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I think you have to keep in mind that the band are all in their late 30's now. It's perfectly normal to expect their stage style to become a bit more staid over time.

It is worth noting that the band does play the song live now tuned down from the majority of their live set. (most easily seen by the fact that Guy switches to an alternate P bass for this song)

Since the settlement was sealed and neither party can now talk about it without exposing themselves to liability, we'll never know exactly what the terms were, but it's fairly safe to assume that it was at least relatively favorable to Coldplay. If Satriani's camp thought they could win at trial (which requires some very specific proofs of willful plagiarism), they likely wouldn't have offered a settlement at the point they did. Also, the fact that the writing credits for the song were in no way changed means that the band retained all rights. Most likely, they were convinced to put up a token sum to make the whole thing go away and avoid a trial that could well have dragged on for years.

They probably all have a click track that helps them keep in time with any prerecorded elements. Guy and Jonny actually do a fair amount of the synths live, for the last couple tours the backing tracks have mostly been relegated to stuff like string parts or doubled up piano parts that they can't easily replicate live. As for how they stay in time, that's mostly a function of them being a group of solid pros who have played together for 20 years.

According to Jonny's tech, the band typically do run all their gear in triplicate wherever possible for redundancy.

Maybe I'm showing my age here, but I remember when Kid A came out and sharply divided the Radiohead fanbase. Contrary to the reputation that album now has, it got a mixed reception at the time. Anytime a band changes their sound, they get a mixed response. For that matter, if they do the same thing over and over (think Oasis) many fans will still say they "aren't as good as they used to be". Honestly, I don't see what the fuss is about. Even if you think their new stuff is horrible, it's not like every new record they make deletes one of the old ones from existence. Personally, I don't think Coldplay have ever even come close to equaling AROBTTH, but no matter what they do in the future, that record will always exist for me to enjoy.

I don't really see what's wrong with that, if that's what they want to do. There's not a successful band in history that hasn't faced this sort of criticism if they last as long as Coldplay now have. All bands lose and gain fans as their career progresses. It's all well and good to not like the new stuff, but it's unrealistic and IMHO a little unreasonable to expect them to go back to some mythical point in the past. Coldplay are now such a massive band that they can more or less do whatever they want and what they want to do is well...what they're doing.

Not sure about that particular song, but I have read that a lot of their live synths are custom patches that the band and Dan Green make up from a mixture of studio gear. I know that Guy in particular has an interest in vintage synths, so it's a good chance it's not something that you can obtain as a production model.

The overwhelming majority of roadies, including for big bands usually only work on short term contracts for the length of a touring cycle. As of a couple years ago Coldplay only had 2 crew members they retained between tours.

I would suppose it depends what you mean by "roadie". You might have a chance to be on the local crew if you have experience in the field and they happen to be playing a gig in your area, but most of the actual touring crew has been with the band for years and it seems like a fairly closed group. Also keep in mind that as one of the world's top touring acts, the band has their pick of talent when it comes to filling out their road crew and are going to be looking for people with top tier credentials and experience. Put simply, it's not just something somebody walks into, working with a band this size is the top of the industry.

That guitar is a Nash. It's hard to tell because the headstock logo has been painted over with the MX artwork, but you can still tell by the angular cut to the bottom of the headstock as opposed to Fender's proprietary headstock shape. So far as I know, all of Jonny's strats plus the Jazzmaster he's using this tour are Nash's, as are most of Guy's current touring basses.

They absolutely do still play instruments, they just use background tracks and looping to fill extra layers. I understand the practice is not popular with everybody, but it's very common and Coldplay are far from the only band to do it. Many of the biggest rock and pop acts in the world (including some that actually use live sidement to supplement the core band) are doing the exact same thing.

I think he did drink heavily at one point. There are photos of him from around the X and Y era passed out with his shoes stolen and stuff like that.

He's said different things about that at different times. It's not the first time I've heard him say he gave up drinking around the time he turned 30, but I've also seen him mention that he does drink occasionally in interviews after that time, so who knows?

Not quite sure what they're on about about X and Y being their US breakthrough. AROBTTH may not have peaked as high but it sold more copies and they were already established as an arena act in North America by the time they finished that tour.

Jonny has used both metal and glass slides at various times over the years. IIRC in the book his tech wrote a few years ago it was stated that he's not picky about a lot of that stuff. (slides, strings, capos etc.) He seems to be using metal for the live Ghost Stories stuff though.

Jonny is playing a P Bass there (it looks like Guy's spare for that tour which he used as his main bass on the MX tour.) If you look closely, the pickguard is painted to what guy had on that bass back then. Guy is not playing a 4 stringed instrument at all, but a regular 6 string electric guitar. It looks like one of the old fully hollow Gibsons from the 50's, an ES-125 or ES-150, but I can't make out the pickup configuration close enough to determine which one.

Based on what you've said, I think the best specific reason for you in particular to listen to Ghost Stories is that it's far more similar to the band's "classic" sound circa Parachutes or AROBTTH than it is anything in their more recent work. If the reason you've stopped listening to the band is because you're not fond of the direction they've taken in the last couple albums, I'd say this album has a good chance of being what you're looking for out of this band.

I think it's more a case of the other 3 being fairly tall.

True, but they have a reputation for having the best live sound of any stadium band going. (some of that is because they can afford to hire the very best, which is a feat Coldplay could surely match, but it's also that they have a crew who's extensively toured stadiums for over 20 years and knows all the tricks, Coldplay and their crew are still relative newbies on that front.) That said, I'd still rather see them indoors.

FWIW, I have. :) (though in fairness, I haven't seen them in a proper stadium). I've seen them in indoor arenas and outdoor amphitheaters though. Would take the indoor gig hands down, the problem is there really is a shortage of large indoor arenas in many places bands want to tour.

And again, that's much more of a PA/Venue issue than anything to do with the actual sound produced by the bass on stage. I've never been to an outdoor concert, let alone one in a large venue that had sound that rivaled an indoor gig.

In fairness, the bulk of the Superbowl audience aren't really football fans either.

They're not really in a position where they need promo though. The promotional push for Ghost Stories was very light, they're not touring in support of it and it still managed to be one of the most commercially successful albums of the year.

Actually, licensing fees began (and are typically used) as a means of financing new stadium construction, not as a means of generating direct income for the team in question. They still suck, but basically, it's how Met Life Stadium is getting paid for.