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He may be accustomed to the luxuries afforded to millionaire rock stars, but Chris Martin left behind five star comforts during a recent trip to Scotland.   The exhausted Coldplay frontman was seen sleeping on the deck of a ferry travelling back from the funeral of his uncle Angus Fleming, 55, in Arran.   Wearing a thick black jumper, and a scarf wrapped around his trademark curly hair to protect him from the elements, a clearly exhausted Martin slept on the deck of the ferry between Brodick an

North Korea's tentative steps into the online world are always a little mysterious — the strange choices in the videos uploaded to YouTube, for example, or the 2013 website redesign that made the country's official news organization look like it was a relic from 2003.   One perplexing detail of the country's official Twitter account (@uriminzok), is that it currently follows just three accounts — and one of them is for Coldplayer @JimmyDushku, otherwise known as JimmyD on our forums.     Jim

It seems almost unimaginable for any 21st-century movie star to send his children out among the Hollywood elite equipped with ordinary names like Michael, Eric, Joel and Peter, as Kirk Douglas once did.   This point was driven home again last week, when Gwyneth Paltrow and her husband, Chris Martin, the frontman of the band Coldplay [both pictured, left], named their newborn son Moses. It was an unlikely enough name for a baby boy born in 2006, but perhaps less startling than the much discussed

It seems almost unimaginable for any 21st-century movie star to send his children out among the Hollywood elite equipped with ordinary names like Michael, Eric, Joel and Peter, as Kirk Douglas once did.   This point was driven home again last week, when Gwyneth Paltrow and her husband, Chris Martin, the frontman of the band Coldplay [both pictured, left], named their newborn son Moses. It was an unlikely enough name for a baby boy born in 2006, but perhaps less startling than the much discussed

The Mermaid, Puddle Dock, is not the first place you might go in search of the cool and cutting edge. That will not stop an expectant crowd gathering at the conference centre in London's Blackfriars this week for a live satellite broadcast from San Francisco that could make or break one of the consumer icons of the Western world.   The iPod, the digital music player beloved of everyone from Coldplay's Chris Martin to President George Bush, is in danger of losing its sheen. Sales are declining at

Bertelsmann's decision to sell the music publisher that owns copyrights to songs by Coldplay and Christina Aguilera stems from its controlling family’s desire to avoid a flotation.   The German company, controlled by the Mohn family and an allied foundation, was faced with the choice of buying back a 25 percent stake held by Groupe Bruxelles Lambert or being forced into going public.   Bertelsmann opted to pay €4.5 billion (£3 billion) to buy out the minority investor, but to cut down the extra

Coldplay's next release, a vinyl-only box set collection of singles, proves that this format will persist while CDs depart for that great big stereo in the sky.   Firmly rooted in a classic songwriting tradition, today even multi-platinum-selling bands such as Coldplay can seem stuck in time. But last week the big wigs at EMI appeared to consign them to the pre-Jurassic era when they announced that Chris Martin and co's next release would be a vinyl-only box set collection of 15 singles. "Vinyl?

Officials from Amazon.co.uk have revealed that the company sold out of its allocations of the Wii console just seven minutes after opening pre-orders.   The British website of the successful American online retailer announced that it would begin taking pre-order sales of the Wii, at a price of £179.99 ($342), from November 21st. The company had elected to wait until it was provided full details of its stock allocation before allowing pre-orders.   “We expected a high number of people to visit th

As Coldplay unveil a trio of tour dates in December, drummer Will Champion tells BBC 6 Music what we can expect from their new record Mylo Xyloto and reveals he's a bundle of nerves. Below is the article from 6 Music today, but you can also download the full audio interview at the multimedia forum now [thanks zzz].   They might have finished the much-anticipated record with producer Brian Eno, but Champion says: "There really is no sense of relief. It's actually almost worse," he told Steve Lama

It almost goes without saying that a new Coldplay album is a monumental event on the pop calendar, writes Digital Spy in an online article after they caught up with the drummer Will Champion a mere 24 hours before the LP's hand-in to find out more. Their last album, 2008's Viva la Vida, sold over nine million copies and topped the charts worldwide, defying declining music sales and securing their position as a global indie-pop force. (Full discussion on this new article is at the Coldplay forum

Will Champion has been speaking to BeQueen.de in London, the interviewer was Sarah Elena Schwerzmann. Translation by Larry.   Will Champion, the new Coldplay album is called "Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends." How did you come to this name? Will Champion: We have only baptized the album "Viva la Vida", because it is a tribute to life itself. At this time we were in Mexico City, where we visited Frida Kahlo's house and encountered this quote. We love Kahlo's art and were speechless in th

They've sold millions of albums, packed out the world's biggest concert venues, and in Chris Martin they have one of the most recognisable front men in rock.   But Coldplay claim they're only just getting started. According to drummer Will Champion - on the phone from his snowed-in London home - Coldplay are about to do something 'really spectacular'. "We've worked very hard to get where we are, and we feel like there's a great big opportunity to do something really different," he said.   But,

You've probably heard by now that, as of yesterday, there are now four groups claiming Coldplay plagiarized them, the latest being Yusuf Islam, who says 'Viva La Vida' swipes part of his 1973 song 'Foreigner Suite.' Here is a new interview with Will Champion online today, courtesy of Hampton Roads (Virginia) ahead of Coldplay's show on May 20th at the Verizion Amphitheater in Virginia Beach...   Malcolm: So I read that there was yet another plagiarism accusation to come out yesterday. I read tha

Coldplay.com have caught up with drummer Will Champion in Australia in the latest of their exclusive online interviews. In it, he discusses the possibility of a South American tour, the Brits, Grammys, and the latest studio sessions without Chris Martin including fruitful new experimentations. Read the interview below. More discussion on this interview is at the Coldplay forum here [thanks mimixxx]   Hello Will, how are you? I'm good, thanks.   We hear you're joining us direct from a game of cri

Coldplay probably can't get any bigger, so instead they're trying to get better.   In a chat with The Jakarta Post before their Singapore concert, Will Champion, who plays drums for the band, said, "Our goal is trying to improve in our next project. You can't judge *the success of* an album by the number of awards and sales. So what we do is we make better concerts, better videos."   Champion, who prefers to describe himself as a being in a band rather than as a drummer, told the Post that whe

In an extraordinary article in the Times Online this week, Coldplay's Will Champion has been giving an insight into the pressures exerted on the band by EMI during the X&Y era. You can discuss this article at the Coldplay forum here onwards. The rest of the article is an interesting read as well...   Read enough reports about EMI's current tribulations and it’s all too easy to imagine that EMI’s problems began when Hands took over. But the recorded-music industry has been suffering for years

Drummer says ACC shows tonight and tomorrow feature intimate atmosphere, 'fantastic' supporting act   Leading up to their two Toronto dates at the Air Canada Centre, tonight and tomorrow, Coldplay fans should be delighted to know the band is gaining momentum on its current tour, at least according to Will Champion, the band's drummer. The man should know. He's probably got the best seat in the house and has watched the show come together over the first few weeks of the latest world tour.   "It

Could Charlie Brown be the next single to be released from Coldplay's fifth album? That is the latest discussion topic at the Coldplay forum in the last 48 hours. According to both the BMI and Ascap databases, Charlie Brown has now been registered as a song title, but that's not the only clue. Q Magazine called Charlie Brown an "instant classic", and in the recent interview from July, Will Champion commented, "That [Charlie Brown] was singled out very early on as a dead cert. At one point there

Wonder if Gwyneth Paltrow can sing a mean version of Coldplay's Viva La Vida? She may have to at this weekend's Grammy Awards, MusicRadar reports today.   The reason? The lawyer repping Joe Satriani is sending teams of process servers to the show to hand Coldplay a plagiarism lawsuit. As we've reported in the past, guitarist Joe Satriani is suing Coldplay for copyright infringement for their Grammy-nominated song Viva La Vida, claiming the 2008 track copies "substantial original portions" of his

You've already seen Coldplay frontman Chris Martin mixing it up with a photographer the other day as Martin took his famous wife, Gwyneth Paltrow, out of a New York hospital where she’d gone for some tests.   Threatened violence isn’t always applauded, and the photographer, naturally, feels he wasn’t doing anything wrong. But posters at TMZ and other blog sites are giving Chris high marks for “acting out” and protecting his wife. Even some of the most rabid lovers of gossip have had it with inva

Singer Will Young has beaten a host of British acts to be voted the most popular UK artist of all time in a poll of radio listeners.   The annual chart celebrates the best of UK music counting down the 40 most popular artists of all time, as voted for by listeners of commercial radio.   Former Beatle Sir Paul claimed third position followed by the Spice Girls at number four and Coldplay at five.The 27-year-old, who was catapulted to fame in 2002 after winning the inaugural Pop Idol contest, fo

Singer Will Young has beaten a host of British acts to be voted the most popular UK artist of all time in a poll of radio listeners.   The annual chart celebrates the best of UK music counting down the 40 most popular artists of all time, as voted for by listeners of commercial radio.   Former Beatle Sir Paul claimed third position followed by the Spice Girls at number four and Coldplay at five.The 27-year-old, who was catapulted to fame in 2002 after winning the inaugural Pop Idol contest, fo

Attention all rockers out there!   To coincide with the release of Big Rock – a compilation of 18 rock hit songs including Linkin Park’s Somewhere I Belong, Green Day (American Idiot), Simple Plan (Shut Up!), Coldplay (In My Place), Keane (Somewhere Only We Know), The Darkness (Love Is Only a Feeling), Fort Minor (Believe Me featuring Mike Shinoda), Hard-F1 (Cash Machine) and Snow Patrol (Run) – Warner Music is having a call-in contest.   There are 20 CDs up for grab. How to win it?   Easy.

Despite being the adored, much analyzed and fantasized about lead singer of one of the planet's biggest rock bands, Chris Martin of Coldplay is practical, even humble about his role. Sitting on the floor of a rented house in Los Angeles, enjoying the California sunshine and the taste of the strawberry he's just finished, Martin is deliberately and charmingly low-key, writes the Winnipeg Free Press. Full discussion on this show is at the Winnipeg thread here in the Coldplay Live forum.   "It just

Coldplay may very well be the biggest rock band in the world right now, with the best-selling album of 2008 and a tour that’s criss-crossing the globe. At the same time, they may be the least "rock" rock band in the world, writes the Winnipeg Free Press.   You’d likely be hard-pressed to pick the unassuming members out of a crowd (unless singer Chris Martin had glamorous wife Gwyneth Paltrow on his arm) and even their recent stab at rock-star flamboyance — wearing colourful Seargent Pepper-style