My Coldplay.com - A Coldplay Blog

THE Verve have reassured fans that they will not split up for a second time.

The Wigan legends admit they still do not always see eye-to-eye, but now talk over any problems.

Bassist Simon Jones said: “I don’t think any of us would be that careless again.

“If we have a disagreement, we’ll work through it. It won’t be: ‘F*** you, f*** you, f*** you and f*** you.’”

The band cancelled a couple of festival appearances this summer but the lads are fully focused on making The Verve a long-term project.

Simon, 36, added: “It means the world to me to do this. I’m not going to lie and say that everything’s all of a sudden easy in this band.

“We still do have our disagreements about things but we’re a bit more mature and better able to deal with it.”
[Read more]

A sizzling array of international acts and festivals will make this the longest and hottest summer for Perth music fans, yet one leading Australian promoter fears the touring industry has peaked.

Superstars such as Billy Joel, Alicia Keys, John Mellencamp, Sting and Stevie Wonder will play Perth in coming months, with Neil Diamond, Eric Clapton, Paul Simon, Coldplay, AC/DC and other big-name acts rumoured to be planning concerts here early next year.

The festival circuit is even more crowded than last summer with established events such as the Big Day Out, Southbound, Summadayze, Good Vibrations and West Coast Blues and Roots being joined by dance-pop extravaganzas, Global Gathering and Stereosonic, which fall a week apart in late November. At least three more major festivals — another dance event, a reggae concert and a multiple-day alternative music event — are expected to be unveiled soon. Then there’s the popular A Day on the Green outdoor concert series and the eclectic mix of overseas and local acts at the Perth International Arts Festival’s Music Box from February 13 to March 7.

It seems our thirst for live music cannot be quenched, yet veteran promoter Michael Chugg believes that — because of the skyrocketing cost of living — this could be the last tidal wave of summer shows.

Mr Chugg said demand had begun to dry up for some gigs on the east coast, with the Great Escape festival cancelled due to poor ticket sales.

[Read more]

A new study suggests that “daddy’s girls” choose men who look like their fathers, while “mummy’s boys” cannot resist women who remind them of their mothers.

Scientists say people use their opposite sex parents as a template for picking a mate by a process called “sexual imprinting”.

[Read more]

WITH her trendy Bugaboo Stroller, yoga classes and macrobiotic diet, Gwyneth Paltrow has long been the poster girl for a certain type of London lifestyle. Not the kind enjoyed by the likes of Kate Moss, obviously. You can’t imagine Paltrow drinking till dawn, snorting coke.

No, she is the epitome of the nanny-spurning, baby-food puréeing yummy mummy: effortlessly glamorous, nutritionally-obsessed, socially aware and as dull as dishwater. While the Primrose Hill set are scandalising the neighbours, in Belsize Park, one a [Read more]

‘Intimacy’ available to pre-order now as band announce full tracklisting and release date. Paul Epworth and Jacknife Lee are also behind the desk…

Bloc Party’s third album, ‘Intimacy’, will be available digitally from August 21. It will be delivered to fans who pre-order the album from the band’s website www.blocparty.com. Those who pre-order will also be sent a physical version of the album from October 27 which includes extra songs. [Read more]

Liam Gallagher prefers being a stay-at-home dad these days, but he’s not lost his rock’n’roll swagger

Liam Gallagher says he and his brother “are two totally different people and the sooner people realise that the less we can go on about it”. Fair enough, but, having interviewed Noel several years ago, I can report the Gallagher boys have more in common than being in the same band and having the same mum and dad: extreme candour, for one thing. You asked Noel a question, you got a straight answer. If anything, his kid brother is even more straight-talking. Also (and I didn’t think this could be possible), Liam swears even more. [Read more]

If I could muster any enthusiasm for Coldplay and their particular brand of world-weary pop, I wouldn’t have the same financial problems. The band will play the new Point Theatre in Dublin’s docklands in December, with tickets priced from €54.80. Alright, if Coldplay were performing in my back garden I’d close the windows and pull the blinds, but credit where it’s due. Chris Martin and his colleagues are bringing some sort of normality back to ticket pricing.
[Read more]

We catch up with Coldplay’s latest support act

[Read more]

Americans are flocking to be entertained UK-style, reports John Harlow in Los Angeles

BRITISH film makers, video game designers, rock stars and television personalities are topping the charts compiled by America’s entertainment industry this summer, only five years after cultural exports from the UK appeared to be in the doldrums.

Thanks to two pairs of British brothers who are behind the new Batman film and the video game Grand Auto Theft IV - and the popularity of figures as diverse as Coldplay, the rock band, and Gordon Ramsay, the foul-mouthed chef - Britons have returned to the ascendancy. [Read more]

I’m really enjoying Coldplay’s new CD Viva La Vida (or Death and All His Friends).  Studio-wise, I think it’s one of the best CD’s I’ve listened to and it really evidences itself when the songs (Viva La Vida and Violet Hill) come on the radio and I really remember and sing along.

Coldplay has deliberately written songs that they want crowds to sing along to…. “belt it to the rafters” or something like that.  However, many of the songs contain strings and tracks that aren’t really replicable on stage!  A good example is Viva La Vida, which is driven by a pulsing string track rhythm.  There are no drum kit sounds, so they instead pull out the tympany and church bell out for the song during their performances (as seen live on videos on youtube).  But it’s a bit unbelievable when Chris Martin and the guitarist Jonny Buckland play their keyboards for a short while before leaving them for the mic or the electric guitar, and the strings play on.  Obviously they have a running string track in the background. [Read more]