Check out coldplay.com for a new newsreel entry: Band make another radio show

Good morning. We can confirm that the second of Coldplay's radio shows for London station Xfm is now available to listen to online, here. During it, the band attempt to telephone their arch enemy Mr Simon Pegg. Sadly, he refuses to take the call.

Anchorman

A reminder that Daystretcher 24/7 are giving you and 3 friends the chance to see Coldplay LIVEW at the world's most popular venue - The O2 Arena, London, this December - and the competition is now open to non-UK residents! (*travel expenses, accommodation etc. for non-UK residents is not covered).

The lucky winners will be watching the gig in style from our very own PRIVATE VIP SUITE at the arena. The best thing is, it's FREE to enter, absolutely no purchase is necessary, all you have to do is register a few details on our website and you're done!

They're giving away 10 sets of 4 tickets, so that's 40 tickets up for grabs. Get all your mates to enter themselves and increase your chances! To enter, and to find out more info, visit the 247 website here

Coldplay are to play an exclusive concert for Radio Two to be broadcast live by the BBC station.

The Parlophone act have agreed to perform at the BBC Radio Theatre in London on Saturday, August 30 when they will perform tracks from their current album Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends as well as other material. The concert, which will be broadcast live by the radio station between 7 and 8pm, is the latest tie-up between the band and the BBC for the new album. In June they performed a free concert at Brixton Academy under the Radio One Presents banner, while they also played for free outside BBC Television Centre.

The BBC Radio Theatre, which reopened last year following an extensive revamp, has already played host to a series of Radio Two concerts this year by acts including Neil Diamond and Radiohead.

More discussion on the forthcoming performance here [thanks mayurshikotra]

The Spaced, Shaun Of The Dead and Hot Fuzz star snubs Coldplay during their second Residency show on Xfm. “He probably doesn’t like us”, says Chris.

Simon Pegg refused to take Coldplay’s calls as the band attempted to “raise the comedy levels” on their second Residency show last night. Chris Martin, Johnny Buckland and Guy Berryman tried calling the Brit star as one of the band’s own jokes – something about two Nuns and a bar of soap - fell flat.

Musing on why Pegg didn’t pick up, Chris said, “He probably doesn’t like us anymore”. The Mirror are currently blowing this feud up to an even more ridiculous proportion than us…

In more half news, drummer Will Champion’s absence was described by Chris Martin thus: “Will’s not here because he doesn’t really like us any more. He never really did”. This earth shattering statement was followed by an admission of undying love for Depeche Mode, who Martin said, “in our eyes [are] so brilliant we can’t even begin to describe it”

During the hour long show, the band rattled through songs by Klaxons, Tinariwen and ‘Caruso’ by Pavarotti which Chris said would “bring tears to your eyes”. He wasn’t wrong. The band also skilfully introduced each other and kept the exceptionally entertaining hour cruising along nicely. Xfm bosses are currently praying that the music industry implodes spectacularly so they can offer Coldplay a regular slot on their schedules.

Listen to Coldplay’s brilliant second Residency show here

We've talked about green graffiti. Now get ready for "reverse graffiti" or 'clean tagging'. Popularized by British artist Paul Curtis, the idea is to stencil what you want to say by pressure-washing onto dirty cement. Sounds like a great idea. I mean, how can you get in trouble for actually cleaning the sidewalks?

Some rogue advertising using this reverse graffiti could get Coldplay and a Canadian cell phone company in a bit of trouble from Montreal authorities. The name of Coldplay's latest album, Viva la Vida, has been washed into sidewalks around the city and a Canadian cell phone company has used reverse graffiti to promote cell phone recylcing.

They could get fined about $200 for ignoring a rule about advertising on public property, and could get up to about $1000 for ironically breaking a cleanliness bylaw, even though the graffiti is cleaner that what was originally there. I'm guessing the fines are not going to hit either pocket very hard.

Read the full story here

Click here to see a crazy Coldplay interview from Japanese program Diago [thanks Cris_Santos]

Miley Cyrus may join Coldplay on tourTeen sensation Miley Cyrus may join musical giants Coldplay on tour.

The ”Hannah Montana” star recently revealed her love for the band’’s frontman Chris Martin. “My ideal man is a 16-year-old Chris Martin. But my mum says I have terrible taste,” the Daily Express quoted her, as saying.

Now, Martin has revealed the admiration is mutual and has reportedly lined her up to perform with the band at some shows of their current world tour. “I like her. She seems to have a sweet character. Anyone we like or respect, no matter how different they may be, we would play with,” he said.

Source: http://www.topnews.in

Coldplay are pleased to announce that they have confirmed four more US shows. Furthermore, Coldplaying can exclusively reveal that Duffy will provide support for at least the Washington and Philly shows. The new dates are as follows:

Wed Oct 29 - Boston, MA - TD Banknorth Gardens (on sale Fri August 15 at 10am) [tickets] [discussion]

Fri Oct 31 - Washington DC - Verizon Center (on sale Fri August 15 at 10am) [tickets] [discussion]

Sat Nov 1 - Philadelphia, PA - Wachovia Center (on sale Mon August 18 at 10am) [tickets] [discussion]

Wed Nov 5 - Atlanta, GA - Phillips Arena (on sale Sat August 16 at noon) [tickets] [discussion]

More on this exclusive news here [thanks crazyduckette]

It’s been eight weeks and Coldplay’s album ‘Viva la Vida’ or ‘Death and All His Friends’ (also simply known as ‘Viva la Vida’) their fourth studio album is currently at no.3 in the UK Charts.

The album has been the number-one-selling album in 36, yes, 36 countries around the world! In the United States, this album has sold 316,000 copies in its first day (some American artists can barely do this in a week, for example American pop rock singer-songwriter Ashlee Simpson’s last cd ‘Bittersweet World’ sold only 47,000 copies in its first week).

These sales are simply astonishing, for a UK band. This is living proof that it is possible for UK artists to crack America!

Before I purchased ‘Viva La Vida’, I did hear that this album was a drastic break from Coldplay’s usual style. However, after listening to this album, I can confirm that while it has been altered stylistically from their previous albums, it still retains that unique, raw Coldplay element, which warmed the world to them initially.

The only criticism is that the album does seem to have a slightly more commercial edge to it, compared to their previous three albums, and this could be a flaw that critics use to attack the band, as they have always been renowned for their unique/alternative sound. Nonetheless, the album opens with the track ‘Life in a Technicolor’, which is an instrumental, and then it breaks into the song ‘Viva La Vida’, which is an upbeat and uplifting song. This amazing track allows you to transcend into another world, and the background vocals are simply amazing. For me this song made the album, and is one that you could listen to over and over again, (and each time enjoying it more than the last).

The rest of the album for me is full of great songs, that all have the potential to be released as independent singles (There are no second-rate tracks here!). I would rate this album 4 out of 5 stars.

Comebacks can be extremely hard to pull off as fans are kept waiting yet musicians do not seem to be able to deliver. Coldplay fans will relish ‘Viva La Vida’, and I genuinely believe the band will pick up new fans with this album! Overall this gets thumbs up without a single doubt. [thanks thefourohfive]

Coldplay have finished their one hour set in Tokyo. No word on setlist yet but we have pictures courtesy of Summer Sonic below.

See the full set of images here [thanks mimixxx]

Setlist

01. Life In Technicolor

02. Violet Hill

03. Politik

04. In My Place

05. Viva La Vida

06. God Put Up Smile Upon Your Face (2008 Version)

07. Fix You

08. Yes (2nd Half)

09. One of the world flower --> Japanese song

10. Yellow

11. Lost!

12. 42

13. Speed Of Sound

14. Scientist (Acoustic)

15. Death Will Never Conquer (Acoustic by Will Champion)

16. Talk (Remix)

17. Clocks (with Alicia Keys)

18. Lovers In Japan

19. Death And His All Friends

Below are pictures from Coldplay's festival appearance today. Don't worry, Mr Berryman has not grown a new arm since leaving the US. More on this show here onwards [thanks Cris_Santos & Lore]

Liam Gallagher prefers being a stay-at-home dad these days, but he’s not lost his rock’n’roll swagger.

"I can still have it drinking or whatever. But yeah, I’ve mellowed, but not in the sense of liking Radiohead or Coldplay. I don’t hate them. I don’t wish they had accidents. I think their fans are boring and ugly and they don’t look like they’re having a good time."

Liam doesn’t like any contemporary bands. “Not interested. I play the Beatles, the Stones, the Kinks, Neil Young, the Pistols. Maybe a bit of the Roses. Don’t like modern bands. Topman music, innit?”

Read the full f****** article here (you'll see what I mean when you click) and discuss this here [thanks mimixxx]

Season ticket holders at the Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, MA have today been made aware of a new Coldplay show later this year on 29th October 2008. Nothing has been confirmed yet by either coldplay.com or gillettestadium.com but we will post more news on this (and other new dates) as we get it.

In the meantime, read the latest on this exclusive Coldplaying news here [thanks kellykell9]

So, back to this past Monday when it was more than just a rumour that Coldplay was in town. The quartet, backed by an elaborate landscape of lights, sights and sounds ripped through a 90 minute set to a sold out Garden crowd. Read the rest of an excellent review courtesy of turnyourearsoff.blogspot.com.

Check out coldplay.com for a new newsreel entry: Hear Coldplay host their own radio show

Good morning. Coldplay recently recorded a radio show for London-based alternative music station, Xfm. As well as playing everything from A-ha's The Living Daylights ("woah-oh-oh-oh") to Du Hast by Rammstein, they talked between songs. You can hear it here. But not here.

Anchorman

The new episode of the Clash Podcast is now available for your listening pleasure featuring Issue 28 cover stars Coldplay.

Clash Magazine talked to Chris Martin and Guy Berryman of the band on the eve of the release of the release of ‘Viva La Vida’, their fourth album which has gone on to top the charts on both sides of the Atlantic. Clash talked to the guys about their hopes for the new album, the expectation awaiting their return, fatherhood and ghostly encounters.

Episode 8 - Coldplay

As Coldplay return to confirm their status as one of the biggest bands in the World, Clash talked to Chris Martin and Guy Berryman.

Read the interview at WikiColdplay here. If you missed them, don't forget to see the scans that were posted in June here on Coldplaying.

Pendulum is due to launch a brand new website with an exclusive download of Coldplay’s ‘Violet Hill’- remixed and rehashed!

The Australian pillars of drum and bass have caused riots with their cover of Coldplay’s ‘Violet Hill’ on Radio 1’s Live lounge. The new track completely alters the original ‘Violet Hill’- adapting its slow pace into a violent eruption of beats keeping in touch with Coldplay’s melancholy spirit throughout the original single.

Just one week ago the boys played their version of the track live across the UK and while some hated it many absolutely loved it- including Scott Mills who said it was “the best Live Lounge performance of the year so far”.

Already the new take on ‘Violet Hill’ has been viewed over 30,000 times on YouTube and has been requested many times on Radio 1. Now the boys have given in to the demands and are set to release the single as an exclusive download on their brand new official website.

The new website will also feature all the details of the band’s latest activities, alongside blogs, pictures and videos from Pendulum plus links to their MySpace, FlickR and YouTube.

A member’s area called the ‘The Other Side’ will also have a dominant spot on the site, giving registered fans the chance to build their own profiles and upload their own Pendulum content. It will also offer exclusive Pendulum content including downloads, competitions, pictures and videos.

Visit: www.pendulum.com

‘Sing’ was the first song “plagiarised” for Viva La Vida admits Coldplay frontman. Plus: "Beyonce's better than The Strokes, Muse, Arcade Fire and us!".

Coldplay’s Chris Martin has admitted that ‘Sing’, a song that featured on Blur’s debut album ‘Leisure’, was the first song to provide inspiration during the making of new album ‘Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends’. “Sing was the first song we plagiarised for the new album”, said Chris.

The revelation came as Coldplay took over DJ duties for Xfm’s weekly Residency slot. During the hour-long show, the band professed a love for German industrial nutters Rammstein, A-ha (“One of our formative influences”, Chris Martin) and admitted Beyonce was better than Muse, The Strokes, Arcade Fire and Coldplay put together: “[The Strokes] are the classic band of our generation. And I would argue for Muse as well. And Arcade Fire. And that’s just the boys! Beyonce’s better than all of us”, said the frontman.

As for their DJ experience, Chris wasn’t quite as effusive: “I hope you’re enjoying the songs because these links aren’t very good.”

Coldplay will be back manning the wheels of steel this Sunday at 9pm on Xfm. Listen to Coldplay’s first Residency show here or download it for keeps here

The dream is a familiar one for anyone who has ever picked up a guitar, switched on a keyboard, or plugged in a microphone: the chance to open for one of the biggest bands on the planet, in front of ten thousand screaming fans, at a sold-out arena.

Boston-based OurStage band The Luxury got that chance when they they were chosen by fans on a local radio station to open for mega-stars Coldplay at a sold-out TD Banknorth Garden. The Luxury, with their thick layers of driving piano, swirling guitars, and anthem hooks, sound like they’ve been ready for a show like this for quite a while. Frontman Jason Dunn talked with OurStage about The Luxury’s gig of a lifetime.

Read the full (excellent) article here

Check out coldplay.com for a new newsreel entry: Voting opens for Q Awards. Who wins? You decide

Good afternoon. We have been informed that the voting for the awards of alphabetically-monikered UK music magazine Q is now open. If you would like to vote for The Monkees, ELO or, indeed, Coldplay, then click here for the full lowdown.

Anchorman

UK fans can have their say and decide who should walk away with the trophy for Best UK Video at the MTV Video Music Awards.

Coldplay, Estelle, Leona Lewis, Duffy and the Ting Tings have all nabbed nods in the category, and MTV are calling on the British public to vote for their favourites. Coldplay picked up the nomination for their video Violet Hill, while Estelle's collaboration with Kanye West, American Boy, won her a nod. Leona's Bleeding Love video, Duffy's Warwick Avenue and the Ting Tings' Shut Up And Let Me Go all snagged nominations too.

Hosted by Russell Brand, the 25th Video Music Awards will take place at the Paramount Pictures Studio in Hollywood on September 7, with the Jonas Brothers and Lil Wayne already confirmed to perform. It will be shown on air on September 8 at 9pm. Fans can vote by clicking onto www.mtv.co.uk/vma from August 10.

More on Coldplay's nomination here

Setlist

Life In Technicolor

Violet Hill

Clocks

In My Place

Viva La Vida

Yes

42

Fix You

Strawberry Swing

Chinese Sleep Chant - B Stage

God Put A Smile On Your Face - B Stage

Speed Of Sound

Yellow - Full Band

Lost!

The Scientist - Acoustic

Death Will Never Conquer - Acoustic

--

Politik

Lovers In Japan

Death & All His Friends/The Escapist

Chris screwed up the beginning of "Death and All His Friends": "All winter we got married...Aw, FUCK."

chris said the boston fans were better than all the other shows combined!!

after the scientist he talked about how his harmonica playing was pointless and didn't sound good.

chris said before the scientist that he wrote the song after spending a steamy night with condeliza rice!! it was hilarious!

when the crowd was singing during either in my place or fix you chris said "you can HEAR all the Irish blood out there!!"

Won't elaborate too much but it was a fantastic show. Crowd could have been into it a little more at times but overall great night! I was at 2 shows during the X&Y Tour and those were equally as great but what was fun to see was that this was 100% different and still just as much fun! Plus, Jerry Seinfeld, Steven Spielberg, Giselle and Tom Brady (not to mention Gwenyth) were all in attendance tonight...

More reviews, videos and pictures from this show here onwards [thanks uwwedoogie, Mug Costanza, jlq13 & BostonSportsTD]

HARTFORD - Whether playing center stage, playing on the two side ramps that stretched into the crowd or playing a mini-acoustic set way in the back of the arena, Coldplay lived up to all the hype it's been getting these days and totally conquered the capacity crowd Saturday night at the XL Center.

The band offered plenty of dazzling eye candy throughout its 90-minute performance, from laser lights and floating video globes to showers of confetti butterflies, which all added to the aura.

Ultimately, though, it was the music that proved most captivating and which could have held up on its own even without all the glitz and effects.

Read the full review here

Abba’s greatest hits compilation Gold, first released in 1992, has become the oldest disc to top the UK album chart.

The record, which has made it to the top spot on four previous occasions, knocked Coldplay’s Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends down to two.

1. (2) 'Abba: Gold - Greatest Hits'

2. (1) Coldplay: 'Viva La Vida'

3. (4) Duffy: 'Rockferry'

4. (-) Kid Rock: Rock N Roll Jesus'

5. (3) Basshunter: 'Now You're Gone'

6. (6) Ting Tings: 'We Started Nothing'

7. (5) Sharleen Spiteri: 'Melody'

8. (7) Bachelors: 'Believe - The Very Best Of'

9. (8) Chris Brown: 'Exclusive'

10. (10) Nickelback: 'All The Right Reasons'

Setlist:

LIT

Violet Hill

Clocks

In My Place

Viva La Vida

Yes

42

Fix You

Strawberry Swing

Chinese Sleep Chant (side stage)

GPASUYF (side stage/techno version)

Square One

Hardest Part (again half of the song and Chris w/piano only)

Yellow

Lost

The Scientist (acoustic in crowd)

Death Will Never Conquer (acoustic in the crowd)

Encore:

Politik (with piano interlude)

Lover in Japan

DAAHF/The Escapist

There was no surprise encore but there was the usual one consisting of Politik, lovers in Japan, and Death and all his Friends.

With that being said, the concert was fucking great! This was my first time seeing them live! Chris sang so well, he didn't miss a note. And holy shit, Will Champion is one amazing drummer!!! I can't believe someone said he doesn't belong in the top 50....

Chris did about half of The Hardest Part and then stopped! The crowd was okay throughout the show, could have been a bit better. They began clapping before some songs were even over, including Yellow!!! Chris had to wait until they stopped clapping to finish. Very annoying. Energy from the crowd was sporadic.

It was pretty great overall. A few minor nitpicks, such as the setlist not flowing perfectly, or wanting the lighting to be super intense on every song, but the band is coming into their own as far as live performances and seems to be enjoying it. The Muse-esque improv/additions to songs (such as the classical-sounding ditty after Politik) are huge in my book. I hope they continue to do these.

More reviews, videos and pictures from this show here onwards [thanks the_escapist, dotty biscotti, antareus & jasmynebirch]

Coldplay.com caught up with Jonny Buckland before the second Toronto show. Here is the interview:

Hi Jonny, how are you?

I'm good, thanks.

How's the tour going?

Really well actually. From it starting at Madison Square Garden - well I suppose that wasn't really a start so much as a false start - it's gone really well. The shows have been getting better and better, I think. I hope so, anyway.

Does that tend to happen?

Yeah. But we didn't start from quite as bad a place as we have done in the past. Normally it takes us about 25 shows to get anywhere near good. But I feel like this time we've started a bit better than we usually do.

It sounds like the show has changed quite a lot since you did the live rehearsal for friends and family at Wembley Arena.

That was pretty duff, so I hope so! We've changed things around quite a bit since then.

Who do the changes come from? Do the band sit down after a gig?

Yeah, we sit down with Dave and Phil after the first few gigs and say, "Where did it work and where didn't it work?" And we talk to people who've been there. It's one thing for us to say how it felt, but it's quite another for somebody who was actually watching.

Are you happy to be back on the road?

Yeah, I'm enjoying this tour more than I think I've enjoyed any. The last few tours have been great, but this is even better. I don't know why. I think we just know how to do it now. It's not such a mental strain.

And you bring your families out?

Yeah, which makes a huge difference.

Do you sleep on a tour-bus?

No, never. We were reminiscing about that the other day, but the reality of it is that you don't really sleep on a tour-bus, you get about three hours a night. Not that I'm getting much more than that now.

So you sleep in hotels?

Yeah, we try to stay in one place for a while and fly in and out, so that we have a base for a few days.

What's been the best gig so far?

It seems to get slightly better each night. So the last two have been the best two.

Montreal and Toronto?

Yeah. I can't really choose between them.

What makes for a good gig?

It's 90% how good the audience is and 10% how well you feel you did. If you feel like you played badly and the audience was also not really into it, then you feel bad. But if you feel like you didn't play very well, but people were still into it, then you think maybe they didn't notice! Ha ha!

What defines not playing well?

I guess just not feeling that your timing's very good.

You don't hit bum notes though, do you?

Occasionally. Matt, my guitar tech, was telling me that Jimi Hendrix said if you hit a bum note the best way to deal with it is to hit it again, so it seems like you meant it. So I do that! It's easier for me to get away with than Guy, though. If Guy hits a bum note, you really hear it.

Do you watch the crowd during a gig?

Yeah, you look around and see whether people are into it. You can usually pick out the one guy who's on his Blackberry or got his arms crossed! But the audiences have been amazing. Better than ever. When we played Viva La Vida in Vegas, the crowd just kept singing after it had finished. It was crazy.

So will you continue to tinker with the set?

I think once you find a nice structure you kind of stick to it for a while, until you get bored of it. But then you change around small things within that, while keeping the main structure the same. We sort of build it around various songs, then within that we can change it up a bit. But sometimes even just changing a couple of songs could ruin it.

If one of the band said, "Let's play Shiver tonight", would you be able to? Would you have to rehearse it?

Well we're not the best rehearsers of songs, to be honest. We prefer not to bother! Especially old songs, you get a bit bored of rehearsing them. But it's fun to try things out in front of 15,000 people. We played Don't Panic the other night. They're the simplest lyrics in the world, but I still managed to get them wrong! It was funny.

Have you been enjoying singing more at the shows? Because obviously this album has more backing vocals.

Yeah, I have. I still can't do that bit in Death And All His Friends at the end, though. The other three have worked out how to do it, but I just can't sing and play it at the same time. My brain can't cope. The guitar's in a weird time signature, and the singing's in a different time signature. Guy, Will and Chris all do it fine now, but I can barely even hear it and play along at the same time, let alone sing it! I have to shut it out of my mind.

How many guitars do you use during a show?

I actually don't know. Probably five or six.

Why do you need different guitars?

Partly because they go out of tune. So rather than stand there and re-tune between songs, it's easier to swap over. But they do also sound very different and play very different. Some songs were written on a specific guitar and they don't sound right if you play them on another one.

So there really is that much of a difference between guitars?

Yeah. Even two of the same type of guitar can sound different. I guess they're like your children; to everyone else they kind of seem the same, but you can tell the difference! Ha ha!

Is there one you particularly love?

Yeah, there's a Fender Thinline which I bought in 2001. I've bought loads since, but because that was the first one it's my favourite, although I hardly play it now. But I do love them all.

Do you get to see much of the cities you play in?

It depends where, really. We've been staying in Toronto, so we've seen a bit of that. I've actually been staying with some of my girlfriend's relatives outside Toronto, which has been really nice. It's nice not to be in a hotel.

What are the hardest things about being on the road?

Well, none of it is really that hard to be honest, but the hardest thing is probably just getting used to not sleeping that well.

Can you enjoy the gig every night?

You definitely can. You don't, because sometimes you think you've messed up.

So it doesn't start to feel like a routine?

It certainly hasn't yet. I think as soon as we get that, we'll change up the set. I'm sure there comes a point, but at the moment it's really a lot of fun.

These impromptu extra encores you've been doing sound enjoyable.

Yeah, I missed the first one, because me and Guy had left! We didn't realise it was going to happen.

Were you upset?

More perplexed! We were halfway across... um... was it LA? I think it was, but I'm not sure.

Does it all become a bit of a blur when you're touring?

Yeah. I have no idea what day it is today. Absolutely none whatsoever. There's nothing to organise the week in that way. You're either playing a gig or you've got a day off. That's all you need to know!

But it sounds like spirits are high within Coldplay?

Yeah, I think this is probably as happy as we've ever been. It's a huge relief that the album's out. And also setting up the tour was hard work and quite stressful - particularly because we had to move some dates. So to feel like we're finally going and the album's out and we can play these songs, it's just the best time to be in a band.

More on this interview at the Coldplaying forums here [thanks jenjie]