Jenjie

thank you :kiss: whenever you finish is cool. The media project is going to take me a few months yet

Oracle refused to identify Prospekt, so I'm guessing they won't identify themselves

:D always happy to help :kiss:

I would have said he'd bugged my computer, but he seems to manage it on my home & my work computers. unless he's watching the bottom of Coldplaying.com :confused:

I would have said he'd bugged my computer, but he seems to manage it on my home & my work computers. unless he's watching the bottom of Coldplaying.com :confused:

tyvm :)

pah! :P none of you can multi-task? :laugh3: there's a reason most of my concert photos are blurred! :D

I swear that 42 does it deliberately. I've been on the computer since about 10:30am. 5 mins after I sign off, and he posts his new blog :angry: :laugh3:

I swear that 42 does it deliberately. I've been on the computer since about 10:30am. 5 mins after I sign off, and he posts his new blog :angry: :laugh3:

is this really the only picture taken in Hartford? :o

Flickr photo by .mchung

Hey :D nice to see you WikiColdplay is also our home, and is a nice easy starting point for info. The main page is pretty self-explanatory for general info. Articles wise, I'm currently working on a Media Archive. 2008 is pretty up-to-date, and then I started from the beginning. This weekend I've been working on 1998-2003 from Google's News Archive, and they are quite good for whats still accessible (although too many pay-per-view archives out there :cry: ). 2004-2007 are coming soon. And then we'll see what else we can track down :D

having seen the state of the floor after the concert, I guess they'd be happy if you tunred up with a refuse sack to take it away :laugh3: the more we take, the less to be cleaned up :D

Hey guys. Just a quick request. We’ve had feedback that there are issues with the setlist for this show. So, I’d like your feedback as attendees of the gig. The setlist below is the one I took from this thread the morning after the show (I’ve read back through the thread just to reassure myself). - The talk video. Is it clear from the way this setlist is phrased that it’s a video & not the boys playing? Any input as to how we could make it clearer if not? - The Hardest Part. Would both bits have been partial & on the piano? - Chris played a small bit of Erik Satie's Six Gnossiennes 1. Do we feel this needs inclusion? And if so, where does it go if it bridges two songs? - The Escapist. How would you log this? Its on the setlist that the boys have (as per the photo from the Philly show). But how do we make it clear that its recorded & the boys aren’t on stage at the time? == Setlist == #[[Life In Technicolor|Life In Technicolor]] #[[Violet Hill|Violet Hill]] #[[Clocks|Clocks]] #[[in My Place|In My Place]] #[[Viva La Vida|Viva La Vida]] #[[Yes|Yes]] #[[42|42]] #[[Fix You|Fix You]] #[[strawberry Swing|Strawberry Swing]] #[[Chinese Sleep Chant|Chinese Sleep Chant (side stage)]] #[[God Put A Smile Upon Your Face|God Put A Smile Upon Your Face (side stage/techno version)]] #[[speed Of Sound|Speed Of Sound]] #[[The Hardest Part|The Hardest Part (partial)]] #[[Yellow|Yellow]] #[[Lost!|Lost!]] #[[The Scientist|The Scientist (SIde Stage - Acoustic)]] #[[Death Will Never Conquer|Death Will Never Conquer (Side Stage - Acoustic - Will)]] #[[The Escapist|The Escapist]]<br>'''Encore''' #[[Politik]] #[[The Hardest Part|The Hardest Part (piano version)]] #[[Lovers In Japan]] #[[Happy Birthday| Happy Birthday]] (to Will) #[[Death And All His Friends]] Appreciate your input as always :D

Hey guys. Just a quick request. We’ve had feedback that there are issues with the setlist for this show. So, I’d like your feedback as attendees of the gig. The setlist below is the one I took from this thread the morning after the show (I’ve read back through the thread just to reassure myself). - Allegedly, Yes & Viva La Vida should be the other way round, anyone remember if this is the case? - The talk video. Is it clear from the way this setlist is phrased that it’s a video & not the boys playing? Any input as to how we could make it clearer if not? - Chris played a small bit of Erik Satie's Six Gnossiennes 1. Do we feel this needs inclusion? And if so, where does it go if it bridges two songs? - The Escapist. How would you log this? Its on the setlist that the boys have (as per the photo from the Philly show). But how do we make it clear that its recorded & the boys aren’t on stage at the time? == Setlist == #[[Life In Technicolor|Life In Technicolor]] #[[Violet Hill|Violet Hill]] #[[Clocks|Clocks]] #[[in My Place|In My Place]] #[[Yes|Yes]] #[[Viva La Vida|Viva La Vida]] #[[42|42]] #[[Fix You|Fix You]] #[[strawberry Swing|Strawberry Swing]] #[[Chinese Sleep Chant|Chinese Sleep Chant (side stage)]] #[[God Put A Smile Upon Your Face|God Put A Smile Upon Your Face (side stage/techno version)]] #[[speed Of Sound|Speed Of Sound]] #[[Yellow|Yellow]] #[[Lost!|Lost!]] #[[The Scientist|The Scientist (SIde Stage - Acoustic)]] #[[Death Will Never Conquer|Death Will Never Conquer (Side Stage - Acoustic - Will)]]<br>'''Encore''' #[[Talk|Talk (Remix - Video Interlude)]] #[[Politik]] #[[Lovers In Japan]] #[[Death And All His Friends]] #[[The Escapist|The Escapist]]<br>'''Encore 2''' #[[Green Eyes|Green Eyes]] #[[The Dubliners]] (new song) Appreciate the input as always :D

gonna edit your top post. think easiest way of keeping track is to add in people who have Confetti and are willing to share, then those who want some can ask :D

could we not incorporate it into the existing confetti thread?

Batman ‘too violent’ for children The Dark Knight has sparked record complaints The violent scenes in the latest Batman film, The Dark Knight, have prompted a record number of objections about its classification with a 12A certificate. In just over a week since the film, starring the late Heath Ledger as the Joker, was released in this country, the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) has received 70 complaints about the certification. There were 110 complaints about the 12A certificate for the 2006 James Bond film Casino Royale, but these were received over several weeks. Parents have complained of having to shield their children’s eyes from scenes such as a man’s eye being jabbed with a pencil and the Joker describing how he enjoys killing people with a knife because they take longer to die. This weekend Labour MP Keith Vaz, who is chairman of the Commons home affairs committee, said he would be summoning the BBFC to its hearings on knife crime in October. “The BBFC should realise there are scenes of gratuitous violence in The Dark Knight to which I would certainly not take my 11-year-old daughter,” said Vaz, who saw the film on Friday. “It should be a 15 classification.” Critics have warned that the BBFC is becoming both too liberal and too willing to cave in to commercial pressure from Hollywood studios to maximise audience numbers. The board has admitted that its decision on The Dark Knight was “borderline 15” – meaning that its examiners nearly gave it a 15. The 12A means children of 12 can go unaccompanied. Parents are allowed to take children younger than 12 with them to the Batman film, although they are advised not to. Children as young as nine have been seen watching it. Among those to complain to the BBFC is Nicholas Henderson, a marketing manager from Surrey, who saw the film with three adult friends. “It’s immoral and unethical. None of us could believe it was a 12A,” said Henderson, who has also written to Joshua Berger, head of the UK arm of Warner Bros, the distributors. “Berger should go before the home affairs select committee’s knife crime inquiry to explain himself.” The Dark Knight is more lifelike and contains more violent scenes than previous Batman films, which have been closer to the original cartoon style. Many parents did not realise how different the new film, released at the start of the school summer holidays, is from the rest of the series. The first appeared in 1989 and starred Michael Keaton and Kim Basinger. In addition to the eye scene (which does not show the moment of contact) and the Joker’s comments on knife killing, the same character is shown threatening to slit a victim’s mouth open. The BBFC simply states on its main website classification that The Dark Knight “contains moderate violence and sustained threat”. Few people read the website and even fewer know of its page of “extended consumer advice for parents”. The site summarises the film as “a super-hero movie” and acknowledges elsewhere that it “contains a good deal of violence, but not in detail”. The BBFC has confirmed that Warner Bros asked for The Dark Knight to be classified as 12A and admitted that the board “comes under pressure to keep classifications low” so that as many people as possible can see films. “The real problem is that in previous Batman films, Jack Nicholson’s Joker was jokier,” said John Whittingdale, Tory chairman of the Commons culture, media and sport committee. “This ‘Joker’ is truly evil. Yet most parents and children would not know this beforehand. Also, nobody goes to the BBFC’s website for parental advice.” The board says its director, David Cooke, did not see the film before it was classified, although he has watched it recently. It is understood he supported the 12A classification. In Scandinavia and Ireland the film is a 15 and even in America, which is usually more liberal on film violence, the critic of The New Yorker magazine warned: “Do not, despite its PG13 [certificate], bring the children.” BOND AMONG 12A SHOCKERS — Casino Royale, the 2006 Bond film, was given a 12A even though the BBFC demanded cuts to a torture scene — Angelina Jolie, star of Beowulf, expressed surprise at its 12A, saying the film “shocked me” — Matt Damon urged parents not to take their children to see his 2002 hit The Bourne Identity, the first film given a 12A http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/film/article4449537.ece

THE Royal Bank of Scotland is poised to unveil the biggest loss in UK banking history after taking a hit of almost £6 billion from the credit crisis. Britain’s second-largest bank is this week expected to reveal a pre-tax loss of at least £1 billion for the first six months of the year, with analysts warning it could slide to as much as £1.7 billion in the red. The loss would be roughly five times higher than the deficit racked up by Barclays in 1992 at the height of the last recession. RBS chairman Sir Tom McKillop is already under pressure from investors after the bank’s recent £12 billion rights issue. His chief executive, Sir Fred Goodwin, who marks 10 years at the bank this weekend, also faces shareholder scrutiny. The bank is scouring the world to find three new non-executive directors to shore up its board in response to shareholder concerns. The RBS figures will cap another terrible week for Britain’s biggest banks as the credit crisis continues to take its toll. HSBC is expected to write off almost $7 billion (£3.5 billion) in bad debts at its struggling American business from the first six months of the year. The charge will drag its profits roughly 30% lower to about $10 billion. Barclays is forecast to reveal a 35% drop in profits to £2.6 billion as bad debts around the world, particularly in South Africa, combine with further losses from its exposure to the credit markets. Some analysts believe Barclays could chalk up another £3 billion of writedowns, in addition to the £1.7 billion it recorded in the first quarter. The only bright spot will be results from Standard Chartered, which makes its money in emerging markets, particularly in Asia. The bank is expected to announce a 21% jump in profits to $2.4 billion. Across the banking sector, analysts and investors are fretting about rising bad debts. Figures from HBOS and Lloyds TSB last week revealed that the credit crisis has now worked its way into the real economy, with individuals and companies struggling in almost equal measure. Both banks announced that bad debts had jumped more than 30%. Alliance & Leicester, which is poised to be sold to Spain’s Santander, revealed that its profits had been wiped out by problems caused by the credit crunch. All Britain’s big banks are considering selling parts of their businesses. HBOS confirmed last week that it was reviewing a number of potential asset disposals, and admitted it had begun to wind down its off-balance-sheet funding vehicle, Grampian. Expectations are mounting that the bank’s Australian business could be put up for sale. RBS is in advanced talks with Allstate, the American insurance group, about a sale of its insurance operations, which include Direct Line and Churchill. Allstate is said to be willing to pay substantially less than the £7 billion asking price attached to the business when RBS put it up for auction in April. However, RBS holds the business on its balance sheet at a carrying value of only £3 billion. Even a sale priced at £5 billion may prove tempting to Goodwin, who has promised investors that he will generate £4 billion of capital from disposals before the end of the year. The £3.6 billion sale of Angel Trains, coupled with the £1 billion sale of Tesco Personal Finance and a handful of smaller deals, are thought to have generated about a quarter of the total target. RBS is also thought to be close to selling an Australian corporate-finance business, acquired when it took over ABN Amro, to Commonwealth Bank of Australia. A sale of Saudi Hollandi Bank could also be on the cards. http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/banking_and_finance/article4449834.ece

Concert Business Goes South Instead of returning to Hartford, where he played to a sold-out civic center in 2006, Billy Joel struck a deal with Mohegan Sun to play 10 concerts at the casino’s much smaller arena this summer. When asked at a July press conference why he decided to perform at Mohegan, with 10,000 seats, instead of Hartford’s civic center, with 16,000 seats, Joel paused briefly, then answered, “It’s probably the money.” Joel’s response, which prompted laugher, may have been only part of the truth. While Mohegan Sun guaranteed him a take comparable to playing a sold-out XL Center — formerly known as the Hartford Civic Center — there were other incentives too. And a combination of factors helps explain why the older civic center is losing out as the concert industry goes south to the state’s Native American casinos, Foxwoods or Mohegan Sun. “We don’t outbid the civic center,” said Mitchell Etess, president and chief executive officer of Mohegan Sun. “We are competitive with the [XL] Center, but the artists come here for the soft reasons.” Those reasons vary, and they depend upon what the artists desire. In Billy Joel’s case, he wanted an easy commute from his Oyster Bay, Long Island, home to Mohegan Sun, and a 10-concert series. Mohegan gladly transported the star — either by boat or helicopter — and agreed to the 10 concerts. “For most artists, [the Mohegan Sun arena] is the smallest venue they will get to play in and achieve their financial goals,” said Etess. “Artists like to play in our new arena. We’ve tried to make acts feel very comfortable here. The [XL] Hartford Civic Center is older. The seats are further away. So they come here. Some schedule it intentionally in the middle of their concert tour. It is like a get away, and more fun.” The former Hartford Civic Center and similar civic center venues once counted on hosting 40 to 50 concerts each year. Now they struggle to reach half that number. In contrast, Mohegan Sun officials maintain that they have grown in just seven years to be ranked 10th in the world and 6th in the nation in number of concerts hosted. The casino has teamed with ticket search engine Live Nation and aggressively gone after the concert business, said Lynn Malerba, vice chairwoman of the Mohegan Tribe. Foxwoods is also boosting its concert business with the opening of its 4,000-seat MGM Grand in May. Several headliners are booked to perform, including Kanye West, Celine Dion and Carrie Underwood. Charles Steedman, senior vice president and general manager of the XL Center in Hartford, acknowledged that there are new arena models. “But what we have is a great team, great sightlines, great facility,” he said. With Northland AEG managing the center, Steedman said he is working to add the types of amenities patrons are looking for. “We will talk to UConn, talk to Jim Koplik and look to get it done here,” he said. But Koplik, a Connecticut concert promoter who is president of Live Nation Connecticut, doesn’t expect civic centers to recapture their former hold on the concert business. “It is very hard to sell tickets at the [XL] Center,” said Koplik, noting that ticket prices are generally higher at Mohegan. “It is easier to sell 100,000 tickets at Mohegan than 60,000 at the civic center. “I think the [Hartford] civic center can have eight to 10 concerts a year. Then they have to figure out other ways to make income,” he said. Koplik continues to book concerts at the XL Center — including the band Coldplay in August — and has booked 21 concerts in Live Nation’s New England Dodge Music Center amphitheater in Hartford’s North Meadows. But he said the only reason Coldplay landed at the civic center was because Mohegan was already booked. Aside from the challenge of new competition from the casinos, civic centers also are contending with fundamental changes in the concert industry. Many musical artists who once relied on tours to promote album sales now rely on the Internet to tout their latest releases, sometimes offering free downloads of hit singles to fuel CD sales. And while there are fewer musical acts on tour today, very few of them have the long-term drawing power of Billy Joel. Joel sold $9.25 million in tickets for his 10-concert Mohegan Sun run. If special amenities helped draw Joel, they also appeal to concert-goers. Patrons prefer venues with easy and free parking and on-site dining options. “You can’t just expect a patron to pay $100 for a concert ticket, plop them in a seat and then treat them like [crap],” said Lawrence Lepore, general manager of The Dunkin Donuts Center in Providence. “You better give them something for the money. And it starts with parking to how they find their seats.” The Dunk has been closed for an $80 million overhaul for the past three summers and is currently replacing the arena’s seats. “It’s tough to sell an old building when you don’t have the amenities,” Lepore added. Although The Dunk expects to host about 17 concerts next year once renovations are complete, it doesn’t expect to repeat its heyday numbers of the 55 concerts hosted in 1984. http://www.hartfordbusiness.com/news6210.html

Hey guys! Am currently updating the Media Archive. I've come across an article in German which I'm struggling to translate. (Babelfish is rubbish!) Anyone, have a go for me please? :) http://www.stern.de/unterhaltung/musik/?id=506074 Coldplay zeigen sich von der temperamentvollen Seite Zu den bekannten ruhigen Tönen gesellten sich immer wieder laute Gitarrengewitter, als die britische Erfolgsband Coldplay ihre Deutschland-Tournee am Montagabend in der ausverkauften Frankfurter Jahrhunderthalle eröffnete. Knapp 5000 Fans feierten begeistert das Quartett um Sänger Chris Martin. Kurz nach Beendigung ihrer mehrmonatigen USA-Tournee zeigten die vier Mittzwanziger keine Ermüdungserscheinungen, sondern begeisterten über neunzig Minuten mit Spielfreude und guter Laune. Anders noch als bei der Verleihung der Brit Awards Mitte Februar in London verzichtet die Band diesmal auf öffentliche Kritik an dem Krieg im Irak. Melancholische Balladen und Rockiges Coldplay hatte im Jahr 2000 mit dem Debütalbum «Parachutes» auf Anhieb den internationalen Durchbruch geschafft, besonders auch auf dem schwierigen US-amerikanischen Markt. Der Erstling wurde genauso wie der im letzten Sommer erschienene Nachfolger «A Rush of Blood to the Head» unter anderem mit dem begehrten Grammy Award ausgezeichnet. Die gefühlvollen, melancholischen Piano-Balladen, das Markenzeichen der Band, wechselten in Frankfurt ständig ab mit temporeichen, dröhnenden Gitarrensalven. Optische Unterstützung lieferten bei den rockigen Parts des Abends unter anderem effektreiche Lasershows. Jenseits des Rampenlichtes Obwohl die Gruppe mit ihren Alben und diversen Singles auf Spitzenplätze in den Charts abonniert zu sein scheint, sind die Coldplay-Songs weitaus bekannter als die Band selbst. Das mag am unspektakulären Auftreten der Musiker liegen, obwohl der 26-jährige Frontmann Chris Martin gelegentlich durch angebliche Liebschaften mit den Hollywood-Stars Julia Roberts und Gwyneth Paltrow oder seiner Kollegin Natalie Imbruglia ein großes Medieninteresse auf sich zieht. Die andere Seite des Chris Martin Auf der Bühne der Frankfurter Jahrhunderthalle lernten die Konzertbesucher, die auf Grund der CDs eher ein Kind von Traurigkeit erwartet hätten, ganz andere Seiten von Chris Martin kennen. Unter Kritikern galt er oft als unscheinbarer "Softie", der in der Vergangenheit auch schon diverse angekündigte Konzerttermine in Deutschland wegen Krankheiten und Wehwehchen platzen ließ. Erst drei Tage vor dem Start der Deutschland-Tour hatte Coldplay einen Auftritt in Straßburg wegen einer Kehlkopfentzündung Martins abgesagt. Luftsprünge statt Luftgitarre Der schlaksige Frontmann, der auch abwechselnd Gitarre und Klavier spielte, sang seine Songs mit der unverkennbaren zerbrechlichen Stimme, entpuppte sich dazu aber immer wieder als Temperamentbündel. Der angeblich niemals Lächelnde setzte zu hohen Luftsprüngen an, drehte sich rasant um sich selbst, hüpfte von einem Bühnenende zum anderen und animierte die Halle zum Mitsingen und -klatschen. Seine Kollegen Guy Berryman (Bass), Jonny Buckland (Gitarre) und Will Champion (Schlagzeug) leisteten derweil meistens dezent im Hintergrund ihre Beiträge zur Gänsehaut á la Coldplay. Ihre bekanntesten Single-Hits wie «Dont Panic» oder «In My Place» dosierte die Band sparsam, aber die meisten der eingefleischten Fans in der Halle feierten jedes Lied wie einen Hit. Ihren Höhepunkt erreichte die Show nach einer Stunde mit «Yellow», das Chris Martin mit großer Leidenschaft präsentierte, als hätte er gerade in diesem Moment den Song seines Lebens entdeckt. Weitere Coldplay-Tourneestationen: 2.4. Münster 3.4. Düsseldorf 5.4. Böblingen 6.4. Zürich Im Juni kehrt die Band zu Auftritten beim Hurricane Festival im norddeutschen Scheeßel (20. Juni) und beim Southside Festival in Neuhausen ob Eck bei Tuttlingen (21. Juni) nach Deutschland zurück.

The Oracle appears to have the weekend off! No new questions yesterday, and none yet today :dozey:

amazon.com have no listing for the 2008 calendar. but you can pre-order your 2009 one :D http://www.amazon.com/Coldplay-2009-Calendar-Signatures-Network/dp/0740778846/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1217759539&sr=8-2

August 3, 2008 11:03 am Coldplay.com caught up with Jonny before the second Toronto show 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 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 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 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. http://www.coldplay.com/newsdetail.php?id=89

Soooooooo Australia & the Australians? - Britain used to use it as a dumping ground for convicts. Although when you look at the Old Bailey records, some of those weren't particularly bad. you could get deported for stealing a loaf of bread. - its a very diverse continent with a lot of different habitats. a friend's Dad and his new family live in Australia (I don't remember where), and its apparently very similar to England - one of my favourite children's authors is from Australia. Elyne Mitchell, who writes the Silver Brumby stories.