UPDATE: Coldplay.com are Live Blogging again tonight! Join all the discussion on Coldplay's performance and the blog at our dedicated R1 Student Tour forum now! [Don't forget you can listen live to the full concert on Radio 1 online!]
A few headlines that have escaped the radar over the past few days in between all the appearances and events are rounded up now, starting with today's news that Coldplay have covered Rihanna at the University of East Anglia in Norwich. Coldplay performed at the student union at lunchtime today (Thursday) as part of BBC Radio 1’s Student Tour, which sees DJs Fearne Cotton and Zane Lowe broadcasting live from four university towns and cities. You can listen to the small set of three songs at the Coldplay Live forum and/or download them at the Multimedia forum now [thanks Tom8 & chommy_16]
Just 100 students were given the chance to see Coldplay while others peered through the windows to catch a glimpse. The performance saw them play Hurts Like Heaven and Paradise while their 'mystery cover' was a Rihanna song. Lucy Dale, 20, who studies film and television at the UEA, was one of the lucky fans to get the chance to see the Live Lounge set. She said it was "like a dream. It’s been absolutely amazing, I can’t describe it," said Miss Dale, who has seen Coldplay twice before.
Politics student Thomas Shaw, 20, who was with his friend Adam Speak, said: "It’s been incredible. The atmosphere in the room has been amazing. The fact that we got to see them with so little people is amazing." The show raised the curtain for Coldplay’s evening gig at the UEA – one of the biggest in the venue’s history – which will be broadcast in Zane Lowe’s show from 7pm tonight. A spokesman for the UEA said: "This is a very rare opportunity to see a hugely popular band, who are more used to headlining festivals, but to see them up close and personal in a good small live music venue."
Also being reported today by Contact Music is the news that Coldplay have a vested interest in the Stone Roses' upcoming reunion after ploughing cash into a movie about the cult British rockers. The Stone Roses smashed U.K. concert sales records last week (21st October 2011) when all 240,000 tickets for their reunion gigs sold out in less than an hour. They are reporting that are backing an upcoming fictional movie based around a legendary Stone Roses concert, and they are hoping the band's newly announced 2012 world tour will generate interest in the film. Frontman Chris Martin explains, "We actually invested in a film by our friend Mat Whitecross about four lads who tried to blag tickets for the famous Stone Roses Spike Island gig. Speaking as film investors, we hope the reunion is a huge success as it will be reflected in the box office figures."
Coldplay's Mylo Xyloto won't be streaming on Spotify or any other unauthorised music streaming service, according to various sources including the Guardian. They are reporting via CNET that Coldplay have followed in Adele's footsteps by ensuring their latest album won't be available on most streaming services. They said: If Spotify is the future of the music industry, then Coldplay are betting on the present. The rockers' label has revealed that their new album, Mylo Xyloto, will not be offered to streaming services, forcing fans to pay for physical copies of MP3 downloads. EMI are "a little embarrassed" by Coldplay's decision to spurn Spotify, CNet reports. Although the band's previous albums are available, songs like Paradise and Every Teardrop Is a Waterfall are nowhere to be found on Spotify, nor on competitors like Rdio and Rhapsody. The tracks are only only available on Microsoft's Zune network, and on iTunes, where Coldplay streamed one song a day last week. "We always work with our artists and management on a case-by-case basis to deliver the best outcome for each release," EMI told CNet. According to an unnamed industry source, Coldplay want Mylo Xyloto to be heard as "one cohesive work" and not split up into songs. This could be the rationale for Arcade Fire and Pink Floyd, whose work is absent from Spotify, or for Tom Waits, whose latest album will not be made available on the service. But if Coldplay care so much about "the album", it's odd their songs are available on iTunes as individual downloads. More likely, Coldplay are mimicking the sales strategy of Adele. Without any help from Spotify – 19 isn't listed – the singer has broken sales records worldwide. Indeed, the tactic seems to be working so far: Coldplay are on track to debut at number one.
In chart news, Coldplay will easily have the number one album in America next week with 'Xylo Myloto', according to the Music-News website. The 5th Coldplay album is tracking to selling upwards of 450,000 units over the week in America, according to hitsdailydouble.com. The last Coldplay album 'Viva La Vida' sold 721,000 in week one when it was released in June 2008 and went on to sell 2,760,000 units in America.
Meanwhile in the UK according to the Music Week website, Mylo Xyloto needed just two days to achieve the highest first-week album sales in the UK for an entire week since the end of May. MX album clocked up 122,508 sales up to the close of business on Tuesday, according to the Official Charts Company, more than any newly-released album has sold in an entire week since Interscope/Polydor’s Lady GaGa album Born This Way debuted at number one with 215,639 sales five months ago. Xylo Myloto’s total for the week so far is already more than their first album Parachutes sold (70,951) to debut at number one across its first week in 2000, but the first-week tallies of their subsequent albums were significantly higher. The 2002 album A Rush Of Blood To The Head began with 273,924 sales, 2005’s X&Y 464,471 and Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends 302,074 in 2008.
New screenshots of Coldplay @ Amex Unstaged concert, Madrid (26th October 2011):
[thanks to Megane Helders]
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