My Coldplay.com

9th Aug Tokyo
11th Aug Osaka

WHEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!

Facebook yesterday launched its new music section for bands in a tie-up with iTunes.

The new section lets bands create their own profiles, making songs, photos and music videos available to fans. The service - which takes the social networking war to MySpace - also lets acts sell tickets and merchandise through a deal with the Music Today service.

100 artists have already set-up Facebook profiles to help launch the service, the first draft includes Coldplay, the Dave Matthews Band, Cee-Lo, Gnarls Barkley, and The Decemberists.

Phil was in personal contact with every user. Are you still aboard? Raven Wood?

Jonny Buckland/Coldplay.com

He found time to paint his nails, but Chris Martin appeared to have forgotten one important thing before leaving the house earlier this week – his wedding ring.

There was no disguising the Coldplay singer despite him being wrapped up in a Michelin-style jacket and donning a hood as he rode his mountain bike near the couple’s north London home.

Aside from his distracting coloured polish, all eyes were on the empty space where his wedding band usually is, fuelling speculation about his four-year marriage to Gwyneth Paltrow.

Spinning around: Chris Martin crusing around London’s Primrose Hill on Wednesday

The 28th February 2008 has been one of the most fruitful days for new details of the songs on Coldplay’s fourth album. The song synopsis for nine tracks was revealed via a Rolling Stone online article posted earlier today. Our question for you is… Which 4th Album track sounds the most intriguing? Vote here.

“Violet Hill”: One of the strongest of the new songs, the band is considering giving it away as a special promotion in coming weeks and then leaving it off the album. Opening with a jagged distorted guitar riff, the song announces a new template: The stalking, bluesy beat fits nicely with Martin’s earthy vocals and plaintive lyrics: “If you love me, won’t you let me know?”

“42″: The fact that the band is considering this song as the album’s first real single underlines how far they’re willing to a stray from their formula: It’s an elaborate three-part piece, with swirling pianos, strings and beat loops that build to an uptempo climax, with some seriously stoner lyrics: “Those who are dead are not dead/They’re just living in my head.”

“Yes”: Here, Martin’s vocals take center stage like never before: Sounding more aggressive and strong than ever, they sit on top of an irresistible North African string-and-tablas arrangement and ache more convincingly than all the lilting falsetto in the world: “If you’d only, if you’d only say ‘Yes’/I’m just so tired of this loneliness.” It’s the band’s freshest song since “Parachutes.”

“Death and All His Friends”: A straight-up rock tune with a riff that sounds ripped from the Doobie Brothers, piano, and, in the last section, flute.

“Cemeteries of London”: Notice the thematic pattern emerging from the title and lyrics? This one, with an electro loop and hand claps, doesn’t sound as glum as its title portends.

“Life in Technicolor”: Acoustic-guitar driven and jangly, this is one of the few tracks that seems built from the Coldplay template of songs like “Don’t Panic,” only a bit more, well, panicked: “Baby it’s a violent world,” Martin sings.

“Chinese Sleep Chant”: Opening with a jagged guitar riff, the song quickly settles into a propulsive dance-track loop with low-mixed, angelic vocals.

“Strawberry Swing”: This is one of several potential album cuts with Afro-pop and high-life influences: Here, distortion-free finger-picked guitars which sound straight out of Mali mix with a heavy bassline and psychedelic synths. “My Mum comes from Zimbabwe, so I spent a lot of time there,” says Martin. “I used to work in a studio where people played that.”

“Reign of Love”: A lovely layered composition of piano, bass and organ that backs fairytale lyrics.

CHRIS MARTIN looks more like a neighbourhood yob in his hooded puffa jacket than a millionaire rock star.

The COLDPLAY singer was hiding his identity as he raced through the streets of London’s posh Primrose Hill on his bike.

But the eco-friendly star was unable to hide his terrible painted nails.

Chris was out without actress wife GWYNETH PALTROW — and his wedding ring was missing too.

Meanwhile, Chris’s pal GUY RITCHIE was also spotted out without his missus.

Despite having access to the plush £6million gym his wife MADONNA had built next door, the Snatch film director instead chose to pump iron at the Virgin Active gym in London’s Mayfair.

http://www.thesun.co.uk

Coldplay singer Chris Martin wrapped up in a michelin style jacket as he rode around London on his bicycle.

But if Chris, 30, thought painting his nails red would detract attention from his missing wedding band he was mistaken.

We would like to hope he took it off while his daughter Apple practised applying her new red nail varnish on him.

But it makes you wonder if his wife Gwyneth Paltrow has told him to get on his bike?

DailyMirror

Coldplay speak of their direction shift…

Chris Martin says that Coldplay’s impending new album, due out this May, is so different to their first three that he’s fully aware “everyone might not like it.”

The band are currently busy putting the finishing touches to the record in North London with the legendary Brian Eno, and, speaking from the studio, they made it explicit that this album should be treated as a separate entity to their other works.

Guitarists Jonny Buckland explains: “We felt like the first three albums were a trilogy, and we finished that. So we wanted to do something different.” [Read more]

New track titles announced: Death and All His Friends | Life In Technicolor | Chinese Sleep Chant | Reign Of Love

Rolling Stone have been behind the scenes with Coldplay as they record their fourth album. They have released more details on new track titles, including a synopsis of various tracks. Coldplay are currently holed up in a studio in northern London, trying to hammer out the details for their still-untitled fourth album, due out in May.

On a white board, three band members have posted radically different proposed track listings for the album. Chris Martin has withheld his, hoping to lobby his colleagues a little while longer. “I heard a Bono quote once that said ‘Bands shouldn’t break up over money, they should break up over track listing,’ ” he says. “Nothing could be more pertinent at this point.”
[Read more]

This was one of the first big gigs we’d done in England after the release of Parachutes. The first time we’d heard people singing along to songs other than Yellow.

Will Champion/Coldplay.com