More questions answered by The Oracle... (circa. 4000! questions now answered - submit yours now!)
June 7, 2013 - submitted by Flora, United States of America
Q. Hey Oracle, I watched Coldplay's performance for the "Stand Up To Cancer" benefit and it got me thinking, how do international concerts work? Is it just assumed that enough people know English, or is there a form of translations (captions, interpreter) that ensue? I wish I could've been in France that night! Best, Flora
The Oracle replies:
I'd say the fact that people come to the shows means they're fans of the music. They will only have heard the songs in English as that's the native tongue of the band so naturally that's what they write in.
Certainly not all people know the meaning of the lyrics. To some that won't matter at all. I like songs in foreign languages that I've NO clue what they're saying or what it means. I can tell it it's an emotional heartbreaker or whatever but it doesn't deter my enjoyment of the music. Of course English as a language is widely recognised & understood and many artists perform in English so there are no captions, interpreters or sur-titles like at some opera shows.
June 7, 2013 - submitted by Beth, United Kingdom
Q. Do Coldplay ever get nervous when performing live?
The Oracle replies:
The days of getting nervous before their own shows are gone - they're excited and pumped up before a performance. They understandably had the jitters before performing at the Paralympics closing ceremony though.
June 7, 2013 - submitted by Janie, United States of America
Q. Hello Oracle! I've been looking around in the archives and I found a bunch of stuff written by Prospekt. Besides being the namesake of an ep, who was he? Did he ever have a story like Mylo, or was he created after a real person? Thanks!
The Oracle replies:
Prospekt was as real as Anchorman, Roadie #42 and myself. There's no fictional story a la Mylo though.
Although he's no longer with us (RIP), he didn't die or come to a nasty end.
June 6, 2013 - submitted by Ben , United Kingdom
Q. Dear Oracle, As I'm sure many coldplayers have, I have just listened through Mylo Xyloto in order and it made me wonder, when producing an album, do they write/record/produce the songs in order or do they do them separately then slot them in? Thanks in advance Oracle! :) x
The Oracle replies:
I'm not sure how many others have wondered the same but you're the first to ask, Ben. They don't write, record or produce the songs sequentially. The tracklisting is a vital part of the decision making but an album isn't in order of which songs were written first. Obviously when they're at the demo stage, they will record a song as it's born to get it down but that has no bearing on a finished album.
June 6, 2013 - submitted by Stephanie , Chile
Q. Hi Oracle! Have you ever gone to the concert to Coldplay? Forgive my English. What is your favorite songs to Coldplay? Or you don't like Coldplay?? Have Chris ever asked to the question in Oracle?
Thanks you Anchorman.
The Oracle replies:
Me - Oracle - and Anchorman are two separate people and we've both been to countless Coldplay shows. We both love the band. Personally I couldn't do this if I didn't. I have no idea how many times I have seen the band over the past 15 years but it must be over a hundred. My favourite song is usually Politik. Chris hasn't submitted a question to me; he's asked me questions but not while I'm wearing my Oracle hat.
June 5, 2013 - submitted by Devyani, India
Q. After a pretty turbulent flight last week that had me yelping, I was wondering, does anyone in the Coldplay family get the flight jitters? If yes, then I'd love to know how they deal with it. I hope I'm not the only plane-o-phobe (if that's what you can call it!).
Thanks, Devyani
The Oracle replies:
They're all so used to flying that they're not phased by it at all but obviously after taking so many flights, there are some scary moments. One I witnessed - en route to Palm Springs. It was a very small plane and pretty terrifying turbulence. I can't imagine it was quite as scary as a flight Chris experienced when he was close to landing in Ghana.
June 5, 2013 - submitted by Hanina, Indonesia
Q. Dear Oracle, what song is sung by Chris Martin at T in the Park 2011 concert before Fix You? Thank you : )
The Oracle replies:
He sang a snippet from Why Does It Always Rain On Me by Travis.
June 5, 2013 - submitted by Stefan, Austria
Q. I fancy a girl who rejected me yet. I have listened to almost every Coldplay song and noticed that Swallowed in the Sea, Yellow and Shiver express what I feel most. Which one of these songs should I dedicate to her or would you choose a completely different?
The Oracle replies:
To be honest, the only one out of those 3 that is totally about unrequited love & rejection is Shiver so that's my answer.
June 4, 2013 - submitted by Celine, Australia
Q. I read somewhere that Chris sang Dry Your Eyes with The Streets but this version was never released because Chris wasn't happy with his voice in it. Is this true and if so can you elaborate on why? Really curious about this because I can't imagine him ever sounding anything but fantastic. Thanks for your time.
The Oracle replies:
Ooh look! 2 Celines in one day from different corners of the world. Chris did record Dry Your Eyes with The Streets but the reason it was never released has nothing to do with how Chris' voice sounded. It sounded great! I prefer it to the released version personally. Sometimes labels have objections to collaborations - nothing too political or sinister just varying reasons to do with exposure, schedules, other releases etc. It's more a question for the The Streets label rather than Coldplay's...
June 4, 2013 - submitted by Celine, United States of America
Q. Hi Oracle, As the last assignment for history class, we have to create a personal history by writing ourselves a letter. Our teacher will keep these letters sealed and addressed for 5 years and then mail them back to us in 2018... Any suggestions as to what to say to the future 21-year-old me?! Thanks, Celine :)
The Oracle replies:
What a great thing to do! Write down what is going on in your life now; thoughts, feelings, experiences, likes/dislikes, hopes/fears - that kind of thing. It will be interesting to also write down where you see yourself in 5 years time and what you would like to have achieved by then. It will be interesting in 5 years time to see whether your life panned out how you expected or took a totally different turn and maybe even a better direction that you thought or hoped for. I might write one for myself!
June 3, 2013 - submitted by Jemma , Australia
Q. I just finished watching Game of Thrones season 3 episode 9, and I am 99% sure that I saw Will Champion playing a drum in the band! Was that him or was I just imagining things?
The Oracle replies:
Yes! After all the months of speculation about which episode he was going to appear in (we have talked about this here before), the episode featuring Will finally aired last night (June 2nd).
June 3, 2013 - submitted by Graeme, United Kingdom
Q. Hi I was at the Manchester concert and Chris kept saying Ashley Grey. Who is he or she? Thx.
The Oracle replies:
Can you believe that's a year ago next week? Wow, how the time has flown by! There is no Ashley Grey. He wasn't saying Ash are great either. Chris was channelling his inner rapper saying "that sh*t cray". I assume that cray means crazy but then I am more suburbs rather than urban...
May 30, 2013 - submitted by Anna , United Kingdom
Q. I recently saw on twitter that one of their fans tweeted that Guy was on Pointless Celebrities, is that true?
The Oracle replies:
No. For those who don't know, Pointless is a quiz show where you're trying to find answers that the public are least likely to have replied when polled. This week one of the categories was Famous Bass Guitarists. There followed a list of bass players and the contestants had to say which bassist played with which band. They were trying to get a pointless answer - one which returned 0 correct replies. Guy Berryman's name was one of the answers but none of the contestants chose his to guess. After the round had finished, Alexander Armstrong - the host - wrongly guessed he was in Keane. The interesting part of this is Richard Osman, who is a side-kick to Alexander, is the brother of a famous bass guitarist himself - Mat Osman from Suede.
May 30, 2013 - submitted by Grace, Australia
Q. Hi Oracle, I recently signed up for the Global Citizen and in doing so I found this and the first part of the stop malaria film clip, sounded like the beat off of Lost! I was wondering if they had/needed permission to do that. And is there anyway that Coldplay may support the Global Citizen and that's why the sounds of Lost! are in the video. I know it's not Lost!, but it's similar. Thanks Oracle!
The Oracle replies:
The band aren't associated with Global Citizen, the reason it sounds similar is because it's a sample of Lost! The track is Better by K'Naan and I'm sure he got permission because it's illegal not to have. There is a Coldplay reference if you listen to the song in its entirety...
May 29, 2013 - submitted by Jake, United States of America
Q. Who is Claire Smith? I've been going through a 1999 version of Coldplay.com and it said that comments/suggestions and questions about Coldplay should be emailed to Claire Smith. Are you Claire Smith?
The Oracle replies:
No, I'm not - never have been - Claire Smith. Claire made her own unofficial fan site dedicated to the band. I don't know why it would show up on a search through archived Coldplay.com apart from Claire linking to our site from hers - when both incarnations were active. Before Coldplay.com we had Coldplay.org which was a far cry from the site we have today. They've come a long way, baby!
May 29, 2013 - submitted by Stephen, United States of America
Q. I have noticed that on every album, the band has a secret track except for Mylo Xyloto. Also, the other albums have a song that's significantly shorter than the others, but but on Mylo Xyloto, there are three shorter songs. Why is this so? Thanks, and I'm already waiting for the next album!
The Oracle replies:
There is no rhyme or reason - songs are as long as they are. Album length is more important as the band don't like their LPs to be er, too long playing (which is what LP stands for). A Rush of Blood to the Head didn't have any hidden tracks either.
May 28, 2013 - submitted by Saakshi , India
Q. Hey Oracle, So Mat Whitecross recently joined twitter and he replied to one of the fans saying that Coldplay are doing a dubstep remix of The Scientist. Is it really true? Thanks a ton! Saakshi
The Oracle replies:
Like most of the Coldplay posse, Mat has a great sense of humour. There is no truth in this - the tweet is a joke.
May 28, 2013 - submitted by Karolyn, Ecuador
Q. Now having Coldplay Live 2012 in my hands I realized that in the back Violet Hill has an * and the other song no and when I imported the songs to iTunes Violet Hill didn't appear. It is a problem with my CD or every CD have this problem? And why Violet Hill has the *? Love you hope you reply me and I will be so thanksfull. Love you.
The Oracle replies:
Live 2012 is a DVD film with CD. The asterisk (*) next to Violet Hill denotes the song is on the DVD only. That means as it isn't on the CD, there is no Violet Hill to import to your iTunes library.
New photos of Chris Martin attending The Ormeley Dinner, Bridgewater House St James, London (6 June):
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