Brian Eno: "I had to separate Coldplay and U2"

No not in a violent way. He talked to the Telegraph about working with 'the biggest band in the world'... and with Coldplay on Viva La Vida (see what they did there?). No one in the UK has taken pop music closer to art than Brian Eno...

Have you ever wondered where the burst of music comes from that announces that Windows on your computer is springing into life? It didn't just write itself. It lasts 3.25 seconds and is surely one of the planet's most widely recognised noises. The man who composed it is the same man who defined the sound of the biggest-selling record in the world last year, Coldplay's Viva La Vida.

So what happens, when rivals to The Biggest Band in the World decide they want some of the Eno magic? Was it seen by U2 as a defection when he worked with Coldplay? "I realised it could have been, but there was no friction on either side. First of all they know each other. Bono said he thought it was a good idea. But I felt sensitive that in one computer I had all the work I was doing on Coldplay and all the work I was doing on U2 and I had to mentally keep them apart.

Read the full interview at the U2 thread in the World of Music forum here