OCTOBER 2005

Monday , 31 October 2005 - Devestating song review

What's wrong with Wessex? Or, let's say, what's wrong with "JS", a music critic of "Wessex Scene", an online magazine. He just wrote a bad review of Coldplay's "Fix You". Because in his opinion, Fix You is "predictable, entirely unoriginal and mind-numbingly boring" - well, it's a question of taste..  Get an idea of it yourself: Wessex Scene (by the way, below you can find his review of the Kaiser Chiefs, which is devestating as well).

Saturday, 29 October 2005 - Coldplay winning Nordic Award

It's late in the evening and the Nordic Awards have just ended - and we can congratulate Coldplay, because they won the award for Best foreign artist!

They even turned their performance at the award show into something special. At one part of "Fix You", Chris made a hint on Robbie Williams, singing "If you never try, you'll never know, Robbie" and at the end of Robbie's performance, he sang a part of Yellow: "Look at the stars, look how they shine for you". Well, did Chris and Robbie suddenly became new best friends?!

According to Nordic TV viewers, Chris looked very tired during the performance - after finishing the song, he was sliding off the stage and lying down of the crowd fences.

Other winners were Gwen Stefani (Best international female artist), Eminem (Best international male artist) and the famous Nordic band Kent (Best Nordic band).

If you understand Dutch, you can find out more on http://www.nma05.dk/!

Saturday, 29 October 2005 - Coldplay perform at Nordic Awards

It wasn't planned and came by surprise: Coldplay will perform at the Nordic Awards at "The Forum" in Copenhagen, Denmark, today! The show will take about 2 1/2 hours and will only be broadcasted in Denmark. Coldplay are nominated in the category "Best International Band" - there are only three categories for foreign artists, because the NMA's mainly exist to support national artists.

As soon as there are pictures of the show available, you'll find them here!

Saturday, 29 October 2005 - Bob Geldof "Nobel Man of Peace"

Bob Geldof at DVD launch
Picture by gettyimages

These aren't directly Coldplay news, but as the band were part of the big charity event Live 8, it's definitely important to know that Bob Geldof has been chosen the 2005 Nobel Man of Peace. This has been announced at the Live 8 DVD launch on Thursday.

The Nobel committee of living Peace Prize winners said that Geldof was picked for "his unflagging work and powerful voice on behalf of the poor of Africa over the last 20 years and in particular the last 12 months".

Former Soviet leader Mikael Gorbachev will present Geldof the award during the World Summit of Nobel Laureates on November 24. Congratulations to Sir Bob Geldof, he's "a hero of our time" (quote by Chris Martin).

Source: UPI

Thursday, 27 October 2005 - Setlist change

Yesterday, the next leg of the European tour started in Belgium. The band added a few new songs and changed the setlist a little bit. A big surprise was their performing of "How you see the world", the wonderful hidden track on the Japanese version of X&Y.

This was the setlist of the concert in Antwerp, Belgium:

Square One
Politik
Yellow
Speed of Sound
X&Y
God put a Smile upon your face
How you see the World
White Shadows
The scientist
Till Kigdom come
Ring of fire
Don't Panic
Clocks
Talk

Encore:
Swallowed in the Sea
In my place
Fix you

Congratulations to all the fans who were at the gig last night, we all envy you, because hearing "How you see the world" live must be awesome. If a recording of the song comes up in the internet, I'll put it here.

Thursday, 27 October 2005 - Coldplay at Johnny Cash tribute show

On Tuesday night, several performances were taped at the Pantages Theater in Hollywood for "I walk the line: A night for Johnny Cash". It will air on American television on November 16 and featured acts like Jerry Lee Lewis, Norah Jones, Sheryl Crow and - Coldplay!

Coldplay didn't perform on the stage on Tuesday themselves, but an excerpt of one of their concerts will be part of the one-hour special that will be shown on American TV channel CBS.

Chris Martin has often said that he admires Johnny Cash - he calls him a "hero". He even wrote the song "Til kingdom come" for Cash, but unfortunately he died before he could record the song. Therefore, Coldplay decided to put it on "X&Y" as a hidden track.

"He was someone who stood up for everybody and never got criticised for it, maybe because he lived it a lot more than people like me. When you're a musician you have to look up to those people. He's my hero.", Chris once said. "His voice was bonkers. My dad used to put Johnny Cash on in the car and it sounded like this alien guy from America - which to me then was a million miles away - and here was this guy from the heart of it." These quotes show Chris' deep admiration for Johnny Cash and makes it easy to understand why the band attended the tribute evening.

Thursday, 27 October 2005 - Details about 'Talk' video

Anton Corbijn, director and photographer

On January 23 next year, 'Talk' is going to be released as the third single of the band's current album X&Y. It has now been announced that music video genius Anton Corbijn will be the director of the next video. He also told the press some details: "Well, it is black and white, and slightly strange, as is often the way in my videos, I guess. It will have a certain B-movie feel to it, but I cannot say more than this for now."

Coldplay have already asked Corbijn a couple of times if he'd like to direct one of their videos, but 'Talk' is the first single he's truly interested in: "I have turned down a few previous requests from Coldplay to do a script for their songs, but I liked this song and had an idea straightaway, so that was enough for me to go on."

If you're interested in Corbijn's work so far, visit his site. The last music video he directed was the western-like video for "All these things I've done" by The Killers. He's already done videos for legendary bands like U2, Depeche Mode and Nirvana. Besides music videos, he's also very successful in photography. He's also shot a photo of Coldplay which was used for a Rolling Stone magazine cover this summer:

Thursday, 27 October 2005 - Live 8 DVD launch

Tonight, the Live 8 DVD is being launched with a premiere screening in London. The DVD will feature all concerts from the UK and US concerts and excerpts from the other shows, e.g. U2, Paul McCartney, and of course Coldplay. The premiere screening will be attended by Bob Geldof and his four daughters, Annie Lennox, Razorlight, Placebo and other performers of LIve 8.

More than 9.6 million people of the UK watched the Live 8 concert on 2 July and Bob Geldof expects the DVD to become "the biggest-selling DVD of all time". He said: "It deserves to be. More importantly perhaps, it should be, for it will help us to achieve our goal of changing the lives of the extreme poor for the better and making our generation the one that helped end the disgrace of poverty."

Source: BBC

Wednesday, 26 October 2005 - Gwyneth confirms pregnancy

Gwyneth and designer Stella McCartney

Yesterday, Chris Martin's wife Gwyneth Paltrow attended a fashion show by Stelly McCartney. When a reporter asked her why her husband didn't show up at the UK premiere of her latest movie "Proof", she patted her stomach and said: "There are two Paltrows here tonight."

Now the female Paltrows (Gwyneth and her mum Blythe Danner) have both kind of confirmed that little Apple will get a little brother or sister soon - now let's wait for a happy announcement by Chris

Source: Hello!

More current Gwyneth news:

Movie "Proof" inspired Chris to write a song

In an interview with the US radio channel "KROQ", Chris Martin admitted that the fact that his wife appeared in the Broadway play "Proof" inspired him to write this fantastic b-side.

Source: Irish Examiner

Wednesday, 26 October 2005 - New Zealand concert in danger

Coldplay were actually supposed to play their first and only gig in New Zealand in June 2006. But due to the delays in finishing Auckland's waterfront arena, the band might have to cancel the gig. The 12,000-seat indoor arena was supposed to be finished by the end of this year, but now the project had been put back to March 2006. This might be too late for the arena to be ready for Coldplay's gig.

The band has sold 230,000 copies of their albums in New Zealand and fans have been desperately waiting for the band to come to their island. The gig isn't officially cancelled yet - I'll keep you updated!

Source: The New Zealand Herald

Tuesday, 25 October 2005 - Work on fourth album

Last weekend, I gave you the link to a BBC Radio 2 interview with Chris Martin and right at the beginning of this week, several quotes he made have been spreaded around magazines worldwide. Beside the quote that "The Sexiest Vegeterian 2005" has recently eaten a duck, the fact that Chris said that he's already working on new material is probably the most important news for Coldplay fans. "I can't sleep at the moment, cause we're working on new stuff!", said Chris, right after telling the interviewer Chris Evans that he can't really choose his favourite Coldplay song because he thinks that the lyrics aren't that good: "They're about to get brilliant. I don’t want to go on about what we're going to do but we're about to get a lot better and part of that lyrically."

No matter if the lyrics will improve or not (let's be honest: they can't get much better than they already are ), we can't wait for new songs and, of course, the new album which is set to be released sometime next year.

Sunday, 23 October 2005 - Details about lunchbox auction

As I already told you, Chris joined a charity event in New York on Tuesday where he was bidding on a lunchbox designed by Michael Stipe, one of his "ultimate heros". Now we know some more details: He paid 20,000 pounds (!!!) on the lunchbox which he even didn't get yet! The Edge (U2) only paid half of this amount for a lunchbox designed by former US president Bill Clinton.

So, where is the lunchbox? "Good question. I haven't got it."

On the Radio 2 afternoon show on Saturday, Chris told us the true reason why he went on bidding: "Because I was standing next to Helena Christensen. And I was like, I can't back down."

You can download an MP3 of the whole interview, held by Chris Evans, here (the interview starts after about 7 minutes). Besides the lunchbox auction, Chris is also talking about his favourite tea, his mutualities with Chris Evans (beside the obvious same name), his four Grannys ("or was it Grammys?!"), the fact that he hates lava lamps, the next album, the "never-ending song" and much more.

Chris Martin and Radio 2 host Chris Evans

Saturday, 22 October 2005 - Gwyneth Paltrow is expecting a second child

There have been lots of rumours in the recent weeks - and now Gwyneth's mum, actress Blythe Danner, confirmed that her daughter and her husband Chris Martin will become parents again. At a media awards ceremony in Los Angeles, a reporter asked Mrs. Danner if she'll be a grandmother again - and she replied without hesitation "Yes, I am."

Shortly after admitting her daughter's pregnancy, Blythe Danner realised that her answer was probably wrong. So she added "Well, I think so. Oh, well I have not checked lately."

According to the Daily Mail, a friend of Chris said: "Gwyneth is trying to contain her excitement about having another child, but she's incredibly happy." - Well, we've all seen the pictures of Chris at the Q Awards and he has never seemed that happy before, could this have something to do with becoming a father again? The couple has always said that they wanted more children.

Gwyneth's publicist hasn't confirmed the pregnancy yet, but I guess that Blythe Danner finally let us all know the truth. Congratulations to Chris, Gwyneth and Apple, who'll probably be very happy about a little sister or brother

Apple with her grandmother

Source: Daily Mail

Saturday, 22 October 2005 - X&Y bumped from top

So far, Coldplay's current album "X&Y" was the top album of this year. But now "Back to Bedlam", the extremely successful album of newcomer James Blunt, has overtaken "X&Y" to become the biggest selling album of the year.

Figures showed that Blunt has sold 1,526,000 copies while Coldplay sold 1,524,000 copies.

"Back to Bedlam" is at No. 2 in the UK Album Charts at the moment, why "X&Y" can still be found at No. 11.

Besides the fact that Coldplay were "beaten" by James Blunt, the band helped their record label EMI to raise their sales of 4.5 %. "X&Y" was the most successful album EMI has released in its first term which ends on September 30.

Source: Scotsman.com

Wednesday, 19 October 2005 - Lunchbox auction Part 2

Bono is probably not that happy
about this loss..

On Monday, I already told you that Chris Martin attended a charity event in New York on Sunday, organised by The Food Bank for New York City and The Lunchbox Fund. Now we know more details: Chris was bidding on a lunchbox created by Michael Stipe, the singer of R.E.M.. According to several online magazines, it was a hard competition between Chris and the frontman of U2, Bono Vox. Bono tried to get the lunchbox as well - but Chris won, congratulations  Bono's comment: "It was death by Coldplay."

That's how the lunchbox looks:

Source: NMC

Wednesday, 19 October 2005 - Digital Music Awards

Each year, the Digital Music Awards honor musicians who distribute their music and art through the web. The awards took place in Hammersmith, London, last night and the winners were chosen by public votes and a group of judges.

Coldplay were the big winners of the night, winning three awards in the following categories:
Official Site
Best Campaign
Best Digital Music Community

Congratulations to this great site, it's always worth a visit!

The fansite coldplaying.com, which is a brilliant site as well, were able to reach the 36th place at the People's Choice Award. This is a great achievement, congratulations! 

Wednesday, 19 October 2005 - Charity CD for Katrina victims

In the middle of November, a compilation is going to be released in order to raise money for the victims of hurricane Katrina. The gains will be given to the American Red Cross, Habitat for Humanity and the MusiCares Hurricane Relief Fund.

The double disc will be called "Hurricane Reflief: Come Together now" and will feature songs that have already been played at the Music Relief Benefit Concert. The disc will also feature Coldplay's live version of "Fix You".

Source: RP Online

Saturday, 15 October 2005 - Chris, a sexy geek?

According to People Magazine, there are guys, who are so uncool that they're already hot - and besides O.C. geek Adam Brody, Chris Martin is on the list as well:

Source: People Magazine

Friday, 14 October 2005 - Chris attends charity event

Last night, The Food Bank for New York City and The Lunchbox Fund organised a star-studded exhibtion. Stars have designed lunchboxes in order to raise money at an auction. Chris Martin turned up at the event at the Wooster Projects Gallery in Chelsea as well. He wasn't one of the "lunchbox artists", but looked at more than 100 lunchboxes decorated by celebrities like Charlize Theron, Hilary Swank, Clint Eastwood and even ex-president Bill Clinton.

You can buy a lunchbox at the ebay auction here.

Photos taken on this evening:

Chris Martin and 'The Edge' (U2)

Chris, The Edge and host Mario Batali (star chef)

Source: People Magazine

Friday, 14 October 2005 - Unusual new fans of Coldplay

Till Lindemann, singer

The German rock band "Rammstein" recently told an online magazine that whenever they want to relax, they listen to Coldplay! Drummer Christoph Schneider even said that Coldplay's album "X&Y" influenced the work on Rammstein's new LP "Benzin". It seems like Rammstein try lots of new different styles, because besides listening to Coldplay during the album work, they also cooperated with a country singer and a mariachi band.

This story actually fits perfect to Chris's current wishes, because he recently talked about the possibility of country and hip hop influences on the next Coldplay album. Well, who knows, maybe Rammstein and Coldplay will do a song together in the future - we already know that Chris knows a bit of German, as he told us when he talked about using Kraftwerk's "Computer Love" for a song on their current album.

Source: kino.de

Friday, 14 October 2005 - New musical style?

One of Chris' latest hilarious quotes are going around magazines all over the world at the moment:

"We're always working on new material. We've got no laurels to rest on. We're still looking for our laurels in my opinion. We've everything to prove and we've finished phase one of Coldplay and now we're going to enter phase two, which could be the Abba phase, it could be the transvestite phase, who knows, but it'll definetely be good."

The guys see "X&Y" as the end of phase one of their career. While touring, they've been working on new songs and planned to go into a new direction.

Chris explained: "It's not a reaction against anything as much as an evolvement, but the new record's going to blow your socks off. Or tights, depending on what you're wearing."

Source: NME

Tuesday, 11 October 2005 - Q Award show

Last night, the Q award show took place at the Grosvenor House Hotel in London. Several websites say that Liam Gallagher and Chris Martin had a verbal fight - read the true story at xfm.co.uk!

But besides "fights", there were lots of kisses on the red carpet: Chris seemed especially happy last night! Guy and Will didn't show up at the event, so Chris and Jonny were alone, kissing and snuggling as usual  But Jonny wasn't the only lucky man - Chris Martin and Noel Gallagher were pretty close as well...

JONNY & CHRIS ON THE RED CARPET

For an animation of Chris and Jonny's cute kiss, go to the site of this month's special.

CHRIS & NOEL GALLAGHER

Source: mtv.de

Monday, 10 October 2005 - Awards

1) Q Awards 2005

As I announced a few days ago, Coldplay were nominated in four categories at the awards of Q Magazine. The award show takes place in London today and it has already been announced that Coldplay won the award for "Best Act in the World today". "Losers" in this category were Green Day, U2, Oasis and Muse. In the following categories which Coldplay were nominated in, the following bands won:

Best producer: "Demon Days" - Gorillaz
Best album: "Don't believe the truth" - Oasis
Best Live act: U2
Best Track: "Black Horse and the Cherry Tree" - KT Tunstall

For all winners, click here.

2) UK Festival Awards 2005

The band is nominated in 2 categories at this year's Festival Awards:

Best Festival Headliner
Anthem of the Summer ("Fix You")

The awards will be voted online from 17 October - you only have three weeks time to do so, so check out the site here.

Monday, 3 October 2005 - A second baby for Chris?

Rumours have been along for a very long time - and now it seems pretty sure that Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin expect another baby. They already gave birth to a little daughter, Apple Blythe Alison, in May last year. Rumours say that the happy couple expect a second baby in Spring next year. According to the Star magazine, a friend of Gwyneth said: "Gwyneth is 99 percent sure this baby was made in one of Chris' dressing rooms." How great, a tour baby  Friends say that the couple would love to have a boy - Gwyneth already said that she'd like to call him Bruce, after her beloved father Bruce Paltrow who died three years ago.

If the rumour is true: Congratulations to Chris & Gwyn!!

Read the full Star article here.

I also found a picture showing Gwyneth with - maybe - a little baby stomache: