Well, in Holland actually.

CD1 Digipack (Live in Holland 1)

1. Talk (Radio Edit)

2. Swallowed In The Sea (Live @ Gelredome, 2005))

3. God Put A Smile Upon My Face (Live @ Gelredome, 2005)

release: 2 December

CD2 (Live in Holland 2)

1. Talk (Album Version)

2. Square One (Live @ Gelredome, 2005)

3. Clocks (Live @ Gelredome, 2005)

release: 9 December

CD3 (Live in Holland 3)

1. Talk (Live @ Gelredome, 2005)

2. Til Kingdom Come (Live @ Gelredome, 2005)

3. Fix You (Live @ Gelredome, 2005)

release: 16 December

For full details, click here

[Thanks RadioMad]

Coldplay frontman Chris Martin has demanded action to make international trade rules fairer for developing countries.

The singer's call came as finance ministers from wealthy countries met in London ahead of trade talks in Hong Kong. Martin played a leading part in the Live 8 campaign demanding action on Africa in the run-up to this summer's G8 summit.

The debt cancellation agreed at the Gleneagles gathering was "tremendous", he said. But aid increases also announced in Gleneagles would mean little without a change to international trade rules, he suggested.

"Trade, which is the least glamorous and the least easily understood of those issues, takes away a lot of aid," he said. "So you can give Mozambique a billion dollars in aid. You can also take away two billion dollars in trade by not allowing it to have proper access to your market or by dumping, in this case, cotton on their country when they don't need it."Martin said he refused to be pessimistic about the Hong Kong talks, which aid agencies fear will not produce the promised breakthrough on fair trade. He also defended the achievements of Live 8.

"Of course you can be disappointed, you can always be disappointed," he told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme. "You can be number three in the charts when you really want to be number two. You can be beaten by Crazy Frog in the charts, which happened to us. Or you can say 'Well, great, we are at number two.' I'm not going to admit disappointment. I want to remain positive. Everyone else can be negative."

Martin also defended politicians' involvement in the Live 8 campaign. "I have grown up, in 28 years, seeing punk rock records be musically brilliant and have an aggressive political message that does nothing," said the Coldplay frontman.

Phil Bloomer, of Oxfam, said: "Chris Martin is right to say that world trade rules have got to change so that they work for poor countries as well as rich. The offers from the US and the EU fall scandalously short of what is needed to address the inequalities of world trade. Rich countries have got to offer more at the WTO's (World Trade Organisation) ministerial meeting in Hong Kong in a few days' time."

Source: http://news.scotsman.com

Actress Gwyneth Paltrow has spoken about her plans to have more children.

The star – widely rumoured to be expecting her second baby – says she is looking forward to having a brother or sister for 17-month-old daughter Apple.

“Yes, definitely, I would love to have a whole bunch of children,” she tells this month’s Glamour magazine. “I don’t mind girls or boys. My mother gets upset because I say I want all girls because Apple is so fabulous.”

Paltrow and her husband, Coldplay singer Chris Martin, have maintained a silence about the baby rumours, but an official announcement is expected any day now.Elsewhere in the interview, the Oscar-winning actress praised the British public for their response to the London bombings – comparing them favourably to their US counterparts.

She said: “I find the English amazing how they got over 7/7. There were no multiple memorials with people sobbing as they would have been in America. There, they are constantly scaring people but, at the same time, people think nothing of going to see a therapist.”

Paltrow also revealed her macrobiotic diet is now a thing of the past.

“I eat wheat and I have cheese. I used to eat miso soup every day for breakfast and oatmeal. It was very regimented but now I eat whatever I want,” she said.

“I drink a glass of wine with dinner, occasionally beer and also Guinness. I can’t drink vodka. It wrecks me.”

Source: iol.ie

Coldplay have cemented their position as Britain's biggest band, with their album X&Y named the best of 2005.

The recording, which went straight to number one in 28 countries and became the second fastest-selling album in British history after its release in June, was given the award by Q magazine.

Runner-up was Demon Days by Gorillaz, the second-album from the cartoon-hip hop group created by Damon Albarn of Blur.Kaiser Chiefs were third with their debut album, Employment, which has sold 2.5 million copies since March. The Leeds group exploded onto the music scene this year with the re-release of a demo single-Oh My God, and went on to perform at Glastonbury and Live8 in Philadelphia. Kaiser Chiefs frontman Ricky Wilson said: "I'm actually dead chuffed. I would have hoped it would have been in there to be honest - which I know sounds arrogant, but then being in a rock band you have to be arrogant, don't you? "Glastonbury was a big turning point for us - the first show I didn't get nervous at and the first show I really thought we proved ourselves to everyone that we were contenders, a lot more than just eyeliner and blazers."

Fourth place went to Oasis's Don't Believe The Truth, which Q said was "their most vital since the Britpop glory days".

In fifth place was I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning by the little-known American band Bright Eyes. The top female artist in the list of 50 top albums was Scottish newcomer KT Tunstall for Eye To The Telescope.

Meanwhile, the Oasis return to form was confirmed with their single The Importance Of Being Idle at the top of Q's 100 Greatest Tracks Of The Year, which were voted for by the magazine's readers. The song topped the singles charts in August. Coldplay's Fix You was in second place and the Kaiser Chiefs took the third and fourth spots with I Predict A Riot and Oh My God respectively.

Top ten albums:

1 Coldplay - X&Y

2 Gorillaz - Demon Days

3 Kaiser Chiefs - Employment

4 Oasis - Don't Believe The Truth

5 Bright Eyes - I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning

6 James Blunt - Back To Bedlam

7 Franz Ferdinand - You Could Have It So Much Better

8 Arcade Fire - Funeral

9 KT Tunstall - Eye To The Telescope

10 Hard-Fi - Stars of CCTV

Top ten singles:

1 Oasis - The Importance of Being Idle

2 Coldplay - Fix You

3 Kaiser Chiefs - I Predict A Riot

4 Kaiser Chiefs - Oh My God

5 KT Tunstall - Black Horse And The Cherry Tree

6 Oasis - Lyla

7 Franz Ferdinand - Do You Want To

8 Stereophonics - Dakota

9 Coldplay - Speed of Sound

10 Hard-Fi - Hard To Beat

Oasis guitarist Noel Gallagher [pictured] has declared that his band is better than U2 and Coldplay. And he insists the other bands know it.

"They know that we shit over them," Gallagher said yesterday on the eve of the British band's sold-out Festival Hall show. "We've got two guitarists in our band. They've only got two between them. End of story.

"Me, Chris Martin (Coldplay) and Bono (U2) have a friendly rivalry. Not that we're in some celebrity club, but I do talk to them on a regular basis and they know we're the bollocks. They were on their hands and knees begging us to play Live8. It wasn't a big enough show for us."

Oasis has had a remarkable comeback this year. Next week its new album Don't Believe the Truth is set to be the band's third consecutive British No. 1 this year with the Noel and Liam Gallagher duet Let There Be Love.

"Coldplay and U2 haven't had three No. 1s in a row," Gallagher joked. "Coldplay haven't had any No. 1s in the UK, actually."

Gallagher scoffed at rumours he's feuding with brother Liam after an incident in Brisbane. "It's bollocks," Gallagher said. "It's quite preposterous. Things are fine."

Gallagher is a fan of Australia. "I'd move here if it wasn't so far away. It's like America weather-wise, but it's not full of fat idiots," he said.

Oasis's final Melbourne show is at Festival Hall tonight.

Designs to turn Liverpool's most successful music studios into a set of apartments offend the eye, according to the city council's planning committee.

The studios are the largest recording studio outside London and have attracted names such as Pulp, New Order and Coldplay. Councillors said they were concerned about the loss of Parr Street Studios and want plans for its transformation to be reviewed.

The city's most prominent actors, artists and musicians have demanded Parr Street studios be left as a cultural resource for the city as it prepares to be Capital of Culture. But the studio has been losing money and only the goodwill of the owners, Hit and Run, a company owned by Phil Collins and other members of rock band Genesis, have kept it open, according to the site's developers. They want to turn the studio into 47 apartments along with shop, office and leisure space.Film director Alex Cox and head of LIPA, Mark Featherstone-Witty, are among those who have added their voices to the campaign to save the building where three award-winning albums have been recorded.

City centre councillor Steve Munby said he wants Phil Collins to meet the city council's chief executive, Sir David Henshaw and MP Louise Ellman to try and create a survival strategy for the studios. He said there had a fantastic response from people who want the studios to remain open and add to the city's cultural standing. Ex-Brookside star Dean Sullivan, representing North West producers and directors, said the studios must stay as they are.

While director Alex Cox said they were too important to the creative community in the city to be allowed to close. "The Capital of Culture may be a rip off and a joke but the Parr Street studios isn't," he said.

But Cllr Munby said he was also working to save the studio on behalf of his ward constituents. The new development would include private members club 3345, which people living in the city do not want to close. He said: "It's the only time in my life I have come across residents supporting licensed premises."

One city centre neighbour called the bar an oasis of calm in the Ropewalks. Councillors deferred decision on planning permission because they said the design for the new building, which forms part of the development, was unattractive.

The planning committee said the city centre already had too many "tatty" developments with "planks of wood and wire netting balconies". Businesses based in the studios have called the plans to close the studios disastrous for a city, which prides itself on its musical heritage.

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

Chris & Jonny will be joining DJ Jo Whiley [pictured left, with Will] in the Live Lounge on December 22nd. between 10am and 12pm [GMT].

It is not yet known what Coldplay will be performing, but you can tune in at 97-99FM or listen live here

The show will also be archived the following day, so you can listen again.

Coldplay performed the new single 'Talk' live on November 13th (the day before the Milan gig) on the Italian TV show called "Che tempo che fa".

You can download the performance here [111Mb]

[Thanks stargazer]

NME is to sell a CD on the high street for the first time, having put together a 39-track double compilation album featuring the likes of Coldplay, The Killers and Gorillaz in a joint venture with Universal/EMI.

The IPC title is cashing in on what Universal product manager Simon King called a "vintage year for guitar bands".

The compilation, 'NME Presents: The Essential Bands', includes tracks by bands championed in the magazine among them Kaiser Chiefs, Franz Ferdinand, Goldfrapp and Hard-Fi.

King, Universal's music TV product manager, said: "The NME have allowed us to augment our TV-led marketing with very targeted editorial and ad support."

In addition, the NME confirmed the line-up for the NME Awards Tour, sponsored by Wella Shockwaves for the second year. In order of appearance the line-up is Mystery Jets, We Are Scientists, Arctic Monkeys and Maximo Park. The tour begins on January 23 and will visit 19 locations.

Source: brandrepublic.com

For a guy who makes every effort to play the role of bulletproof rock god, Justin Hawkins [pictured left] has remarkably thin skin.

Of course, you probably wouldn't know that based on his public persona: a carefully balanced amalgamation of Axl Rose's debauched dark side and Freddy Mercury's refined pomp. As the spandex-clad, siren-voiced frontman of British hair-metal enthusiasts the Darkness, Hawkins spends a good deal of time making headlines in his homeland. But lately he's become more than a bit annoyed by the amount of press he and his band have been getting regarding some rather unkind things they've allegedly said about Coldplay, U2, James Blunt and Babyshambles/ Libertines frontman Pete Doherty.

"It's all completely false, and all completely taken out of context. For example, some newspaper will call me up and say something like, 'Oh, what do you think of that James Blunt character? Bit of a dullard, isn't he?' " Hawkins sighed. "Then before you know it, there's a headline that says, 'Hawkins Slams "Dullard" Blunt.' And this kind of stuff just follows us around. Like just the other day, there was a quote by [drummer] Ed [Graham] that said he wanted to 'eat' Pete Doherty."

"And that's ridiculous," Graham deadpanned. "I mean, I'm not even a cannibal."Such is life for the Darkness, who burst onto the U.K. music scene back in 2003 with Permission to Land, an over-the-top rock assault that spawned a slew of hits ("I Believe in a Thing Called Love," "Get Your Hands Off My Woman," "Growing on Me") and sold a shade under 700,000 copies in the States. Their second album, One Way Ticket to Hell ... and Back, hit shelves Tuesday and finds them further pursuing their own wing in rock and roll Valhalla. This time they're doing it not just with guitar pyrotechnics (though they're still in plentiful supply), but also with more theatrical, refined sounds. The band achieved its new approach thanks to producer Roy Thomas Baker, who cut his teeth on some of Queen's biggest hits, including "Bohemian Rhapsody."

"He was a refined man of many tastes and cultures. And he had a killer sense of humor, which is very important if you're going to be spending an inordinate amount of time in a room with someone," Hawkins laughed. "He and I enjoyed many seafood dinners, and we developed an unspoken method of communication. It was sort of like telekinesis, but even better."

The songs on One Way Ticket run the gamut from blasting rockers ("Hazel Eyes," "Is It Just Me?") to string-enhanced ballads smacking of high tea at an English estate ("English Country Garden"). There's a song about being embraced by a woman with "Dinner Lady Arms" — "You call them lunch-lady arms over here," Hawkins explained. "Those arms with flab hanging underneath them"). And there's no less than three songs about hair — mostly of the thinning variety.

"I think hair loss is a lot like death for most men, because it's much-feared and never fully explained," Hawkins said. "And when most men get ready in the morning, it's the first step in their grooming regiment. So frankly, I'm surprised that no one has written songs about [hair loss] already."

And with a brand-new album comes a brand-new tour, which in keeping with the Darkness' general largess can only be of the massive, jumbo-jet, globe-spanning variety. Hawkins wouldn't have it any other way.

"We kick off our world tour in February back home, and we plan on hitting every corner of the globe," he said. "We'll definitely do America, but we're also going to hit areas that most bands wouldn't do. We're going to play Southeast Asia. We're huge there. If you take a look at the population there, I think percentage-wise, most of them are Darkness fans."

Source: mtv.com

An announcement has been made with the details for the last few presale and general sales for the forthcoming US tour.

For full details and links to the pre-sales, click here

[Thanks Clockpolitiks]

On December 1st, ONE: The Campaign to Make Poverty History will join with Gcast.com to launch the first ONE.ORG podcast. The World AIDS Day ONEcast will feature former President of South Africa Nelson Mandela, Bono, U2 lead singer and co-founder of DATA (Debt, AIDS, Trade for Africa) and Chris Martin of Coldplay, along with members of the faith community and other ONE supporters.

A podcast is an audio recording, from a 10-sec sound to a 30- min radio show, stored as an MP3 file that is easily downloadable through the internet. Hosted by Grammy award winning singer/songwriter Peter Griesar, the ONEcast will be provided to the 2 million current ONE supporters and also be available for free on the ONE.ORG website and popular podcast directories.

Every day in Africa, HIV/AIDS kills 6,300 people, 8,500 people are infected with the HIV virus and 1,400 newborn babies are infected during childbirth. New web technologies such as podcasting can help Americans raise their voices as ONE against the emergency of AIDS and extreme poverty, joining together to ask leaders to do more to save millions of lives in the poorest countries.

WHAT: World AIDS Day ONE Campaign podcast

WHO: Former President of South Africa Nelson Mandela; Bono, U2 lead singer and co-founder of DATA (Debt, AIDS, Trade for Africa); Chris Martin, lead singer of Coldplay; Faith leaders, artists and other ONE supporters

WHEN: World AIDS Day, December 1, 2005 at 12:01 a.m.

WHERE: Links here

[Thanks Nettie]

Years of silence have hardly dulled Fiona Apple's intensity. She's back, wielding it like a sharp knife.

Remember Fiona Apple? She was the sulky teenager with the big watery blue eyes who condemned the music industry for being shallow while she made scintillating videos that showed her romping around in her panties. She railed against ex-boyfriends and the Butterball turkey people with equal venom, and spoke openly about being raped at age 12. Following the 1999 release of her second album, "When the Pawn..." (the full title stretched out over 90 words), she famously stalked off stage in the middle of a New York concert, shedding tears and physically threatening journalists.

How could you forget her?

On Friday, the Grammy-winning singer returned to the Warfield after years of self-imposed exile. With a strong new album, "Extraordinary Machine," and a promising 13-city tour to promote it -- with further dates penciled in with Coldplay early next year -- it seems as if she's worked out her demons.Almost.

Apple, now 28, still looks like she could flip out at any moment. When she isn't sipping tea behind an enormous piano, she stands in the spotlight with her shoulders stiff, eyes locked on some ghost on the horizon, knees twitching gawkily in time to the rhythms. Her knuckles look red and swollen as if she has just been punching the walls backstage. The new songs from "Extraordinary Machine," her third album, are especially intense. Which is to say they sound even more thunderous and emotionally ravaged than Apple's older tunes like "Limp" (lyrical kicker: "It won't be long till you'll be lying limp in your own hand") and "Sleep To Dream" ("I got my own hell to raise"), one of the few tracks she pulled from her triple-platinum 1996 debut album, "Tidal." She introduced the barbed "Oh Well" by announcing, "Boy, was I having a bad day when this song was written." Is it merely a coincidence that her ex-boyfriends like magician David Blaine and director Paul Thomas Anderson have all but disappeared?

The studio version of "Extraordinary Machine," which sparked a death-row-pardon-style campaign with the Web site www.freefiona.com when rumors floated that her record label, Sony, had refused to put it out, sounds a bit like kooky carnival music. But live -- backed by five bearded session players, no less than two on keyboards -- Apple is able to get to the, er, core of songs like "O' Sailor" and the hip-hop inflected "Red Red Red." She stomps her feet and scrunches her face up with each bitter sentiment, occupying it with every atom in her body.

There's a thrilling sense that we're all headed for revelation together. Not only does she make it through the entire 90-minute set and belt out an acoustic version of the album's title track during an encore, but for just a brief second, it actually looks like Apple might be trying to fight back a smile.

Source: here

Another lead on the talkthetour.com issue has popped up, this time from PitchForkMedia. Here is a snippet of what they had to say:

Coldplay? More like Coldpretentious! If you thought those guys were annoying, just wait until you hear this:

Coldplay will launch yet another North American tour early next year, but we can't tell you all of the dates just yet. Why? In order for this allegedly top secret information to be revealed, fans must flock by the thousands to a new website launched by the band.

Every time the site, TalkTheTour.com, brings in 33,000 hits, a date is unlocked. There are 26 of them in all, 16 of which have been disclosed. Sheesh, that's over half a million unique visitors. And they're not even making this a benefit for anybody! C'mon, guys!

You can read the full article here

NEW YORK - Coldplay are to be promoted in an innovative cross-promotional deal, in which one of the songs from their platinum-selling 'X&Y' album is played on a character's mobile phone in the hit crime drama 'CSI: NY'.

During the episode, detective Danny Messer is investigating a cold case, pun probably intended, when his phone rings to the sound of Coldplay's song 'Talk'.

The US TV promotion, between CBS and Capitol Records, then offers viewers the chance to download the song to their phones, taking product placement to the next level. The ringtone will be available via a deal with a US cellular network and CBS.com.

It does not end there. Later in the episode, 'Talk' serves as background music. The promotion is believed to be a first for the music industry and, if successful, stars in other TV shows are likely to have their phones ringing with the latest songs from the Billboard 100.

In going with Coldplay, Capitol have gone for an easy first time out. 'X&Y' shot to number one around the world, with the platinum-selling album racking up sales of 7.5m, with 2.3m copies sold in the US alone.

Earlier this year, Capitol signed a deal with US mobile phone Cingular to release a 30-second ringtone of another track from 'X&Y', 'Speed of Sound', as a ringtone before it was heard anywhere else.

Coldplay were one of the first bands to sign up to the new music programme that sees fans offered ringtones of forthcoming singles before they are available to buy or download in full.

More on this story here

Coldplay Contribute to World AIDS Day Auction

BID 2 BEAT AIDS

Begins December 1, 2005 to benefit LIFEbeat

Eight Special Coldplay Items Among Hundreds in Massive Online Auction

LIFEbeat, the Music Industry Fights AIDS honors World AIDS Day on December 1, 2005 with BID 2 BEAT AIDS, an auction on eBay featuring hundreds of autographed and rare items from stars in music, film, theatre and television. Proceeds benefit LIFEbeat with a portion of the money earmarked to help rebuild AIDS related services in the devastated Gulf Coast region. Sponsors include MTV, Borders Books & Music, Sirius Satellite Radio, Vespa and designer Chan Luu. The auction begins at 3 PM EST (New York) time, and runs for exactly ten days.

There are eight Coldplay items (so far) set for the auction. Those that are signed were signed especially for the auction at sponsor MTV events this year. They include a certificate of authenticity, and were signed in the presence of MTV staff.

The Coldplay items include:

•A Genuine RIAA Triple Platinum Record Award for "A Rush of Blood to the Head," commemorating three million in U.S. sales.

•A Genuine RIAA Gold Record Award for "Parachutes," commemorating 500,000 in U.S. sales

•A Genuine RIAA Platinum Record Award, commemorating 1,000,000 in U.S. sales (this item is still in transit, and we do not have the title yet).

•An autographed MTV Video Music Awards Red T-shirt, sized XL, signed at the VMAs

•A limited-edition 7-inch vinyl single for "Speed of Sound," signed at the VMAs

•A Coldplay Live Leak promotional poster, signed at MTV TRL.

•A Coldplay "X&Y" album promo poster, autographed by all with an illustration by Chris, signed at MTV TRL

•A Coldplay "X&Y" album promo poster, autographed by all with no illustration, signed at MTV TRLThe auction also features: the original artwork from Joni Mitchell’s iconic album “Court and Spark;” 50 Cent- signed tambourines from his performance at the 2005 VMAs ; a script from a forthcoming episode of The Simpsons signed by the entire cast, including sketches of Bart and Lisa by Matt Groening; a 2006 Vespa LX-50 signed by stars including Kanye West at Sirius Satellite Radio; the actual podium from the 2005 MTV Movie Awards signed by the stars who appeared on the show including Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman, Katie Holmes, Dakota Fanning, and many, many more; a signed jogging suit worn by Jennifer Lopez; a diamond watch donated by Lil’ Kim in a signed case; a signed hat worn by Elton John on the cover of his CD "Turn the Lights Out When You Leave;" signed guitars from Tim McGraw, Metallica, Wynonna Judd, and Red Hot Chili Peppers; gold records from No Doubt, Britney Spears, Hilary Duff and more; one-of-a-kind “seat-filler” photo cards from the MTV Movie Awards rehearsal signed by Jessica Simpson, Dakota Fanning, Samuel L. Jackson and more; a signed Joan Rivers bobblehead doll; signed books from Brooke Shields, 50 Cent, Fantasia, Madonna, and Jackie Collins, among others.

For theater fans there is a Playbill from the opening night of the Broadway show Rent, signed by the original cast members. (The cast of the upcoming movie version of Rent also signed several goodies). The producers of the current smash Spam-a-lot have donated a Spam-a-lot tote bag signed by all of the stars of the show, including Tim Curry and David Hyde-Pierce. There are tickets to the opening night show and party for the forthcoming gay drama Dog Sees God starring Logan Marshall Green of The O.C. There are also two Avenue Q “Ultimate Collector” packages featuring rare memorabilia; one is from Broadway and the other is from Las Vegas. Other Broadway stars including Patti LuPone, Kathleen Turner, Carol Channing, Idina Menzel, Kristen Chenoweth, and Liza Minnelli are also represented in the auction.

Perhaps the most offbeat item in the auction thus far: a bottle of officially-licensed limited-edition Lindsay Lohan ketchup from Heinz --- signed by Lindsay Lohan herself.

There are also hundreds of signed photos, CDs, posters, DVDs, books, magazines, autograph cards, etc., from stars as diverse as Mariah Carey, Eminem, Usher, Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Debbie Harry, Black Eyed Peas, Cyndi Lauper, Tiffany, Jordan Knight, Deana Carter, Justin Timberlake, Diddy, Beyonce, Molly Ringwald, Olivia Newton John, Green Day, Billy Crudup... the list goes on and on.

BID 2 BEAT AIDS will kick off on eBay on December 1, 2005 at 3:00 PM EST (noon PST), and will run through the same time ten days later. Once on eBay, you can do a search for LIFEBEAT or BID 2 BEAT AIDS. The seller name is Bid2BeatAIDS. All items will be biddable on the eBay sites in the USA, the UK, Australia, South Africa, and Singapore, with the exception of the Vespa, which is biddable only in the USA.

For more on the auction, visit www.Bid2BeatAIDS.com

For more on the charity, hit www.Lifebeat.org.

Bit of an odd one this. Hecklerspray.com have an unusual Coldplay competition on the go. Here are the details...

Howdy, folks. It's that time of the week again - those gleaming few minutes when you can forget about the suicide-provoking pointlessness of your mundane little lives and take part in the hecklerspray Celebrity Haiku Competition.

That's right: each and every week we offer you the chance to win big. The prize in question? A delicious mouthwatering tube of Fruit Pastilles! Come on, kids. Get those fingers crossed and keep the dream alive.

All you have to do to win is a scribble out a haiku (that's an ancient form of Japanese Poetry) about a celebrity of our choice. This week's poetry-inspiring superstar is none other than Coldplay frontman Chris Martin.

Coldplay's Chris Martin has revealed that he would have liked a 'sex advisor' to help him through those awkward first lady-fumbles.

Think you can write a poem about that? Course you bloody well can. Just remember the golden rule of haiku: five syllables, seven syllables, five syllables.

Suppose you want us to provide an 'example', do you? Oh, alright ...

Father of Apple

Was Good At Writing Ballads

But Not At Shagging

Now, we know for a fact that you can do better than that. And we want you to prove it, goddammit.

If you fancy having a go for the fruit pastilles, click here

On Monday (November 28), the show "MTV Spin" featured an interview with Coldplay. The show, which is hosted by Markus Kavka and which shows several indie music videos each Monday.

For more information and to download the full interview [86Mb], click here

There is also a short streamed interview here for those who don't want the full version.

[Thanks Flying Sparks]

Strong ticket sales for Coldplay (tickets | music)’s upcoming North American tour have led the British rock sensations to add repeat performances in a number of cities, as well as a new stop in Milwaukee.

Two-night stands are now set for Vancouver, British Columbia; Toronto; Uniondale, NY; and Chicago, tickets for all of which are on sale now. Meanwhile, tickets for a new March 19 engagement in Milwaukee will hit the box office Saturday (12/3), as will those for previously announced stops in Las Vegas and Orlando, FL. Details are included in the itinerary below.

The new shows extend the group’s run to 30 dates, beginning with a Jan. 25 appearance in Seattle, and–for now, anyway–ending with an April 6 performance in Philadelphia. Fiona Apple (tickets | music) will serve as the show-opener from the tour’s kick-off through its March 5 stop in Tampa, and Richard Ashcroft will take over from March 20 through April 6.

Fans who register at the tour’s official website by Dec. 19 have a chance to win a phone call from Coldplay frontman Chris Martin, along with a front-row seat at a Coldplay show, a meet-and-greet with the band, and a seat at the 2006 Grammy Awards in Los Angeles. Twenty-five runners-up will get the opportunity to speak with the band on a private conference call.

“X&Y,” Coldplay’s third album, hit stores in June, and entered The Billboard 200 album chart at No. 1, selling 737,000 copies in the U.S. during its first week out. The set features the group’s latest single, “Talk,” the music video for which is streaming at TalktheTour.com.

On Dec. 7, Coldplay will appear on “Late Night with Conan O’Brien” for a two-song performance, and on Dec. 17, PBS will premiere the band’s hour-long “Austin City Limits” performance, according to a press release.TOUR ITINERY

[Note: The following tour itinerary has been provided by artist and/or tour sources, who verify its accuracy as of the publication time of this story. Changes may occur before tickets go on sale.]

January 2006

25 - Seattle, WA - Key Arena

26, 27 - Vancouver, British Columbia - GM Place

30 - Sacramento, CA - ARCO Arena

31 - Oakland, CA - Oakland Arena

February 2006

1 - San Jose, CA - HP Pavilion

3 - Las Vegas, NV - MGM Grand Garden Arena (on sale 12/3)

19 - Denver, CO - Pepsi Center

20 - Omaha, NE - Qwest Center

22 - Auburn Hills, MI - Palace of Auburn Hills

23 - Louisville, KY - Freedom Hall

25 - Houston, TX - Toyota Center

26 - Dallas, TX - American Airlines Center

27 - Oklahoma City, OK - Ford Center

March 2006

2 - Washington, DC - MCI Center

4 - Orlando, FL - TD Waterhouse Centre (on sale 12/3)

5 - Tampa, FL - Ford Pavilion

19 - Milwaukee, WI - Bradley Center (on sale 12/3)

20 - Cleveland, OH - Quicken Loans Arena

22, 23 - Toronto, Ontario - Air Canada Centre

25 - East Rutherford, NJ - Continental Airlines Arena

26, 27 - Uniondale, NY - Nassau Coliseum

30, 31 - Chicago, IL - United Center

April 2006

3 - Manchester, NH - Verizon Wireless Arena

4 - Uncasville, CT - Mohegan Sun Casino

6 - Philadelphia, PA - Wachovia Center

Source: livedaily.com

Over the past month, Coldplay have gone to some rather extreme — though commendable — lengths to keep tickets for their Twisted Logic Tour out of the hands of scalpers and off the pages of online auction sites, including organizing fan-only lotteries (basically a chance at a chance to bid on special presale tix) and sifting through ticket applications by hand.

But their latest ticketing tactic — designed to prevent fans from being "ripped off" — might fall short of its intended goal.

On Saturday, the band launched a special online auction through Ticketmaster.com, which gives fans the chance to bid on pairs of tickets to the first leg of shows on the band's upcoming North American tour By Monday, the minimum bid on tickets for several shows was already as high as $400, and no bid was lower than $80 for a pair of tickets.

The face value for tickets usually runs from $37.50 - $75. But in a statement posted on Coldplay.com, the band defended the auction as a necessary step in defending fans from scalpers and ticket counterfeiting. On Monday, a Coldplay spokesperson noted that only prime seats are being auctioned, and that all of the band's profits from the auctions will be donated to charity.

"Whenever we put our tickets up for sale, an enormous amount of them end up being sold on sites like eBay [or on] scalper sites," the statement continued. "A lot of these auction sites are selling counterfeit tickets, and in some cases fans are just plain ripping fans off. We have honestly tried to make as many tickets as possible accessible for everyone, and we will keep trying to do this."Ticketmaster echoed the sentiments of Coldplay, saying that an online auction is yet another way to prevent scalpers from gouging fans or selling counterfeit tickets. And, it places the purchasing power directly in the hands of the fans (or, as they're called, "the consumer.")

"Ticketmaster auctions enable the consumer to determine the market value of a ticket [and/or] ticket location. By enabling our clients to offer their fans and patrons the opportunity to purchase guaranteed-valid tickets, often in premier seating locations, Ticketmaster helps its clients combat scalping," a spokesperson for Ticketmaster wrote in an e-mail to MTV News. "Further ... ONLY Ticketmaster (and the venue box office) can guarantee the validity of the event's tickets. If you've ever witnessed a fan getting turned away from seeing his or her favorite band because the tickets they bought in the secondary market ended up being invalid, you'd realize that those often-empty promises by unauthorized resellers don't mean much when a fan ends up missing the big show they wanted so badly to see."

Two more auctions, for the remaining dates on the tour, are scheduled to begin Monday (November 28) and then Saturday.

Of course, many angry Coldplay fans see the auctions as less of a benefit and more of a boon, making tickets available to only those fans with spare cash to throw around.

"While it's nice that the money is going to a good cause and not the scalpers, it is also limiting the good seats to the rich fans and leaving those less fortunate up in the nosebleeds," one fan wrote on Coldplay's messageboard. "I'd rather they just put all the tickets on sale and give everyone a chance (no matter how small) to be up close."

Source: mtv.com

Chris Martin has always been bemused by the female anatomy, and insists he had no idea how to give a woman an orgasm until recently.

The modest rocker, who is happily married to actress Gwyneth Paltrow, wishes he’d had an advisor to give him sex tips as he fumbled his way through his hormonally-charged youth.

He recalls, “I didn’t really know what I was doing, I wanted someone to explain it to me.”

Source: ContactMusic

David Munns, chairman and chief executive of EMI North America, is 5th in the 'Britons who wield the most influence in America' list.

5 DAVID MUNNS, chairman and chief executive, EMI North America, age 54

Music was Munns’ first love. After Harrow County School for Boys and the College for Distributive Trades in London, he joined the British music giant EMI. His career took him full circle — after managing Bon Jovi and top jobs at Polygram, Munns returned to EMI in 2001.

He is now promoting Britain’s Gorillaz and Coldplay to a US audience as well as American acts such as country music star Trace Adkins.

Like much of the music industry, the British label has had a tough few years. Munns recently added running EMI’s struggling Virgin label to his responsibilities. But things are looking brighter for Munns. This month EMI Group reported its first sales jump since 2000 thanks to a big increase in digital downloads and strong album sales by Coldplay and Gorillaz.Here is our top 25.

1 MARTIN SULLIVAN, president and chief executive officer of American International group (AIG), age 51

Scandal may have elevated Sullivan to the top job at the insurance behemoth but it seems to have brought out the best in him.

Earlier this year founder Maurice “Hank” Greenberg was ousted from AIG after more than three decades amid a multibillion dollar accounting scandal. AIG’s shares went in to freefall, wiping $45 billion (£26 billion) off its value.

Sullivan, who is married with two daughters, has done much to calm the waters with shareholders and regulators. The share price has recovered sharply and AIG is now valued at more than $177 billion.

Born in Stepney in east London and raised in Dagenham, Essex, Sullivan started as a trainee with AIG in 1971 in the finance department of American International Underwriters, AIG’s non-life arm in the UK and worked his way to the top.

He moved to America in 1996 and served as vice-chairman and co-chief operating officer of AIG from May 2002 until March 2005, when he was elected to his current position after Greenberg’s departure.

Sullivan said being a Brit in America has some distinct advantages: “When I go to Washington on AIG business, I’m well received by members of both political parties. The strong and close friendship between the two countries is an immediate ice-breaker.

“Occasionally, I am ‘challenged’ by ‘two countries divided by a common language’ and I’m still educating my American colleagues about Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, ” he said.

2 SIR HOWARD STRINGER, Sony chairman and chief executive, age 63

Stringer was born in Cardiff in 1942 to a father who was an RAF pilot. He attended Oundle public school on a scholarship and went on to graduate from Oxford with a BA and an MA in modern history. From this very British upbringing he forged a truly American career.

He moved to New York aged 23 to become a clerk at CBS Radio. Soon after his first pay cheque landed he was drafted to Vietnam, spending two years in the army and being decorated for valour.

A 30-year career at CBS followed, where he was responsible for all the broadcast activities of the company including entertainment, news, sports, radio and television stations. Under his leadership, the CBS television network rose from last to first place in one season.

He joined Sony in 1997 and became the company’s first foreign chairman this year. Now a naturalised American citizen, he splits his time between New York, Tokyo and London.

Stringer’s Madison Avenue office reflects his rich history. Pride of place goes to a large bronze of a rodeo cowboy inscribed: “To Howard, the only network executive I can hang out with and still love.” It is signed by Burt Reynolds. Close by are two Welsh flags, a miniature model of Cardiff Arms Park and an award in the shape of a coalminer’s lamp.

3 JONATHAN IVE, Apple vice-president and designer of the iPod, age 38

Ive may not be the richest or the most senior figure on the list, but he has certainly been one of the most influential. Born in London, Ive, right, studied design and art at Newcastle Polytechnic (now Northumbria University) and moved to San Francisco to join Apple's design team in 1992. The rest is design history.

The man who designed the iPod and many more of Apple's most iconic products has shaken up both the music and the electronics industry.

Apple is now a major player in the music business thanks to Ive's sleek, cool and easy-to-use designs. And downloading music is a mainstream activity. It wouldn't have happened without him.

4 JEFFREY URWIN, co-head of investment banking, Bear Stearns

Bankers just care about results, they don’t care about nationality. But we do. There may be bigger banks and more famous bankers but as the only European heading a full-service investment bank in America, Urwin heads Britain’s strong presence on Wall Street.

5 DAVID MUNNS, chairman and chief executive, EMI North America, age 54

Music was Munns’ first love. After Harrow County School for Boys and the College for Distributive Trades in London, he joined the British music giant EMI. His career took him full circle — after managing Bon Jovi and top jobs at Polygram, Munns returned to EMI in 2001.

He is now promoting Britain’s Gorillaz and Coldplay to a US audience as well as American acts such as country music star Trace Adkins.

Like much of the music industry, the British label has had a tough few years. Munns recently added running EMI’s struggling Virgin label to his responsibilities. But things are looking brighter for Munns. This month EMI Group reported its first sales jump since 2000 thanks to a big increase in digital downloads and strong album sales by Coldplay and Gorillaz.

6 DAVID SIDWELL, executive vice-president and chief financial officer, Morgan Stanley, age 52

Sidwell made Wall Street headlines last year when it was revealed that the former JP Morgan banker was being paid $10.5m a year in salary and bonus to swap banks. Dropping Sidwell would cost the bank twice that sum. For once the phrase “overpaid and over here” was being applied to a Brit in America.

A Cambridge graduate and chartered accountant, Sidwell joined Morgan Stanley just before the bank erupted in a civil war that claimed the job of bank boss Phil Purcell. Unlike many of Purcell’s senior appointments, Sidwell has escaped the axe of new boss John Mack.

7 JOHN WALSH, head of credit markets, RBS Greenwich Capital

New York’s JFK airport is so covered in ads for Royal Bank of Scotland that any Brit landing there could be forgiven for wondering if he had been diverted to Edinburgh. RBS has no own-brand banks in America but is rapidly becoming a major player, buying local networks and building an impressive trading business.

Walsh is the bank’s not-so secret weapon. One of the most successful international bond bankers of the past 20 years, he is now using RBS’s formidable balance sheet to win over Wall Street clients.

He joined RBS from Credit Suisse First Boston where his final three-year contract was rumoured to be worth $30m.

8 CHRIS RODRIGUES, president and chief executive, Visa International, age 56

The son of two dancers from the Royal Ballet, Rodrigues was raised in northwest London and studied at University College School, Jesus College, Cambridge, and Harvard Business School.

He was a contemporary of Archie Norman, the former Asda chairman, at McKinsey, the management consultancy whose alumni include Don Cruickshank, the London Stock Exchange chairman, and Sir Howard Davies, chairman of the Financial Services Authority.

Top jobs at American Express, Thomas Cook and Bradford & Bingley followed for Rodrigues. He now lives in San Francisco and heads Visa International, the umbrella company for the payment system used by a billion card holders and 20m merchants worldwide.

9 IAN COOK, chief operating officer Colgate Palmolive, age 52

Cook joined the London marketing department of Colgate, famous for its toothpaste, in 1976, and worked his way through marketing and management positions for the company in America, the Philippines and Dominican Republic. He was appointed chief operating officer in 2002, and oversees all the company’s operating divisions, global business development, sales, and global advertising. He was previously executive vice-president and president, Colgate-North America.

10 MICHAEL MORITZ, partner Sequoia Capital, age 51

Tech giants including Apple, Cisco Systems, Google and Yahoo have all benefited from Sequoia’s helping hand. Cricket-mad and Cardiff-born Moritz has made a fortune in America backing the new wave of companies. The venture-capital firm, based in Menlo Park, California, has made some bad decisions. For example, it poured money into now defunct online grocer WebVan. But the bets it got right more than outweigh the losses. Moritz, who read history at Christ Church, Oxford, is now one of the most influential investors in Silicon Valley.

11 SIR ANDREW CROCKETT, head of JP Morgan International, age 62

Born in Glasgow and educated at Cambridge and Yale, Crockett was once in the running to be Bank of England governor. England’s loss was JP Morgan’s gain. One of the best connected bankers on Wall Street, Crockett spent 17 years at the International Monetary Fund. He reports directly to Bill Harrison, chairman of JP Morgan.

12 SIR DERYCK MAUGHAN, managing director KKR, age 57

Another well connected Brit, Maughan is former vice-chairman of Citigroup, chairman and CEO of Salomon Brothers and a former vice-chairman of the New York Stock Exchange. He started his career at the Treasury and moved to America to join Salomon Brothers in 1983. Maughan resigned from Citigroup in 2004 after Japanese regulators ordered the bank to close its private-banking operations following violations of securities laws. He had overall responsibility for the division. He joined venture-capital group Kohlberg Kravis Roberts earlier this year and is chairman of KKR Asia as well as managing director. Maughan was knighted in 2002 for his contributions to British business and commercial interests in America.

13 ANDY BIRD, president Disney International, age 41

Bird started his career as a radio producer for Piccadilly Radio in Manchester. He went on to make his mark at Time Warner, spreading Cartoon Network across Europe and becoming president of TBS International. He is now based in Los Angeles and is responsible for hunting out business opportunities across the world.

14 ANDREW MOONEY, chairman Disney consumer products, age 50

Born in Whitburn, Scotland, Mooney takes the world of Disney off the screen and on to the high street. He joined Disney after a 20-year career with Nike. He joined Nike in Britain, becoming chief marketing officer for Nike in America in 1994 and head of its $3 billion global apparel business. In the US Mooney convinced Hollywood stars and celebs like Paris Hilton to wear Mickey Mouse T-shirts — revitalising the brand’s fashion cachet. Retail sales of the retro T-shirts have doubled annually since their introduction. “Never underestimate the power of a free T-shirt,” said Mooney.

15 DANIEL BATTSEK, president of Miramax Films, age 47

Battsek took over all operations at Miramax, the studio behind Academy Award best picture winners The English Patient and Shakespeare in Love in October 2005, and relocated from Britain to New York. He first joined Disney in 1991, when he was hired to start up Disney’s film-distribution arm in Britain. In 1998, he was promoted to oversee 35 films a year for the Disney, Touchstone and Miramax labels. He also built the UK Comedy Label production company. Before joining Disney, Battsek was managing director of Palace Pictures where he was involved in all aspects of marketing, distribution and acquisitions in Britain and Ireland. A graduate of Oxford Polytechnic, where he majored in social and political sciences, he began his industry career at The Hoyts Film Corporation in Sydney. Most recently, he was vice-president and managing director of distribution and production for Buena Visa International UK.

16 MARK BURNETT, president of Mark Burnett Productions, age 45

The billionaire British-born Burnett has America by the eyeballs. The king of reality TV, his hits shows, including Survivor and The Apprentice, regularly pull in audiences of 20m. Burnett grew up in inner-city London and after school enlisted as a paratrooper. He served in the army from 1977 to 1982, seeing action in the Falklands. He arrived in America in 1983 with no work permit and took a series of jobs including nanny and chauffeur. His recent global hit Rock Star INXS shows that, despite what the critics say, audiences have not yet tired of reality TV.

17 JOHN BARBOUR, president of Toys R Us, age 41

It has been gloomy in toyland. After years of falling sales, Toys R Us was bought by property and private-equity firms this summer. This Christmas, Barbour, a University of Glasgow graduate with 20 years of experience in the toy business, must prove his stuff.

18 FRANCES FARROW, chief executive Virgin USA, age 42

Farrow joined Virgin Atlantic as commercial-services director, from City law firm Binder Hamlyn. While heading up corporate services at Virgin Atlantic, her legal background meant she provided wide legal advice within the Virgin group. She later became chief executive of Virgin USA and a member of the board of Virgin Mobile USA. Farrow moved to New York several years ago, and worked closely with Sir Richard Branson to realise his dream of starting a US airline, Virgin America.

19 TERRY DONOVAN & SAM HOUSER, founders Rockstar Games, both aged 35

Carjacking, shooting and drugs have all featured heavily in Rockstar's smash hit video game series Grand Theft Auto (GTA). It's a combination that has made Rockstar, game for game, the most successful, and controversial, game company in the world. Senator Hilary Clinton attacked GTA, Senator Joseph Lieberman said the game rewarded 'perverse, antisocial behaviour' and the latest version had to be pulled from shelves after graphic sex scenes were found hidden in the software. Rockstar Games was founded in 1998 by Donovan, Jamie King and Dan Houser, brother of Sam. All had been working at BMG, the music group. With the next generation of games machines from Microsoft and Sony just coming online, Rockstar looks set to be pushing even more buttons.

20 RON ZWANZIGER, chairman, chief executive officer and president, Inverness Medical Innovations

If you have ever taken a home-pregnancy test, the chances are Zwanziger was behind it. Cypriot-born and London-educated, Zwanziger’s IMI makes Accu-clear, Clearblue and Fact Plus and is the largest manufacturer of home-pregnancy kits in the world. Zwanziger sold his last company, Inverness Medical Technologies, to Johnson & Johnson for $1.2 billion in 2001. He received an engineering degree from Imperial College London before attending Harvard Business School. Zwanziger and his company are headquartered in Massachusetts but employ 500 people in Scotland.

21 DAVID PYOTT, chairman Allergan, age 52

Pyott is the man behind the unlined faces of celebrities across the world. California-based Allergan is a healthcare company specialising in eye and skincare products - its most famous brand is Botox, originally developed to control involuntary blinking. As a 'side effect' it also erased wrinkles. When Pyott took the helm at Allergan in 1998 he realised Botox's potential and started to put in the resources to turn it into a worldwide phenomenon. Pyott, who speaks four languages and has lived in 10 countries, left England at age three for India, where his father ran a sugar plantation. During his college years, Pyott split his time between England, Germany and the Netherlands, collecting degrees in business and law. He has retained his understated British humour. Asked about anlaysts who saw Botox as a minor niche drug, he offered only one word: 'Oops.'

22 JIM REID-ANDERSON, chairman, president and chief executive, Dade Behring, age 46

Blood and urine are this Chicago-based company’s specialities. Dade Behring is the world’s largest company dedicated solely to clinical diagnostics, analysing body fluids for everything from medical screenings to drug tests.

Reid-Anderson took over as chairman and president in 2002 after the company emerged from bankruptcy protection. Dade Behring has been roaring ahead ever since.

The chairman is an alumnus of Salesian College, a Catholic school in Battersea, London, and Birmingham University, where he met his wife Judith. The couple have four children, Miles, Katie, Ross and Jamie who were all raised in America but consider themselves as much Brits as Yanks. “When their friends come round we feed them bangers and mash and shepherd’s pie,” said Reid-Anderson.

Before Dade Behring, Reid-Anderson’s career spanned Wilson’s sporting goods and Grand Metropolitan, now part of drinks firm Diageo. His boss at Grand Metropolitan was Diageo chief Paul Walsh. “He was the greatest mentor of my career,” said Reid-Anderson.

The Chicago-based Brit has done a remarkable job turning round the fortunes of Dade Behring. He is definitely a man to watch.

23 COLIN REED, chairman and chief executive Gaylord Entertainment, age 55

You don’t get much more American than The Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, Tennessee. Patsy Kline, Hank Williams and today’s country music giants have all played the legendary music venue. For the past four years it has been run by a man from Tonbridge, Kent.

The Opry is part of Gaylord Entertainment, which runs hotels, a radio station and a music publisher whose star songs include Your Cheating Heart and Pretty Woman.

The son of a troubled second world war veteran, Reed left school at 16 with no qualifications. He worked his way up through the hospitality industry, taking the top job at Gaylord in 2001.

There were fears that the Brit would sacrifice country traditions for financial gain. Protests were held outside a local radio station when word leaked he wanted to change the country-music format.

But now Nashville has taken to Reed. In 2003 he beat senators, the governor of Tennessee and the mayor of Nashville to be named both Tennessean of the Year and the most influential person in Nashville.

24 PROFESSOR JOHN QUELCH, senior associate dean, Harvard Business School, age 54

The former dean of the London Business School is now making his mark shaping the minds of a new generation of business leaders. As well as teaching at the world’s top business school. Quelch is a non- executive director of Pepsi Bottling Group and WPP Group. He is also chairman of the Massachusetts Port Authority.

25 BLYTHE MASTERS, chief financial officer of JP Morgan's investment bank, age 35

Masters is one of the most senior women on Wall Street. An economics graduate from Trinity College, Cambridge, she is an acknowledged expert in the complex world of credit derivatives.

One is a ruthless, ambitious, super-rich, music industry mogul who is not afraid to trample on other people's feelings to get to the top. The other is a ruthlessly ambitious, super-rich, music industry mogul who is not afraid to trample on other people's feelings to get to the top.

So it should come as little surprise that pop impresarios Simon Fuller and Simon Cowell [pictured] should find themselves on opposing sides in a £100m legal battle. Yet while they are rivals, they are also old pals and colleagues who have known each other for more than 20 years and who, apparently, remain good friends despite that multi-million pound writ.

The genius of the pop factor is its ability to generate millions in revenue from advertising and phone voting lines before even a single CD is sold. The shows are less a talent contest than a drama. Millions tune in for their weekly dose of soap opera as wannabes and never-will-bes have their hopes raised and dashed in the most brutal fashion by the expert panel. It is not to everyone's taste and is especially looked down on by the serious end of the music business. Chris Martin, the Coldplay frontman, once suggested Fuller should be "melted down and turned into glue for destroying people's dreams".At the heart of the legal battle are two rival smash-hit television formats, Pop Idol (and its US cousin American Idol) and The X Factor, both of which are alleged, as the lawyers might say, to be talent shows.

Most right-minded people, on hearing the dispute involved an argument over who really created The X Factor would assume it was a libel case, with each man trying to blame the other for bringing the show to our Saturday night television screens. Of course, it is the other way around, with both Fuller and Cowell claiming it was all their own idea.

In artistic terms, the row could easily be dismissed as two bouffant-haired men arguing over a bunch of coxcombs. However, the tremendous income generated by the 'pop factor' format means it is a lot more serious than that. Both Fuller, who is said to be worth as much as £200m, and Cowell, whose wealth is set at a much more modest £50m, owe most of their fortunes to these television shows.

Fuller [pictured], while the wealthier of the pair, is the least well known. His first major foray into the public eye was in 1997 when he was sacked by the Spice Girls, his first major experiment in transforming the mildly talented into international money-making machines.

The precise nature of his role in the girls' rise is indicated by the fact they rejoiced in the nicknames Posh, Ginger, Sporty, Baby and Scary, while he was known in the industry as Svengali Spice.

He began his career running discos before becoming a talent scout for a record company. He made his first million managing the DJ Paul Hardcastle, whose Vietnam-inspired hit '19' is recognised in the names of Fuller's companies 19 Management and 19 TV, which makes Pop Idol and American Idol and is the company suing Cowell.

As well as first hitting the jackpot with the Spice Girls, the band also demonstrated Fuller's early grasp of the fact that music is the least important element of the modern music industry. "With the Spice Girls we created a global entertainment brand," he said, in one of his rare interviews.

Even his friends have described him as "cold and clinical". According to one: "His business is his life, and nothing gets in the way. There is a ruthless element."

He once told another of his creations, the bubblegum pop band S Club7, "I could put cardboard cutouts of you on the stage and it wouldn't make any difference." Those who saw them live might struggle to say whether he ever carried out his threat.

While the rest of the industry fretted about falling CD sales, Fuller went after alternative sources of income. "CD sales are declining, but you can make up for it in merchandising. It occurred to me that music as entertainment is as powerful as it has ever been, but the way people consume it is changing."

The figures certainly back up this analysis; in terms of sales, the pop industry in Britain has been in serious decline for well over a decade. Last year, Swedish DJ Eric Prydz scored a UK number one single with 'Call On Me', despite selling 21,749 copies in one of the weeks he was at the top.

He would barely have reached the top five with that sale in the 1990s or bothered the top 40 in the 1960s. In fact, the combined sale of all top 40 records is now typically about half the 500,000 weekly sales it was a decade ago.

The signs are that even the recently lucrative teenage market is in decline. Only a third of all 12 to 19-year-olds bought a single in 2001 - a proportion that is said to be falling further as a result of the increase in popularity of music downloads.

And yet, despite the decline in CD sales, the pop music industry itself is still incredibly lucrative, partly as a result of cashing in on downloads, TV tie-ins and other innovations. The industry is now worth an estimated £40bn a year worldwide, with British acts accounting for around £8bn of that. The 'pop factor' phenomenon, in fact, has injected a bit of renewed vigour into the UK sector, with Will Young, Gareth Gates and the various other contenders adding millions of sales in the last three years.

It is Fuller who has been credited with driving this part of the evolution of the pop industry, having hit on the idea of creating a brand - as opposed to a band - that would carry on, even as the pop stars it manufactured fell into obscurity, as virtually all the winners of either format eventually have.

At the time it first hit our screens back in 2001, Fuller and Cowell were seen as the co-creators of Pop Idol, and, to a degree, they shared out the spoils. Cowell picked up a big cheque for his high-profile role as the Mr Nasty on the panel of three who judged the would-be idols, endearing himself to the nation with such well-phrased put-downs as "that was distinctly... average".

Cowell [pictured] also made money from his rights to put out CDs by the winners, who were virtually guaranteed one hit by their television exposure. However, Fuller's ownership of the show itself meant he took the lion's share. A couple of years after launch, Pop Idol alone was earning more for Fuller than his bands, and his television earnings easily outstripped those from traditional music sales.

Last year The X Factor pulled in £50m in advertising revenue for ITV. Two weeks ago the show received a landmark one million phone votes, generating a profit of around £350,000 for the phone companies and the production company.

In the US, Fox is charging a record $700,000 for a 30-second advert in some episodes of American Idol, more even than ABC charges for slots during Desperate Housewives.

It was the sale of the Pop Idol format around the world, and in particular to Rupert Murdoch's Fox channel in the US, which catapulted Fuller into the ranks of the super-rich. Cowell was still doing all right, he transferred his Mr Nasty act to the US, where he is now the best-known Brit in America and earning £4.5m a year for his role, but he got no share from these sales.

So he did the obvious thing. Seeing the big money was in the television show, he set up his own production company, and invented his own format, The X Factor.

There, of course, the similarities with Fuller's Pop Idol obviously ended. For while Pop Idol was a music talent show featuring open auditions, a three-strong judging panel, and public voting to decide the winner, The X Factor was a music talent show featuring open auditions, a three-strong judging panel and public voting to decide the winner. Only the most churlish would see the latter as a copy of the former, Cowell might argue, having branded Fuller's decision to sue him for the theft of his idea as "totally ridiculous".

Cowell might be overstating his defence but industry experts have offered him support. According to Paul Sheehan, head of commercial affairs for the Scottish television company SMG, which recently acquired the rights to one of the old stagers of the TV format world, This Is Your Life, the shows might look and sound the same but it is notoriously difficult, if not impossible, to prove they are the same in a court of law.

"Put simply, you cannot copyright an idea. Copyright only comes into being when the idea is expressed," he says. "You can trademark a show's name, and you can try and trademark some of the elements that go into it. But that is a lot easier for something like a quiz show, like The Weakest Link, which has particular rules, than it is for a simple talent show."

The fact that Pop Idol had three judges, one of whom played the role of baddie, hardly makes it unique. "You need an odd number of judges because you need a casting vote and three is easier to manage than five," says Sheehan. "The good cop, bad cop routine is also common. Anyone who remembers New Faces from the 1970s will recall that Nina Miskow and Tony Hatch played that role for many years."

It is ironic this battle should revolve around two talent shows, as the only other attempt to pursue a similar case through the British courts involved another example of the genre, Hughie Green's Opportunity Knocks. Green sued the New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation after it launched a talent show called, in something of a giveaway, Opportunity Knocks, which featured all the elements of the British show, from its clapometer measuring the studio audience's reaction, to Hughie Green's own catchphrase: "It's make your mind up time folks."

Even so, when courts in England and New Zealand made their minds up, they rejected Green's case. Given that, the most surprising thing is not that shows like Pop Idol get copied, but that anyone bothers to buy one at all. "Everybody in the industry realises that legally there is virtually no protection for these types of television shows, yet the industry is worth billions of dollars a year. It's very difficult to reconcile," says Sheehan. "Really, what is happening is the operation of a huge worldwide gentlemen's agreement without which it would be like the Wild West."

To the disappointment of all those who last week had expected to see Fuller and Cowell slogging it out in front of some judges for a change, those two gentlemen now seem close to their own agreement, out of court and out of sight. Interestingly, the main pressure for a solution appears to have come from America, where the outcome of this row is of vital interest to Murdoch's Fox. Industry insiders in the US point out that Fox is desperate to hang on to American Idol and to Cowell, the one element that makes the show stand out. If the battle had ended badly in court over here, Fox feared that Cowell might quit their show, and take The X Factor over there.

Settling on the steps suits both. First, it will prevent the emergence of any potentially embarrassing revelations about their shows. And second, there has been a distinct lack of the enmity normally expected in such high-profile, and high-stakes, cases. Both men may sport super-size egos, but it looks as if they have kept them out of this battle.

It has remained strictly business, never personal. According to Cowell, they have carried on talking all through the spat, just as he has carried on working for Fuller's American Idol. "I didn't take it personally when he hit us with the lawsuit," he said. "He was protecting the show, which he's entitled to do."

It is still a shame that the row never made it into court, or that the pair did not launch their own new show in which to air their spat, a kind of Law Idol. Millions of us would have tuned in to watch them slug it out for the title of creator of The X Factor, and then hit the phones to vote on who we felt really was to blame - at a cost of 35p a call, of course.

A role on Corrie or life as a civil servant beckon after 15 minutes of fame

THEY came, they sang, they got your votes... but what happened next to the stars of Pop Idol and X Factor?

MICHELLE MCMANUS

Glasgow's McManus shot to fame when she won Pop Idol 2, despite the judges' opinion that she was too overweight to be a pop star. Her subsequent single 'All This Time' spent three weeks at number one and was shortlisted for an award.

Earlier this year she drew huge television audiences for her appearance on a 60-minute TV special of You Are What You Eat with Gillian McKeith.

She is currently back in the studio recording and writing a new album. There are also rumours that Michelle has been approached by the producers of Coronation Street for a guest role as Adam Barlow's neurotic ex-maths teacher.

WILL YOUNG

The English public school boy shot to fame when he beat Gareth Gates to win the first Pop Idol in 2002. His first single was a double A-side featuring Westlife's song 'Evergreen' and 'Anything Is Possible'. It became the fastest-selling debut in UK chart history, selling 300,000 copies on its day of release and went on to sell more than 1.4m copies. Young hit the headlines by revealing he was gay, but it didn't prevent him earning the best career of any of the talent show hopefuls. He went on to win a plethora of awards including the Brits Best Newcomer Award. He has recently made an acting appearance in a BBC film, Mrs Henderson Presents, starring Judi Dench and Bob Hoskins.

GARETH GATES

Despite coming runner up to Young, Gates was signed up to Simon Cowell's record label BMG. His first single, a cover of 'Unchained Melody', entered the UK Top 40 at number one, knocking Young off the top of the chart and was voted 2002's Record of the Year by ITV viewers. But his career has faltered, as his last album didn't sell anywhere near as well as it was expected to, given his high profile and exposure. There are rumours he might be dropped by BMG.

MARIA LAWSON

Originally eliminated from the X Factor she came back a year later with an explosive rendition of Sam Brown's 'Stop!' This wasn't good enough for the judges, though. It has been recently reported that she has signed a record deal with one of Simon Cowell's record labels.

CHICO SLIMANI

Chico Slimani wowed the girls when he reached the final of the first series of X-factor. The 34-year-old Moroccan has just returned from Jamaica, where he shot his music video for his new song 'In Your Eyes'.

WARREN WALD

Wild found his way into the nation's hearts with his enthusiastic rendition of the 1980s hit song, 'Eye of the Tiger', in Pop Idol in 2003. Warren faced a barrage of criticism from the judges but soon after it was broadcast the viewing public took a liking to Warren and he became a very popular figure.

He soon became a tabloid celebrity, appearing on television and radio. Today Warren leads an ordinary life working for the government and living in north London.

Source: http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com

Mick Hucknall [pictured] claims Coldplay's songs are so boring they soothe him to sleep.

The Simply Red singer has moaned about the lack of quality acts today and claims even award winners Coldplay won't be around in 20 years' time.

He said: "U2 will be there, but not many others. The problem is the major labels are too busy pleasing shareholders, which means rapid returns.

He added to Britain's Now magazine: "There's little investment in long-term careers and there are no major icons out there. Coldplay music is for insomniacs."

Extra Coldplay have become available for their originally sold out shows at London’s Earls Court. Seating and standing tickets are on sale now for their shows on the 14th, 15th, and 16th December.

Coldplay release a new single called Talk on December 19th, the third single to be lifted from their hugely successful X&Y album.

Source: albumvote.co.uk