek. "Exactly."

Source: http://icnorthwales.icnetwork.co.uk

Formed in June 2002, Ohio quartet Lovedrug took only 2 months before releasing their first EP. Fronted by Michael Shepard, they’ve shared stages with Something Corporate, The Killers, and the legendary Robert Plant.

“Pretend You’re Alive” has an intro not unlike Coldplay’s “In My Place”, and then the band, seemingly from nowhere, throw out a massive kick-ass riff for the imposing but disjointed “Pandamoranda”.

Read the full review here

When Michael Hutchence was found dead in a hotel room in 1997, the other members of INXS lost a childhood friend, their frontman, and a key songwriter, while the world was left without a true rock star icon. After an understandable hiatus, the Australian band decided to find a new singer, utilising the obsession with ‘reality’ television to hold auditions across the globe. J.D. Fortune landed the role, and now INXS have returned with their first album of new material in 9 years, produced by Robbie Williams cohort Guy Chambers.

A tribute to Hutchence, it’s reminiscent of the recent work of Coldplay, beautiful musically and lyrically. It’s a positive way to end a record on which INXS don’t come anywhere near close to their classic work, but they also show that they made the correct decision in carrying on with the band.

Read the full review here

Heard the new Gavin DeGraw single yet? Fall Out Boy? How about the Pussycat Dolls?

At the moment, these emerging artists are the proud owners of some of the country’s most popular songs. If you don’t recognize any of those names, don’t beat yourself up for being hopelessly out of touch. Chances are your neighbor doesn’t know them, either.

And if you’re familiar with one, it’s a solid bet you haven’t stumbled on the others. They inhabit three distinct universes — pop sincerity, pop-punk and pop confection, in that order.

Undoubtedly, there will always be crossover hits — those select songs, be they maddeningly inescapable novelties or honest-to- goodness instant classics, that get fixed in the collective consciousness. A few years back, for instance, every rapper seemed to be professing his love for Coldplay. But in the age of bottomless individual choice, that kind of convergence will happen more and more infrequently.

Read the full article herre [excuse the pun]

When you’re in a cult band that’s just starting to make some noise, getting dropped by a major distributor could silence things really quickly.

That’s the position the four guys in the New Orleans band Mute Math found themselves in last year when Warner Bros., which had distributed their EP, declined to pick up their new disc. In a spasm of do-it-yourself self-reliance, Mute Math decided to turn to what may be the Internet success story of the moment: MySpace.com, the combo blog/e-mail/bulletin board/classifieds/music-fan site that’s a virtual home for some 50 million users worldwide.

They booked a 50-city tour (which hits the Gypsy Tea Room in Dallas tonight), put up at least one new song on their MySpace home page, and informed the nearly 30,000 Mute Math followers on the site that the CD would be on sale only at the shows. “We knew we could use the medium of MySpace to get the word out,” says singer Paul Meany.

But it’s in the area of music that MySpace is making the biggest splash. Logging into its music pages provides a dizzying whirl of both the well-known and the new, with some 550,000 groups and performers in 76 genres. Last year, the likes of Madonna, Coldplay, the Black Eyed Peas and Death Cab for Cutie all premiered their new CDs on the site.That’s exactly what Thomas Anderson had in mind when he and co-founder Chris DeWolfe launched MySpace.com 2 1/2 years ago. By combining elements of other successful sites — the hipster communitarianism of Friendster, the college-age vibe of Facebook, the confessional intimacy of Blogspot, the e-mail utilitarianism of Hotmail, the resourcefulness of Craigslist, and the musical adventurousness of Pitchfork — he figured they could create a free, ad-supported portal that satisfied many youthful Web desires.

He was right: The Santa Monica, Calif.-based company grew so rapidly that it snagged the attention of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp., which ponied up $580 million to purchase it last summer. According to Media Metrix, which measures Internet traffic, MySpace now ranks with Yahoo!, Google, eBay, AOL, and MSN as one of the most visited destinations on the Net.

Now MySpace has hooked up with Universal Music’s Interscope Records to launch its own label. A compilation, MySpace Records: Volume 1, came out in November featuring such popular acts as Weezer, Fall Out Boy and Dashboard Confessional while the first artist to sign with the label, the Los Angeles band Hollywood Undead, will have its own disc released this spring.

But it appears to be proving even more valuable to struggling musicians seeking ways to communicate with their current fans and attract new ones. “It’s an amazing tool for bands at our level,” offers Mute Math’s Paul Meany. “If you haven’t turned the heads of the major labels yet and don’t have the conventional means of distribution, it’s just great.”

Fort Worth rapper Mike Deezy, who works under the name of 28 Grams, says it’s a way to get your music heard by a lot of people without physically passing out demos. “I’m going to Atlanta to work with some people I met on MySpace to collaborate,” he says. “It’s a great site. I’ve got nothing negative to say about it.” John David Blagg, guitarist of the Texarkana art-rock outfit Pilotdrift, agrees. “A lot of people aren’t financially able to get a Web site to build a forum and this allows them to be able to have something on the Internet to get your music out there.” “When I began, music was on my mind,” explains MySpace’s Anderson, 29. “I wanted to have something like that just because I was in bands before and it made a lot of sense to me. I didn’t really anticipate what a big deal the music would become and how valuable it would be to people.”

Even indie record labels, which theoretically could view MySpace as a form of competition, have kind words.

“It’s possible for bands who don’t have labels to have 5,000 friends [on the site] who can actively promote [the band],” says Steve Hahnel, label manager for French Kiss Records, home to the talked-about, up-and-coming group the Hold Steady. “But they can’t distribute [an album]; they’re a means of cultivating a strong following . . . MySpace’s genius is that it gives people a way to customize their space on the Internet and allows people with similar interests to connect directly or with labels and bands they wouldn’t have a direct relationship with.”

But MySpace is not without some detractors. With its absorption into the Rupert Murdoch/Fox TV empire, some see hints of conspiracy. A writer at the University of Houston’s Daily Cougar semi-joked in August that Murdoch himself might post a comment on a user’s blog saying, “Nice blog. We’re developing it into a new Fox reality series starring your more popular friends.”

Others have voiced concern that a band’s music could show up on a Fox show like The O.C. without compensation. “That’s totally ridiculous,” responds Anderson. “We don’t have the rights to do something like that.”

Anderson concedes though that he was worried that News Corp. would turn MySpace into MyCorporateSpace. “I didn’t want things to change. I wanted to continue what I was doing but with the resources of News Corp.,” he says. “The promises they made at the time, they’ve remained true to.”

(One upcoming change: Next month, MySpace will announce that it’s launching pages dedicated to film and filmmakers.)

Provo, Utah-based singer-songwriter Drew Danburry’s concerns have less to do with money and more to do with individuality. He’s afraid that it’s easy for a musician to get lost in the vastness of MySpace, with little emotional investment from those who happen to stumble across him. He “There’s so much music out there, people just fill their iPods with all the different bands they feel are cool,” he says, “and they don’t really appreciate all the details.”

Matt Riggle, of Arlington pop-punk band 41 Gorgeous Blocks, believes that many performers are too reliant on MySpace. “It makes bands lazier,” he says. “They think just because they have the Web site up there, they’re doing something. They think they can just promote their shows on the site instead of actually getting out and playing.”

But, make no mistake, both Riggle and Danburry have no intention of dismantling their MySpace presence.

“You definitely need to compete,” says Danburry. “You can’t pull yourself out of the arena.”

In the media blitz last year preceding the release of their hotly anticipated album "X&Y," the guys of Coldplay made their mission quite clear: They want to be the best and biggest rock band in the world.

And, for better or worse, the British quartet (Chris Martin on vocals and piano, Jonny Buckland on guitar, Will Champion on drums and Guy Berryman on bass) may be well on its way to realizing that goal.

It took just two albums, the highly acclaimed "Parachutes" (2000) and "A Rush of Blood to the Head" (2002), for Coldplay to become an international phenomenon, selling 20 million records around the globe. The band's stately, melodic power rock, ubiquitous on pop radio, has spun off several imitators. Starry-eyed high school girls, sensitive college dudes, hip-hop cats, soccer moms - they all dig Coldplay's music.

Coldplay performs Wednesday at Key Arena in Seattle.Ever since handsome frontman Martin married actress Gwyneth Paltrow in 2003 and the two soon afterward had a baby girl named Apple (Paltrow reportedly is pregnant again), the group (well, Martin) has skyrocketed on the celebrity scale.

There was plenty riding on the band's third album, including the stock price for EMI Group, the company that owns Capitol, Coldplay's label. (After the release date was moved from February to August 2005, EMI's stock plummeted 16 percent in one day.) Of course, there were all those critics and eager fans who wanted to know if "X&Y" measured up to or extended the greatness of Coldplay's previous gems, such as "Yellow" and "Clocks."

Did it? Well, not exactly. It is obvious from the first note on "X&Y" that the gents were high on the fumes of their whirlwind success, that they want to obliterate U2 by pilfering from the veteran band's "Achtung Baby"-era sound, injecting it with their dramatic musical flourishes. Coldplay's sound has always been big and grand, somewhat inaccessible at first but still magnetic, sometimes beautiful.

But on "X&Y," the music is too pumped up at times, full of surging arrangements that are so meticulously crafted there's hardly sign of a pulse underneath. And Martin, the heart-in-hand chap with the idiosyncratic vocal style, goes into self-pity overload. It's hard sometimes to get close to the music because Coldplay's super-sized pretensions are in the way.

Overall, "X&Y" was the weakest of the three Coldplay albums. In just five years, the guys achieved mammoth success with a sound that obviously borrows from U2, Radiohead, the Beatles and the Verve but manages to retain a sense of originality - principally because Martin's vocal approach is so distinctive.

With such a quick artistic and commercial peak, it surely must be intimidating for Coldplay to return to the studio and flip its sound into something fresher, more adventurous and less predictable. But if you're trying to be the best and biggest rock band in the world, isn't that what you do?

Maybe on the next record, that goal will truly come to fruition. But the fellas of Coldplay need to get over themselves first.

Source: http://www.heraldnet.com

The Rolling Stones roll into town next week for a couple of shows at the United Center. But it seems the bad boys maybe aren't so bad anymore.

A contract rider, which spells out just what it takes to host the Stones -- outside of gobs of cash -- was the "featured document'' posted Wednesday on the Internet site thesmokingun.com.

As the wags at the site put it, Mick Jagger's vices might be limited these days to watching cricket -- promoters are required to provide cable or satellite access to televised matches. "Please find out what channel is showing cricket. That is the channel we need most of all,'' the document states.

Mick brings his own TV.

Coldplay: Dressing room must include 48 cold lagers -- "not U.S. beers'' -- six packs of Marlboro Lights and eight pairs of dark cotton socks size 9-11.

Aerosmith: No alcoholic beverages. No "pressed meats.'' Police escort. "Under no circumstances is the Artist to be delayed arriving or departing from the venue due to traffic.''

Korn: Two lounges, one smoking, one non-smoking. "Both rooms should have a 'vibe' to them. It should feel like you are walking into a small apartment.'' Bruce Springsteen: Security guard to watch over guitars; raw oats; whey powder.

Paul McCartney: No furniture made of any animal skin, including leather limousine seats. "Do not provide artificial versions of animal skin or print either.''

Busta Rhymes: Moet champagne, Kentucky Fried Chicken, ribbed condoms.

Christina Aguilera: Flintstone chewable vitamins.

Snoop Dogg: Sony PlayStation with sports game cartridges and four controls. "Please trust that this will be some of the most important money you spend.''

Jethro Tull: "With the exception of Tuesdays'' no chicken.

Jennifer Lopez: Dressing room painted white with white flowers, white tablecloths, white drapes, white candles and white couches.

Dixie Chicks: Six tee-time passes with carts at local par-72 championship-level golf course.

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SAN FRANCISCO - As a first-year student at Stanford Graduate School of Business, Jeff Fluhr and a classmate entered a competition for the best new business plan. Their entry, called "NeedATicket.com," envisioned a centralized Web site where people could auction off extra tickets for sporting events and concerts.

Utterly convinced the concept would work, Fluhr withdrew the entry and dropped out of school to launch the business. "It was definitely something that my mother was not thrilled about," he recalls.

Six years later, the 31-year-old entrepreneur is chief executive of StubHub Inc., a leading Internet player in the burgeoning market of ticket reselling, which is doing $10 billion a year in volume by some estimates.

StubHub's many competitors include the giant ticket seller Ticketmaster, a unit of IAC/InterActiveCorp, which not only sells tickets on the primary market but has begun reselling tickets for sports teams and even conducting auctions on behalf of rock groups such as Coldplay and Nine Inch Nails.

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Imitation being the sincerest form of flattery, Coldplay would be absolutely humbled should Chris Martin and company ever have occasion to hear this polished debut by the Sackville-bred, Halifax-based quartet In-Flight Safety.

Back in England, the Coldplay formula — chiming guitars and/or hammering keyboards, soaringly earnest vocals and clockwork crescendos — has already bred a slew of successful copycats, including Starsailor and Keane. Seldom has the blueprint been followed as faithfully as it is on "Coast is Clear," the opening track here. Singer/lyricist John Mullane's line-ending elongations of the words "fear" and "clear" so closely echo Martin's yearning intonation some listeners will wonder if their ears are playing tricks.

Career-wise, this may not necessarily be a bad thing, as Keane's impressive sales and Mercury Prize nomination attests. And there is no question the 10 warmly textured tracks on The Coast is Clear are impressively executed. If the goal is to be Canada's Coldplay, In-Flight Safety can stop now. In-Flight Safety launches the CD with a set Tuesday at the Horseshoe Tavern.

Source: http://www.thestar.com

British rock band Coldplay, who burst onto the music scene with its 1999 (2000 actually - ed.) album, Parachutes, is often compared to a little rock band called U2.

With lead singer Chris Martin and the songs that the band writes, I can understand the comparison.

Martin, like U2's Bono, sings with great compassion and with that it is no surprise that Coldplay's latest single, "Talk," is about having compassion for others. Band members Guy Berryman and Jon Buckland (lead and bass guitar) provide the mood in which it talks about someone who wants to talk about a recent breakup.Not only does that person want to talk but he is asking what to do next.

As the song progresses anyone who listens to the song has the understanding of what is going on just by listening to the soothing voice of Martin.

"Oh brother I can't through/I've been trying hard to reach you cause I don't know what to do/Oh brother I can't believe its true/I'm so scare about the future that I want to talk to you," Martin sings in the beginning.

Afterwards, he asks, "In the future where would I be?"

"Are you lost or incomplete/Do you feel like a puzzle/ you can't find your missing piece/ tell me how you feel?"

With these lyrics I thought that sometimes I do feel that, that one friendship I was looking for was the one I was missing.

In addition, I thought of the countless number of people who turn out not to be the persons I thought they were.

How many people have been hurt by someone who wasn't who he claimed to be?

Friendships are about having communication and this song effectively challenges anyone who has experienced pain or lost friendships because no one was there to do one simple act of kindness: talk to someone.

Don't talk just for yourself but for those around you.

Source: http://www.talonmarks.com

To save the earth’s resources we must reduce the size of our eco-footprint, says Maxine Boersma

Coldplay reportedly offset the emissions of a world tour by planting trees in Scotland, but you can reduce your eco-footprint more quickly.

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The Zionsville Community High School senior hopes to earn the coveted title by wowing the audience with his rendition of Kelly Clarkson's hit "Since U Been Gone" during Mr. Zionsville competition Tuesday in the Performing Arts Center.

"It's my favorite song in the world," Garvey said with a hint of sarcasm. "It's got me through some tough times."

Thirteen senior boys will join Garvey on stage as they show off their personalities and talents to compete for the honor of Mr. Zionsville. The annual high school tradition dates back to the 1980s. It started as a spoof on girls' talent shows.

Nick Pearce will offer up Coldplay's "Everything's Not Lost." He'll sing and play guitar while a friend accompanies him on piano. Pearce said he likes the song because there's a singalong at the end to get the audience involved.

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A Norwich band soon look set to hit the big time with a hectic schedule of tour dates, photo shoots, pop videos, and single releases.

Cord, who are signed to Island Records, today announced the label's plans to catapult them into the spotlight.

The four-piece have recorded their debut album with top name producers including Coldplay's Danton Supple and now they will have radio and TV pluggers, promoters and press agents all working for them.But lead singer James Leeds still has his feet firmly on the ground.

He said: “It is very exciting but even with all this backing you don't know what will happen. We are going to be recording a pop video soon and we have already done a photo shoot to promote our next single. It is still going to be hard getting up to the next level but I hope we can do it.

“We have been working on the album for a long time and we are really happy with it now.

The first single from the four piece's debut album will be Go Either Way, which will be released in early April and the band are now gearing up for a hectic promotional schedule.

Cord play Norwich Arts Centre on Monday, January 23. Visit www.norwichartscentre.co.uk for ticket details or call the box office on 01603 660352.

Source: http://www.eveningnews24.co.uk

After spending most of 2005 with her band Rilo Kiley opening for Coldplay on their American tour, Jenny Lewis cuts loose from the corporate arenas with her first solo album, a warm but prickly cure for all manner of ills at this time of year.

Generously she gives equal billing to the Watson Twins from Kentucky, whose uncanny sibling harmonies are the audio equivalent of a sepia tinge, giving this collection of contemporary songs the air of an instant classic.

The girl from Omaha's vocal quality stands easy comparison with the better female vocalists from the past 50 years, a country soul instrument that is more about poise than power. Of the 10 Lewis originals, 'Born Secular' is a gospel waltz picking a fight with God - while Chandra and Leigh Watson send the song spinning off the astral plain on the sublime fade - and the title track is a vivid and concise bit of storytelling, where a tarnished silver spoon leaves a dirt poor taste in the listener's mouth.

Lewis is joined by several of the current American indie alumni on a corking cover of the Travelling Wilburys' 'Handle With Care', and naturally takes the Tom Petty role, but that is a slight indulgence on a record that is about preserving the good old values in a brand new style.

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It is impossible to ignore the fact that Gwyneth Paltrow is expecting her second child in a few months. Barefaced but still beautiful, with blonde hair arranged loosely around her shoulders, she is clad in superskinny jeans, and even skinnier heels, but from the waist up her five-month bulge billows so that she looks like a tapeworm that has swallowed a football. Any reference to her pregnancy, however, is strictly off-limits, says her publicist.

Paltrow wants privacy, and she's not kidding: this week she and her husband, Coldplay frontman Chris Martin, took legal steps to ensure pictures of their daughter, 19-month-old Apple, could not be published in the press. A snap of the little girl in pink ear-defenders during Coldplay's Live8 set is the closest Paltrow gets to a public mother-and-daughter photo opportunity.

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