More pictures from Coldplay's Singapore gig are online, starting here

MTV's satellite music channel has applied for permission to stage a one-off "unplugged" concert in the famous Cango Caves - starring Coldplay.

The Oudtshoorn municipality has been approached by a company called Hunta Entertainment.

According to council documents, there is a moratorium on events in the caves after damage caused by a succession of Passion plays and concerts in the past.Council officials at first recommended that the application be turned down "to keep the conservation integrity of the caves intact and ... focus on long-term conservation for generations to come".

Another council official said: "The opportunity is on a very grand scale and undoubtedly a tempting one. Does one forfeit a conservation integrity that took years to restore for a once-offâ quick marketing fix?"

But Hunta has persuaded the municipality to allow it to appoint a scientist to determine how a concert could be held without doing the caves any harm.

It will hire "cave specialists" and promises to "revere the cave as an exquisite, very special venue".

Several councillors, including the deputy mayor, James Swigelaar, support the proposal because of its marketing value to the caves and the region.

"The exposure from this event is unsurpassed, reaching an audience of 900 million viewers. In conservative monetary terms such a venture is worth $2 million (R14m)," he wrote to the Cape Argus yesterday.

If approved, the concert would take place in the last quarter of the year or the first quarter of next year.

Hunta has proposed building a performance platform inside the Van Zyl Chamber, the main show cave, with seating for an audience of 800.

It would give any profits from ticket sales, other sponsorships and broadcast revenue to a conservation charity after costs were recovered.

The documents presented to council also said Coldplay lead singer Chris Martin "has become the modern mouthpiece for a generation of young people who believe that saving the planet is no longer a job for individuals, but for the masses".

Source: http://tonight.co.za

A behind-the-scenes documentary of Coldplay's world tour has been put on hold because frontman Chris Martin is too busy to edit the footage.

The Clocks rocker commissioned his film-making best pal to shoot over 600 hours of film as he followed the notoriously publicity shy group as they toured their X&Y [pictured] album. But Martin insists he must be involved in putting the TV documentary together, and is currently to busy to go into the editing room for an extended period of time.

An insider tells British newspaper the Daily Star, "The camera has been with them all over the globe capturing some amazing gigs and special moments. "It's brilliant stuff but as there's loads of it, editing won't be simple. Chris is very hands-on with Coldplay and wanted to check everything himself. "The footage that's been viewed so far is cracking, so it's a shame the project might not see the light of day."

More on this story here

British band Coldplay rocked fans from around Southeast Asia with an highly energised and electric performance in Singapore.

Fans travelled from neighbouring countries for the soldout concert Monday night, Coldplay's only Southeast Asian stop on their Twisted Logic 2006 world tour.

Frontman Chris Martin could not stand still as he and the rest of the Grammy-award winning band performed songs mainly from their latest "X&Y" album including chart-toppers "Speed of Sound".

Read the full review here and pictures here

Coldplay feature on both the ‘Glastobury’ DVD and accompanying CD ‘Music From Glastonbury The Film’. The CD is available to buy through Amazon.com with the DVD following on July 17th.

In 1970, a young farmer named Michael Eavis opened his 150-acre farm to 1,500 people for the weekend who paid one pound each to watch a handful of pop and folk stars perform…and the Glastonbury Festival was born.

Julien Temple, (The Filth and the Fury), has spent the past few years collecting footage from every single Glastonbury Festival, interweaving images of the people, the spectacles and the legendary music performances, and capturing the unbridled energy of each successive generation of youthful music fans.

Read the full review here

New Coldplay material being tried out in Adelaide

Penny and I travel in with the band today. Upon arrival at the airport, there is a news crew and photographer in the terminal. It’s all rather funny, as the cameraman walks awkwardly backwards for the whole route to the vehicles.

He does very well actually, given that there are escalators and obstacles aplenty on the way. It’s a bit full on and in your face though and Tour Manager Andy Francks can’t help but laugh as the interviewer finally asks “Are there any downsides to fame?”In fairness, Chris seems utterly unbothered by it all, but I suspect he’s glad it’s a rarity.

There’s more new material floating around in the soundcheck. Today, it’s cyclic a guitar pattern, which gets looped inside one of Matt McGinns boxes of tricks. There are lots of different approaches tied on it, leading to a rather epic, swelling, uplifting piece. Every chord change gives the guitar loop a different feel, even though it’s the same sequence of notes. It’s almost eastern sounding, which is what you’d expect after a visit to Hong Kong and Singapore, not the week before, but there you go.

The show is a good'un. The run to the back in “In My Place” involves a rather convoluted route round the staircases of the building, which means that there’s a couple of moments of wondering where the hell Chris has gone, and whether he’s actually going to come back. Most amusing.

Source: Coldplayer [coldplay.com]

No opening act(s). Setlist:

1. Square One | 2. Politik | 3. Yellow | 4. Speed Of Sound | 5. God Put A Smile On Your Face | 6. What If | 7. How You See The World | 8. White Shadows | 9. The Scientist | 10. Til Kingdom Come | 11. Ring Of Fire | 12. Trouble | 13. Clocks

14. Talk

- Encore -

15. Swallowed In The Sea | 16. In My Place | 17. Fix You

Read the full review here and pictures here

Coldplay singer Chris Martin has a Hollywood wife - but don't let that fool you into thinking he's a playboy.

Martin - who has two kids with Gwyneth Paltrow - says a playboy lifestyle couldn't be further from the band's mind.

"At a time when we could just buy speedboats, we are really fired up about trying to do something," Chris says. "We have had three albums now, sold lots of records, we've taken a lot of shit ... and played to lots of intelligent people. Now it is time to do something great."

Read the full article here; discussion here

Phoenix FM ran a number of top 20 shows in 2005 and broadcast the most popular ones on the internet. They are running more polls this year, with the most popular ones having another show on the station in the coming months.

As last year, some of the most popular polls will be counted down in a special radio broadcast, streamed live, by Phoenix FM in the summer of 2006. The Coldplay poll promises to be the biggest poll undertaken yet.

To select your 10 Coldplay songs, visit http://www.redpenguin.net/top10/coldplay.php

How to vote: Click the link above and scroll down the page and you'll see the voting form. We need you to choose your TOP TEN songs in order. The votes will then be added up (1st=10pts, 2nd=9pts etc) and a full chart will be shown on this page after the show - on which PhoenixFM be playing the top 20 as voted by YOU.

The poll closes on 14 July 2006.

The inaugural MTV Centrestage Singapore, a celebration of live music, is set to rock Singapore on 10th of July at the Singapore Indoor Stadium with music icons Coldplay.

Staged by Live Nation and MTV Centrestage, Coldplay Twisted Logic Tour 2006 will be presented by Nokia Nseries and supported by Singapore Tourism Board. Coldplay, one of the most awarded bands in the world with 4 Grammies, 4 Brits, 9 MTV Awards and countless others under their belt, will be performing at this one-night only concert, the only Southeast Asia stop in their 2006 tour.

“At MTV, we always believe in creating exciting content and showcases for our audience and MTV Centrestage, a celebration of live music, is a testament to that commitment,” said Mishal Varma, Senior Vice-President of Programming and Talent Artist Relations, MTV Networks International Creative (Asia-Pac). “Together with Live Nation, we are very excited to bring Coldplay to Singapore and give their fans access to this one-night only concert.”The vanguard of new wave British rock, Coldplay stands as one of the five biggest bands in the world. Coldplay are Guy Berryman (bass), Jonny Buckland (lead guitar), Will Champion (drums), and Chris Martin (vocals, guitar, keyboards). Formed in London in 1998, the band signed to Parlophone the following year. Coldplay’s first two albums, Parachutes (2000) and A Rush Of Blood To The Head (2002), have sold over 16 million copies worldwide. X&Y, their most recent album released last year, was recorded in the UK and was produced by Danton Supple (Morrissey, Elbow), Ken Nelson (Badly Drawn Boy, Kings of Convenience) and the band.

Said Oliver Chong, Director, Cluster Development (Events & Entertainment), Singapore Tourism Board, “Singapore has always been a must-stop destination for many of the world’s best acts in the performing arts and music scene. Coldplay is certainly internationally acclaimed and enjoys a vast following worldwide as well as in the region. We look forward to receiving the band as well as many of their fans whom we hope will descend on Singapore to lend their support this July.”

“Since the initial announcement of the four-year MTV Networks Asia-STB strategic alliance in February this year, there has been much media and public anticipation of the series of 17 events slated for Singapore between 2006 and 2009. Hence, we are very pleased to welcome the annual MTV Centrestage to its permanent home here in Singapore. MTV’s top-rate events will enhance Singapore’s position as a vibrant lifestyle destination that offers world-class entertainment and an exciting schedule of international events, thereby boosting our efforts to become the Entertainment Capital of Asia,” continued Mr Chong.

Tickets for this showcase are on sale at all SISTIC outlets from 19 May 2006. Ticket prices are at Sin$168, Sin$148, Sin$118 and Sin$68.

As part of the lead up to the July 10th concert, MTV channels throughout Asia will offer their viewers unique opportunities to experience MTV Centrestage including:

- One viewer each from Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand will also have a chance to catch Coldplay live in Singapore at MTV Centrestage. An online contest where viewers prove that they are the biggest Coldplay fan will be run on www.mtvasia.com from 26 May to 30 June 2006. A trip to MTV Centrestage Singapore including VIP seats at the concert and a new Nokia N91 mobile jukebox phone awaits the winner from each country.

- MTV will air three exclusive Coldplay programming specials across its channels in Asia prior to the showcase in Singapore. All Eyes on Coldplay – a half hour special where leading artists ask the band about their albums and tours; MTV Live – Coldplay – an intimate concert taped at a church in East London which premiered exclusively across MTV channels worldwide the night before the launch of X&Y last year; and a 30-minute music special showcasing Coldplay’s hits.

Coldplay has been a part of many recent MTV events including the 2005 Europe Music Awards in Lisbon and the 2005 Video Music Awards in Miami.

Source: asiatraveltips.com

Black may be the new, erm, black, but it’s how you wear it that matters.

Liam Gallagher managed to be the picture of cool yesterday when he stepped out of a recording studio in Ealing, West London.

But Chris Martin looked totally stupid in similarly dark gear, wearing his cap backwards as Coldplay arrived in Perth, Australia, ahead of a concert. Judging by Liam’s rude gesture, he must’ve seen the picture of Chris.

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

Five years ago a little-known UK band took to the stage at Metropolis City to entertain a crowd of less than 2000. Friday night's concert was a different story.

Since then Coldplay have developed in leaps and bounds. Literally. While most of those at the 2001 show were impressed by the depth of the songs and the obvious musicianship, the performance lacked lustre and energy.

The same could not be said of Coldplay's dynamic performance in front of a 16,500 capacity crowd at Burswood Dome last night. (Friday July 7).

Read the full review here

Last month Chris Martin of the British band Coldplay reportedly got stuck in an elevator in Brisbane, Australia.

That the man who sang "Fix You" and "Don't Panic" might have had "A Rush of Blood to the Head" while trapped in a faulty lift for two hours is the stuff of tabloid headlines. But any symbolic significance seen in the episode would be misplaced.

After all, the vertiginous rise of Coldplay over the last few years has been nothing short of unstoppable, with only Martin himself apparently able to alter the future fortunes of the band.

Read the full article here

They may be megastars, but it seems those lads from Coldplay really are just Mr Nice Guys.

Excited fan Angie Paspaliaris waited outside the Adelaide Entertainment Centre until 12.15-ish yesterday, when the fellas made their not-so-hasty exit.

Apparently Chris Martin, right, came out and chatted, signing autographs for about 10 minutes. "He took the time to make sure everyone got what they wanted, all the time being humble and saying thank you to us," Angie says."He is left-handed, and one guy said 'go the left-handers' and he replied 'yeah, I know - if we were around 100 years ago we would've been drowned for that'."

"I'm in love," Angie reckons. Our guess is you're not alone there, chick.

After arriving at lunchtime on Wednesday, guitarist Jon Buckland and his partner took a stroll down Hindley St, while drummer Will Champion headed up North Tce. Both were only too happy to oblige fans with autographs.

Source: http://theadvertiser.news.com.au

London: Coldplay frontman Chris Martin has said that Australian spin wizard Shane Warne provided him tips on how to chat up women.

He said Warne [pictured] became his “wingman" when he tried to chat up a woman–who didn't like their music–in an elevator after the band first became famous.

He however, said that he had exaggerated the incident, which anyway happened long before his marriage to actress Gwyneth Paltrow."When there's 11,000 people there, the truth becomes less important than the flow of the story. Parts of that story I was making up blatantly. I was just trying to think of a nice way of giving him props. We love Shane to bits. I just wanted to be nice about him, tell a personal story, which was only really half true. But the half that was true is true," The Sun quoted Martin as saying.

Martin further announced his friendship to Warne by dedicating the song 'Til Kingdom Come’ at the band’s first show in Melbourne.

Source: http://newkerala.com

He's played with Bill Wyman from the Rolling Stones, he taught Coldplay’s lead guitarist and he has worked on top chart albums.

Who is he? Jan Beck and he has now brought his musical expertise to Copeland.

Living in the Ennerdale area, the 41-year-old professional musician has come to work on a new album, go out on tour and offer tuition locally. Jan is multi-talented – he is a specialist guitarist, drummer and saxophone player.He has worked in Sweden and in this country and is now a session musician, primarily in jazz. He recently moved to Cumbria where he met Clare Messenger, who is also involved in the business JBM-Studios. Jan started drumming when he was 22 years old and never looked back. He turned professional at the age of 24.

Since then he has built up an extremely impressive CV but remains surprisingly modest. “I played in the late eighties with Bill Wyman, I have worked with Tina Charles and The Relatives,” he told me. “I also write drum programmes and did a lot of work for Will Young’s first album as well as a bit on Rachel Stevens’ Funkydory album.”

Jonny Buckland, guitarist with Coldplay, went to Jan for lessons from the age of 13. He taught him guitar, bass and drums.

“I knew him as a kid, he came to lessons when I was in North Wales,” said Jan.

And he worked with him until he hit the big time with the band – or so he thought. “He brought the band’s first EP to me and I said you won’t get very far with this – technically it wasn’t very well recorded.”

Jonny wrote some of the album at Jan’s studio in Wales. Jan taught the band 26 Feet and to name drop further he has worked with John Squire, of The Stone Roses and with Dave Goodman, of Sex Pistols fame.

Jan came to Ennerdale with a view to take six months out to practice and “re-invent” himself. He rented a house and then met Clare, who has lived in the area for the past six years. “I plan to go on tour this year with an album as a one-man-show. I will start writing in the next few weeks.”

Jan will also be teaching and passing on his expertise to beginners through to professionals. He has a studio and teaching room as well as a practice room, where, for example, drummers can go and practice with headphones and click tracks. “Drummers are notoriously difficult musicians because they can’t practise anywhere – but they can come here,” he said.

Source: http://www.whitehaven-news.co.uk

Coldplay have set a new audience record at the Sydney Entertainment Centre as part of their “Twisted Logic” tour through Michael Chugg Entertainment.

The British band played to 12,490 fans on Wednesday June 28, breaking the previous record set by the Red Hot Chili Peppers in 2000.

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

Jimmy Buffett and the Coral Reefer Band's national concert tour was the "most requested event" in the first half of 2006 according to Ticketmaster, the world's leading ticketing company.

Following closely behind on the chart ranked by online page views, information requests, and ticket sales from 1/1/06 - 6/30/06 were Tim McGraw and Faith Hill's Soul2Soul II. tour and Wicked, the untold story of the witches of Oz.

"Jimmy Buffett as well as Tim McGraw and Faith Hill's Soul2Soul II. tour have consistently ranked as the nation's most requested events each week throughout the first half of 2006," said Ticketmaster's Sean Moriarty. "And Wicked's position at #3 illustrates the enormous success of these compelling Broadway and theatrical touring performances."

The following are the Most Requested Events for the first half of 2006:

MOST REQUESTED EVENTS

Mid-Year 2006 (1/1/06 - 6/30/06)

RANK

1. JIMMY BUFFETT

2. SOUL2SOUL II WITH TIM MCGRAW AND FAITH HILL

3. WICKED

4. KENNY CHESNEY

5. DAVID GILMOUR

6. BILLY JOEL

7. DAVE MATTHEWS BAND

8. NEW YORK YANKEES

9. BON JOVI

10. COLDPLAY

Just what do one of the world's biggest acts get up to when they're in Adelaide?

We've got no idea say http://theadvertiser.news.com.au, that's why we need you guys. If you saw the Coldplay lads out and about during their stay, email adelaideconfidential@dv.newsltd.com.au or phone 8206 2352.

Maybe you spotted Chris Martin and co out and about at a shop peddling Fair Trade gear (one of the band's pet causes) or chowing down at an organic cafe. Let us know if you saw them.

Don't just tell them! Tell us too! Share your Coldplay sightings here

Missed out yesterday? This is it, your final chance to grab tickets to one of the concerts of the year, Coldplay.

In conjunction with Triple M and the New Zoo crew, John Blackman, Jane Reilly, Scott McBain and Cosi - there are two more gold double-passes to win.

(Coldplay performs at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre TONIGHT). For your chance to the seats, take note of today's Coldplay codeword: YELLOW. Then, listen to 104.7 Triple M's New Zoo between 8-8.30am today to find out how to win. Go you good thing.

ANDREW DENTON: So you guys went and played a kind of an acoustic gig.

CHRIS MARTIN: Yes, we went busking. Yes.

ANDREW DENTON: In the car park. What was that like?

CHRIS MARTIN: Well busking is great. We've only been busking twice. The first time was, our drummer Will and myself had no money and this must have been in 1999, and we both were saying to each other, "You're really good at singing and I think we were quite talented," and he would say to me, "No, I think you're really quite talented, and you know we really could do something." So we had this great self-importance.So one day we said, "Okay, we're going to go into the middle of London because we're great at music," obviously, and we're going to set the town on fire with busking, and on a Saturday we're going to have all the kids round and we're going to make tonnes of money and we're going to fill our hats or caps. I can't remember the specific headgear. We know we're going to really make everyone's afternoon great and we went busking, and we were there for five minutes and we played Mrs Robinson by Simon and Garfunkel, and then we played, I think, something from 'The Jungle Book', and then we got moved off by the police.

And we made nothing. So that's when we decided that doing covers probably was not going to - and then we realised we weren't actually as good as we thought so we went back to square one.

Download the full interview here [thanks Larry & coldplay_97] and read the full interview here

Phoenix FM ran a number of top 20 shows in 2005 and broadcast the most popular ones on the internet. They are running more polls this year, with the most popular ones having another show on the station in the coming months.

As last year, some of the most popular polls will be counted down in a special radio broadcast, streamed live, by Phoenix FM in the summer of 2006. The Coldplay poll promises to be the biggest poll undertaken yet.

To select your 10 Coldplay songs, visit http://www.redpenguin.net/top10/coldplay.php

How to vote: Click the link above and scroll down the page and you'll see the voting form. We need you to choose your TOP TEN songs in order. The votes will then be added up (1st=10pts, 2nd=9pts etc) and a full chart will be shown on this page after the show - on which PhoenixFM be playing the top 20 as voted by YOU.

The poll closes on 14 July 2006.

Coldplay rocker Chris Martin was so furious when he found himself faced with a critical member of the public, he unleashed an astonishing tirade on her appearance and excess weight.

The Clocks star admits he was an "arsehole" to launch such a personal attack on the unimpressed woman. He says, "When someone insults you to your face about your music, the first thing you want to do is pick on something about their appearance. "It's a terrible thing but I had this woman parked outside our house.

She drove me so crazy that I advised her to go to Weight Watchers, which was not a very nice thing to say. "I'm not proud of it but it's weird how if you sort of feel like you're being attacked you can become a real arsehole."

More on this story here

Coldplay frontman Chris Martin reckons he can't bear listening to the band's first album Parachutes.

In an interview with Andrew Denton for Enough Rope the singer from one of the world's bigest bands revealed that and some other gems. "Think if I ever get married again I might put it on to impress someone but I can't imagine that ever happening."

Martin reasons that nothing can be learnt by listening to one's own music so he tries to constantly listen to other artists' efforts. You can catch Andrew Denton's entire interview with Chris Martin on Enough Rope on the ABC tonight at 9:35pm.

More on this here

As reported earlier, the current tour of Australia is underway and they have so far played Brisbane and Sydney.

This coming Monday (3rd July) the popular TV programme 'Enough Rope with Andrew Denton' will be showing an exclusive with Chris. The show will be transmitted on ABC at 21.35 (local time).

There are also various radio promo interviews on Triple M, Triple J and Nova which you can download and listen to here [thanks shallumstuart and higherenergy]