My Coldplay.com

NEW YORK - Yes, there were mistakes and technical glitches.

But about 10,000 lucky contest winners from all over the world who attended Coldplay’s only free concert in North America at Madison Square Garden on Monday night, which followed similar events in London and Barcelona last week, didn’t seem to mind the-less-than perfect show one little bit.

In fact, as the hour-and-10-minute concert emptied out, fans could be heard singing the rousing chorus of the title track from Coldplay’s week-old new album, Viva La Vida, which has become the group’s first ever No. 1 single in both England and the U.S.

This overall acceptance of the British pop-rock act’s percussive-heavy new music, tweaked by producers Brian Eno and Markus Dravs, is a good sign for Coldplay who appear on the verge of becoming the next U2 in terms of worldwide popularity and big arena shows despite critical drubbing in some quarters that their oh-so-sensitive songs appeal to females more than males.

That wasn’t the case on Monday night in terms of an audience that was equally male-female and included such famous faces as Chris Rock, Charlize Theron, Stuart Townsend and Molly Sims (Vegas).

Performing in North America for the first time in two years, leading up to the official Viva La Vida tour launch on July 14 and 15 with a pair of shows at L.A.’s Forum, the band presented a united front jamming closely together on either their stripped down main stage, one of two catwalks or at the very back of the Garden amongst audience members.

Often it felt they were letting the crowd witness a production rehearsal whether it was instruments that weren’t cooperating, lyrics that were forgotten by Martin or songs being started over.

As Martin, who handled both piano and guitar, pointed out early in the show: “There are no refunds.”

Opening with Life In Technicolor, also the first track on Viva La Vida, the band were first obscured by a black curtain which eventually lifted to reveal Martin, guitarist Jonny Buckland, bassist Guy Berryman and drummer Will Champion.

Their uber hits, Clocks and In My Place, were the first to really get the audience going and Martin was a wildly animated frontman with infectious energy to burn and a tendency to skip/dance around the stage.

As they’ve done on their new record, Coldplay have also decided to shake things up in concert and instead of having one big video backdrop, they’ve opted for six hanging oversized lightbulbs onto which images and closeups of them playing were projected.

The title track from Viva La Vida was certainly the new song highlight as the four musicians gathered in a line at the front of the stage with Champion banging away on a bell when he wasn’t pounding two large drums.

The lowlight was trying to perform the new song, Chinese Sleep Chant, on one of the smaller catwalks but an uncooperative guitar led Martin, who is married to American actress Gwyneth Paltrow, to joke: “Oh, this is embarrassing - let’s go home. We come over here, we steal your women and we can’t even play one song.”

They also wandered through the crowd to the back of the arena to do an acoustic version of their breakthrough single, Yellow, but personally I missed the sound of Buckland’s great electric guitar on that tune. (Champion, who took over vocals on the next tune, Death Will Never Conquer Me, fared better.)

Otherwise, standouts in their 16-song set were oldies God Put A Smile Upon Your Face, Square One and Fix You, and new songs Lost! - which saw Martin’s earphones fall out just as he was gearing up for a crowd singalong - “Can we do that again? Make an old man happy?” - Strawberry Swing, and the final song, Lovers In Japan, the most U2-sounding anthem on the new album, which in a live setting included glow-in-the-dark confetti being blasted out of cannons onto the audience.

Coldplay head to Canada on July 27 with a date at the Pemberton Festival in B.C. before arriving in Montreal on July 29, Toronto on July 30-31 and Ottawa on Oct. 20.

Production delays led to the band’s initial tour start to be pushed back two weeks and the disappearance of previously announced dates in western Canada including Edmonton, Calgary and Winnipeg.

Coldplay will also perform on the The Daily Show with Jon Stewart tonight (June 25), the Today show on Friday (June 27) and David Letterman on Monday (June 30).

What Coldplay played at Madison Square Garden:
Life in Technicolor
Violet Hill
Clocks
In My Place
Viva La Vida
Chinese Sleep Chant
God Put A Smile Upon Your Face
42
Square One
Trouble
Lost!
Strawberry Swing
Yellow
Death Will Never Conquer
Fix You
Lovers in Japan

http://torontosun.com/Entertainment/Music/2008/06/24/5966961-sun.html

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Coldplay treat fans to a free concert in New York city

Before kicking off their North American tour, British rockers Coldplay treated fans to a free concert on Monday (June 23) at New York’s Madison Square Garden.

Most tickets for the show were distributed to fans via the band’s website.

The Madison Square Garden event was the third in a series of free concerts. The band has already staged freebies in London and Barcelona.

Last Thursday (June 19), the four-piece band led by frontman Chris Martin scored their first U.S. number one single. They also topped the U.S. album chart.

The band also secured their first UK number one single with “Viva La Vida”, the title track from their new album, according to figures released on Sunday (June 22). The song topped the chart in its debut week, while the band’s fourth album spent a second week at number one, the official UK Charts Company said.

Although the band have had a string of top 10 hits such as “Yellow”, “Clocks” and “Fix You”, they had never before taken the top spot.

Retailer HMV said the single’s success was based solely on downloads from the Internet because no hard copies are yet on sale.

http://www.timesnow.tv

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Band get up close with audience in New York

Jun 25, 2008

Coldplay performed the last of their three free shows at Madison Square Garden in New York City last night (June 24), after two similar events in London and Barcelona recently.

Opening with ‘Life In Technicolor’, the band made their way through a 16-song set in front of the capacity crowd who scored free tickets, battling several technical difficulties along the way.

Fresh from the news that they have scored both the Number One album and single spot on the Billboard charts, singer Chris Martin modestly commented that the almost-title track from new album ‘Viva La Vida Or Death And All ‘ “somehow made it to Number One in your country”.

Martin several times made jokes about the free show, telling the crowd “There are no refunds.”

In front of crowd dotted with many familiar faces including Kirsten Dunst, Albert Hammond, Jr., Helena Christensen and Charlize Theron, the band performed a number of songs from ‘Viva La Vida..’, as well as older favourites including ‘In My Place’, ‘Clocks’ and ‘Trouble’.

From messed-up lyrics to problematic equipment, the band’s difficulties added to the stripped-down feeling of raw authenticity that saw them perform on catwalks extending both sides of the enormous stage.

Attempting to perform new track ‘Chinese Sleep Chant’, an issue with Jonny Buckland’s guitar promoted a frustrated Martin to say: “Fuck it, let’s cancel the gig. This is embarrassing. Let’s go home. We come over here, we steal your women and we can’t even play one song.”

Later, accompanied by several security personnel, the band literally walked off stage into the 10,000 strong crowd to the back of the arena, where they performed two acoustic songs - ‘Yellow’ and
‘Death Will Never Conquer’, on which drummer Will Champion took on vocal duties.

Returning to the stage for ‘Fix You’ and final track ‘Lovers In Japan’, the band opted out of an encore, with the show clocking in at just 70 minutes.

Coldplay played:

‘Life in Technicolor’
‘Violet Hill’
‘Clocks’
‘In My Place’
‘Viva La Vida’
‘Chinese Sleep Chant’
‘God Put A Smile Upon Your Face’
‘42′
‘Square One’
‘Trouble’
‘Lost!’
‘Strawberry Swing’
‘Yellow’
‘Death Will Never Conquer’
‘Fix You’
‘Lovers in Japan’

http://www.nme.com

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Coldplay perform to 10,000 at New York’s Madison Square Garden

Coldplay attracted A-list celebrities including actresses Charlize Theron and Kirsten Dunst as they performed a free concert to 10,000 people at New York’s Madison Square Garden last night.

Despite the band giving away thousands of tickets through their website to see them – some desperate fans paid up to £400 for a pair of tickets to see the gig.

It was the band’s third free show to promote new album Viva La Vida, their fourth studio album and fastest seller to date, and followed gigs in Barcelona and London.

The album has already gone double platinum in the UK and in the first three days of sale sold more than 300,000 copies.
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The title-track single, which has given Coldplay their first ever number one single in both the UK and US, featured on the iTunes advert.

Before starting the song, frontman Chris Martin joked: “Somehow it’s made it to number one in your country. It just goes to show that with good marketing and a handsome bass player you can achieve anything.”

The set opened with Life In Technicolor with the band at first being obscured by a giant black curtain which eventually lifted to reveal Chris Martin, guitarist Jonny Buckland, bassist Guy Berryman and drummer Will Champion.

The gig included old favourites such as Yellow, Clocks, God Put A Smile On My Face, In My Place and Fix You.

The band animated the numbers by projecting images and close-ups of them onto six hanging oversized lightbulbs.

At one point Chris had to apologise to the crowd after trying to perform new song, Chinese Sleep Chant, on one of the smaller catwalks.

Chris, who is married to American actress Gwyneth Paltrow, joked: “Oh, this is embarrassing - let’s go home. We come over here, we steal your women and we can’t even play one song.”

They also made the fans’ day when they wandered through the crowd to the back of the arena to do an acoustic version of Yellow.

The trio of shows are a warm-up for a real tour which starts in Los Angeles on July 14 with the European leg kicking off in September.

Martin said: “We can’t wait to get on the road. It just feels like a great big challenge,” Martin said.

“The time I feel most alive is when we’re playing. It’s the only time that my head makes any sense.”

THE SET

Life in Technicolor
Violet Hill
Clocks
In My Place
Viva La Vida
Chinese Sleep Chant
God Put A Smile Upon Your Face
42
Square One
Trouble
Lost!
Strawberry Swing
Yellow
Death Will Never Conquer
Fix You
Lovers in Japan