Jenjie

don't forget to come back into this thread the minute you return. we need setlists, pictures and Coldplayers reviews for Wiki :D its so much nicer when it has your reviews as well as the newspaper ones

they're just being slow picking up on the wrongly reported news. as the above say, he hasn't injured his knee. he knew nothing about it when Jo Whiley asked him about the story on thurs 12th

oh crap, half my fantasy team is Portugese

I don't know London hugely well, but last time I was there stayed on Tottenham Court Road. Google Maps shows this as the driving route but if you zoom in you can see the tube stations. There's Borders & Waterstone's on Oxford Street pretty close to Oxford Circus tube. Tube route planner shows that Oxford Circus goes straight to the Brixton stop on the Victoria Line, with no changes.

[Daily Mirror] Coldplay disc sales triumph Coldplay's new album is on track to become one of the fastest-selling in chart history after 125,000 were bought on day one. Viva La Vida, Or Death And All His Friends is Chris Martin and Co's fourth studio album and is expected to shift 400,000 to 500,000 by next weekend. A cert to top tomorrow's album charts, it is widely tipped to be the fastest selling record of the year. It will be a boost to label EMI, hit by falling CD sales as fans turn to downloads. Advertisement But in the all-time stakes the album is unlikely to beat Oasis's Be Here Now. Here are the five most bought albums in their first week in British music history: 1. Be Here Now - Oasis, 1997 (695,761) 2. X&Y - Coldplay, 2005 (464,552) 3. Life for Rent - Dido, 2003 (400,351) 4. Spirit - Leona Lewis, 2007 (375,872) 5. Intensive Care - Robbie Williams, 2005 (374,000). http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/topstories/2008/06/14/coldplay-disc-sales-triumph-89520-20606575/

COLDPLAY are on course to land the fastest-selling album of the year and save the ailing music industry. Viva La Vida Or Death And His Friends shifted more than 126,000 copies in a single day. Singer Chris Martin, 31, bassist Guy Berryman, 30, guitarist Jonny Buckland, 30, and drummer Will Champion, 29, have gone for a bold new direction and – like all you record buyers ­– I love the results. Gennaro Castaldo of HMV said: “This rate of sales exceeds our most optimistic forecasts, and shows how massively popular Coldplay remain, even though they’ve been away for the best part of three years.” The UK band’s fourth studio album is destined for the No 1 spot, despite having had just three days to do it. Smash Viva La Vida was issued on a Thursday instead of a Monday, to meet the band’s international release schedules. And the record’s impressive performance suggests it would have exceeded first week sales of their last album – 2005’s X&Y, which sold 465,000 copies – had it been given a regular Monday release. Buoyed by punters buying Father’s Day gifts, the critically-acclaimed set is poised to smash first week sales of current 2008 best-seller Rockferry, by Duffy, 23. That managed 180,000, while Viva La Vida is tipped to sell in excess of 250,000 units in three days. With four more days like that it would potentially be the second fastest-selling album of all time – behind Be Here Now, by Oasis, which shifted 695,761 copies in one week in 1997. Gary Williamson, Head of Music at Zavvi, added: “The Coldplay album will exceed massive expectation – especially as it is backed by the band’s tour announcement. “Early listens suggest this could be their tour de force, a possible Sgt Pepper in the making.” Coldplay’s opus is also the best-selling album pre-sale in iTunes history worldwide. The lads showed off their talents last night on the Jonathan Ross show on BBC1, where Chris, right, shone under some atmospheric blue lights. But it was a different story at the Radio 4 studios the day before when he walked out of an interview saying: “I just don’t like talking about things.” He later returned but was not to be drawn into a full and frank chat. http://www.dailystar.co.uk/playlist/view/40875/Viva-fever/

Wiki page is here I'm adding all the reviews as i find them

ty mich :)

Thanks for the 2 articles :) It sos exciting the Live Reviews page on WikiColdplay has kicked off 2 days earlier than we thought it would :D Friends & Family Gig 2008 Reviews Index

The Sun article is here

Just had a flash of inspiration. Anyone in the UK who wants a copy should try their local Borders. They ship magazines in from the US. I just checked with my nearest, and Rolling Stone is one they carry but they still have the previous issue at the moment. So if you try in a a few days to a weeks time, they should have a copy.

you're so demaning :P

Coldplay star Chris Martin admits he is jealous of Gwyneth Paltrow's ex Brad Pitt Coldplay singer Chris Martin has confessed that he is still struggling to come to terms with the fact his wife Gwyneth Paltrow was briefly engaged to Hollywood heart-throb Brad Pitt. Martin admits that Pitt's reputation as one of the most desired male celebrities has left him feeling insecure, and even drives him to make a success of his life. "You've got to be hungry," Chris told US rock magazine Rolling Stone in an interview. "If your wife went out with Brad Pitt, you'd want to prove yourself, you know what I mean?" Martin insists his wife is the only woman he has ever had a serious relationship with. The couple, who married in 2003, have two children named Apple and Moses. He said: "I've only been in one serious relationship," he said. "Is that weird? I don't think it's that weird." The musician, from Exeter in Devon, also admits that he worried that he was gay while growing up. He told Rolling Stone: "It was more like, 'Oh s***, what if?', because he was brought up to think it was wrong. "But then it struck me: who gives a s**t? And then it wasn't a problem. "It sounds silly to say it now, but when you're a kid you think, 'I'm going to burn in hell for eternity if I like other guys or if I marry someone Jewish'." He eventually realised he was heterosexual. "I was swayed by boobs," he said. "Let's face it, they're fantastic." Even so, he continued to have bad luck around the opposite sex. He said: "There were religious issues and s**t like that. Also confidence. I had a tricky time with girls. I got trapped in the friendship tip many, many times. "I was like, 'I need to be a rock star'". http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/celebritynews/2119287/Coldplay-star-Chris-Martin-admits-he-is-jealous-of-Gwyneth-Paltrow's-ex-Brad-Pitt.html

Chris Martin competes with Gwyneth Paltrow's ex-fiance Brad Pitt. The Coldplay frontman admits he finds it hard to deal with the thought that Gwyneth - who is mother to his two children, Apple, four, and two-year-old Moses - used to be engaged to one of Hollywood's hottest heartthrobs. He said: "I always felt it would be great to be with a very powerful woman because it would keep you in your place. Being married to someone very successful and very powerful basically keeps you hungry to improve. "You've got to be hungry. If your wife went out with Brad Pitt, you'd want to prove yourself, you know what I mean?" Chris also revealed he only became confident with the opposite sex when he hit his twenties. He said: "I had a tricky time with girls until I was, like, 21. I got trapped in the friendship tip many, many times. It was like, 'I need to be a rock star because this is no good. I want to be the guy that everybody bangs.'" Chris admitted he often uses sleeping pills to combat his insomnia, but this can sometimes trigger unusual behaviour. He added to Rolling Stone magazine: "I often take a sleeping pill, but then I get excited about a song, so I go and play music, and then it kind of kicks in halfway through. "I have a little corner where nobody can hear me in the middle of the night, and that's where I spend most of the night. I wake up the next morning and find these strange notes to myself - I'm a little bit ashamed about it!" http://www.nzherald.co.nz/topic/story.cfm?c_id=264&objectid=10516116

Linked blog Coldplay's 'Viva La Vida': 10 track-by-track reactions When Coldplay offered up its first single, "Violet Hill," for free, it was less a celebration of new business models than it was the beginning, primarily, of a massive, worldwide marketing campaign. In the month and a half since "Violet Hill" flooded e-mail in-boxes the world over, Coldplay has hawked iPods, smiled for the cameras at embarrassingly crass MTV promotions, planned free concerts and offered up its new album, "Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends," for free streaming. It all comes to a head in the next few days. The new album will be available in the U.S. on Tuesday, June 17, and should be rolling out to digital outlets even earlier (the album is already out in Britain, where Billboard reports that it sold 125,000 copies in its first day). Though "Viva La Vida" probably won't do Lil Wayne-type numbers at retail in America, its release is coming at a time when the band's label, Capitol Records, is in the midst of a restructuring. "La Vida" is widely seen as being crucially important to the survival of the brand. Adding a bit of drama to the mix was Coldplay's pairing on the album with musician-producer Brian Eno, the famed ambient artist who's been closely associated with U2. When "Violet Hill" surfaced, it marked a shift from the Grammy-winning ballads of the band's past ("Clocks" and "In My Place") and brought a bit more of a jolt to Chris Martin's puppy-dog vocals. Was Coldplay re-imagining itself just when its label needed a blockbuster? EMI shareholders can rest easy. "La Vida" isn't a dramatic reshaping of Coldplay's sound, nor is it any more challenging than the band's past albums. It does, however, see Coldplay embracing some more fanciful new flourishes, resulting -- on the initial few listens, at least -- in Coldplay's most energetic and dense work to date. It's an album with plenty of grand overtures -- check the church bells in the title track -- and should be a lock for an album of the year nomination come Grammy time. Track-by-track impressions are below. Click here for a full Los Angeles Times review. 1. "Life in Technicolor." A short instrumental overture in which shades of synthesizers gradually give way to a more driving guitar strum. A buoyant, Adam Clayton-like bass takes over the rhythm from some hand drumming, and the song wraps with some background "whoa-whoas." It doesn't really deliver on the Technicolor promise of the title, though. Though the song is dotted with a handful of headphone-worthy ticks, by tune's end Coldplay has turned a wordless tune into an arena hum, which more accurately captures the band's ambitions for the album. 2. "Cemeteries of London." The band reins things in here, and the first 30 or so seconds of the tune set up a murky, atmospheric number. "Save the nighttime for your weeping," Martin sings under a softly shifting foundation. But a guitar string arrives to cut through the ambient sounds, and a herald of "la-la-las" brings Coldplay back toward more conventional territory. 3. "Lost!" One of the album's best moments. The underlying church organ gets manipulated ever so slightly as the song progresses. The pace never rises above a relaxed sway, but the hand claps and background harmonies make the song feel much more majestic than it really is. The bare frame allows plenty of room for Martin's warm, melodic vocals to soar and define the song. 4. "42." It's the Coldplay of old, with Martin + piano for the first minute and a half. Then the slight violin gives way to a more brute-force guitar, and the song flirts with Radiohead-like chaos, then segues into a shout-along chorus. Before it comes to a sudden halt, "42" briefly displays one of the album's more blatant and winning arena moments. 5. "Lovers in Japan / Reign of Love." Coldplay sounds a bit like old-school U2 here, with the drums and a piano in a gallop together. Guitars buzz, keyboards circle, and the whole thing sounds clean without coming off as overproduced. The latter half of the tune descends into balladry but mucks up the traditional Coldplay sound just enough to keep things interesting, thanks to some sedately vibrating electronics laid over a twinkling piano. 6. "Yes / Chinese Sleep Chant." Definitely an album-defining moment, with Coldplay framing giant stadium rock with a bit of prog and experimental tendencies.With two songs back to back with multiple parts, Coldplay is more deeply exploring its art-rock side, and creating mainstream-friendly cuts that should set the album up for a massively successful tour and plenty of Grammy accolades. For the first half of the song, Martin's voice is turned down into almost a bellow, and the song is touched up with Middle Eastern flourishes. The latter half is evidence that Coldplay can be a fascinating band when it chooses. Martin's voice is lost in a wash of guitars and effects, stripping Coldplay of its most accessible weapon, and burying the wishy-washy lyrics. Instead, the song fashions melodies out of distortion. Only problem: It hints at just how much more interesting this album could have been. 7. "Viva La Vida." The album's current and ubiquitous single. Buoyant, triumphant strings, flashes of twinkling electronics, a toe-tapping tom-tom beat and all sorts of Biblical references to remind everyone that something important is being talked about here. 8. "Violet Hill." The first song that surfaced from the album, and still the most aggressive cut on the set. The song's first guitar crush arrives after a lengthy ambient intro, and brings an electrifying jolt to the striking piano melody. Martin brings a booming confidence to his vocals that has been more evident in Coldplay's live shows than on record. 9. "Strawberry Swing." After the easy-to-hum melodies of "La Vida" and "Violet Hill," things start to wind down a bit. "Strawberry Swing" is a low-key affair, the kind of song one might hear over the end credits of a romantic comedy. Its slightly manipulated '60s-influenced psychedelic instrumentation and midway breakdown bring a bit more artiness to the song than it can handle, with Martin chiming on about what a "perfect day" it is. 10. "Death and All His Friends / The Escapist." Opening with just vocal and piano, Martin sings: "Come over / Just be patient / Don't worry." It's all a bit Hallmark-ish and recalls some of Coldplay's more mawkish works. The song eventually builds to a stomping piano and guitar thump, and some slinky keyboard affects put emo front and center, the song dissolving into a showcase for his lovely ambient touch. In the end, it's a tune that will sound great at a dinner party. Photo: Associated Press Posted by Todd Martens on June 13, 2008 in Coldplay http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/extendedplay/2008/06/coldplays-la-vi.html

maybe he's happier in the radio interviews then because there's no cameras. he might not like the uniform, and will only have to wear it where there's cameras. I could speculate all day now :laugh3:

The band's official leap toward greatness? June 14, 2008 Coldplay "Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends" Capitol *** (three stars) Have you ever picked up a self-help book from the display table in a big-box bookstore and opened it to find a phrase that exactly applied to your life? The most pedestrian insight can sometimes hit surprisingly hard. Banality might not elevate the intellect, but it helps in a tired, over-wired culture. We're all so distracted that we need to be reminded of the obvious, again and again. This helps explain the popularity of Coldplay, a group that disgusts sophisticates, although (or because) 10 million or so people seem to prefer its music to Radiohead's. Artsy aspirations intensify the aha moments offered by Coldplay's chief deep thinker, Chris Martin, and his band -- never more so than on its fourth studio album and official leap toward greatness. I want to believe that "Viva Et Cetera" is Brian Eno’s little trick on Coldplay. The well-meaning rockers wanted to improve their game, so they brought in the producer who's given growth hormones to David Byrne and U2 as well as Microsoft. (Did you know that Eno designed the startup sound for Windows 95?) Eno let the lovely Londoners believe they were making classic art-rock when, in fact, his intention was to make shiny new product. Product as art, that is: Eno's always muddied the distinction between the two, wearing the mask of a "non-musician" to better avoid traditionalist traps and coining the term "ambient" to refer to music that has effect even while you're ignoring it. That kind of music, which shares many qualities with Coldplay's current offering, also has been called "mood" or "background" or even "advertising jingle." But Eno, who values the effect of creative work over its makers' original intent, wouldn't go for such prejudicial terms. The sleekly nonspecific quality of "La Vida" -- it's full of evocations without settling on any one reference point -- lends power to Martin's lyrics, making them seem more like common wisdom than clichés. You can just see Coldplay and Eno in the studio, the musicians happily borrowing ideas from avant-popsters like My Bloody Valentine and Arcade Fire, and Eno, smiling, making it all sound like what you hear in a really great car commercial. The album starts with an instrumental (Martin, possibly joking, told MTV.com that the band meant to "do a great ring tone"), and when Martin's words do come, they're beefed up or buried within extremely canny arrangements that nod toward electronica, Latin and Celtic folk traditions, and the edge of modern classical music that intersects with film scoring. Coldplay made its fortune on Martin's hypnotic roundelays, songs that bore simple titles like "Clocks" and "Fix You" and invoked comforting styles like the hymn and the lullaby. Eno pushes the band toward other forms based in circularity -- the ambient music of the marketplace, the video game and the movie trailer -- to make those warm little tunes even more marketable. Are they more memorable too? That depends on whether you like your chicken soup mild or spicy. -- Ann Powers http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/music/la-etw-coldplay14-2008jun14,0,6175535.story

I would but, the sick rate is so high at the moment, I'd probably have to drag myself in to prove how sick I was :laugh3: Plus I'd need 2 days. Couldn't stay in London and get a late train home and then get into work for 08:30 next day. and they might be a tad suspicious if i ask for a shift swap thurs and am sick on wed :D

The Guardian seem quite sympathetic towards him. Coldplay singer quits BBC interview - briefly Sam Jones Saturday June 14, 2008 The Guardian The torments visited upon Chris Martin over the last decade would have destroyed lesser men. Not only has the Coldplay singer had his songs dismissed as "bedwetters' music", been told off for drawing on his hands and mocked for naming his firstborn Apple, he has also lately admitted to feeling a little insecure over the fact that his wife's ex-boyfriend is Brad Pitt. Little wonder then, that he stormed out - in the politest way possible - when a Radio 4 interviewer accused him of being a trifle lugubrious. Martin's beautifully executed flounce occurred as the Front Row presenter John Wilson asked him and bandmate Will Champion about their new album, which was released on Thursday. Did they agree, wondered Wilson, that Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends was a "particularly morbid album"? Martin conceded that "you could think it's the worst album title of all time", but denied that it was morbid. "I wouldn't agree with you there at all," he said. "I'd say you're journalistically twisting me into saying something I don't really mean." The singer pointed out that Coldplay had explored death on every album, and were more concerned with mortality than morbidity. When Wilson pressed him on his lyrics and then asked him to lean back into the microphone, he said: "I'm not really enjoying this. Can I have two minutes? I just don't really like having to talk about things." Wilson gave his permission and asked Champion if he had unintentionally upset his bandmate. A few minutes later, though, Martin returned. http://music.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,,2285596,00.html

grrrrrrr 2 tickets turned up in the post this morning, which is absolutely no good whatsoever because its now too late to book the time off work.

could be. maybe I'm over-analysing in my head, but he does seem to be a lot sadder these days. he looked a bit sad and apart from them in the Dutch thing too

I've got a vague idea in my head that it was Drug Mart who broke the Harry Potter 6 embargo too. Maybe they just don't care if it gets them the sales

I thought that whilst I was watching it. whenever they flipped to the green room during interviews, he was looking sad. there was a quite noticeable gap between him and the other 3 as well, they were sat quite close together and then there was a gap.

ooooooh they can't play Reign Of Love live, I can't be crying in public :laugh3:

Striking tanker drivers have threatened to call another four-day stoppage next week if no agreement is reached in the pay dispute that has threatened fuel supplies across the country. The move comes as the Government instructed police forces to break up any picket lines that threatened to prevent tankers from leaving or entering fuel depots. Emergency powers to order petrol rationing will come into force on Monday if the strike threatens to grow out of control. Any mass show of secondary picketing at refineries and distribution depots this weekend will disrupt plans by the industry to keep petrol flowing at the pumps. Fuel shortages will also be inevitable if farmers and hauliers join illicit protests. Slow convoys of lorries will stage demonstrations tomorrow near refineries at Stanlow, Cheshire, and Fawley, near Southampton, over the high duty on fuel. The Times has learnt that Army personnel are not on standby to assist in a fuel crisis and have not been trained to load and unload the latest generation of fuel tankers. Ministers are banking on pledges from oil industry chiefs that there are sufficient fuel stocks across the country to last until the end of the strike at 6am on Tuesday, provided that motorists stick to normal buying habits. Nevertheless, officials at the Department for Business will monitor events over the weekend. People appeared today to be acting responsibly. Sales were 20 per cent higher than normal for a Friday and there were some queues at petrol stations, particularly in rural areas, but there was no evidence of panic-buying. Industry experts have said, however, that there could be local problems with some pumps running dry in parts of the Midlands and the North West, where other tanker drivers refused to cross picket lines or joined their colleagues in illegal action. Shell has admitted that its network of service stations, one in 10 of all petrol stations in Britain, will be affected by the strike and that some will run dry. Emergency powers will only be activated if there is a sharp escalation in action that prevents tankers from maintaining normal deliveries. The pay dispute involves 641 drivers who distribute fuel for Shell and are employed by Hoyer UK and Suckling Transport. The Unite union is seeking a 13 per cent pay increase and has rejected an offer of 7.3 per cent, backdated to January 1 this year, which would bring average wages to £39,000, and a further 6 per cent from January 1 next year which would boost pay to an average £41,500. Shell drivers earn an average of £34,000, which includes one extra overtime shift a fortnight. Negotiators from both sides were tonight in touch by telephone seeking to reach a deal. Unite has served warning that it will call another strike from Friday next week if no agreement is reached. Bernie Holloway, director of Hoyer, said: “We want to resume further talks and are therefore extremely disappointed that the union plans to strike again so quickly.” It is understood that police chiefs have been ordered to keep the roads free from crowds to allow tankers to enter and return to depots throughout the strike period. Trouble is expected only at refineries or depots with one main entrance. A BP spokesman was unaware of any problems regarding supplies. He said: “A lot of deliveries have got out and number of terminals are working normally. We have strong stocks across the country. We are not asking our drivers to do anything that will compromise their personal safety.” An oil industry source said: “We hope the Government does not need to call emergency powers and we think it could be an over-reaction. We think we have managed to get good fuel stocks around the country. The strike is for four days and against one brand. What signal would it send out if we had to use emergency powers for this? But it depends on motorists and if the dispute gets out of control.” Unite made clear that the drivers’ grievance was only with Shell and that if drivers contracted to other companies were involved in secondary picketing, or refused to cross picket lines, it would be regarded as illegal action. A spokesman said that informal talks were taking place by telephone and that negotiators were available for more talks this weekend. “We would hope that something might happen at the weekend.” Shell said in a statement that its contingency plans were working well and that there were very few reports of stations running out of petrol or diesel. A spokeswoman said: “Sales are high but not at extreme levels. There are very few signs of panic-buying. This may change however during the course of the strike.” http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article4132714.ece