SHOUT TO THE TOP
So what we suspected - but weren't at liberty to confirm - turns out to be true. There will be another Coldplay album next year, currently set for release in December '09.
Chris Martin broke the news during a convivial chat with REM's Michael Stipe and yours truly on BBC 6 Music on Saturday afternoon. What's more surprising is that there will be a new EP, Prospects March, released around Christmas... ("hopefully December 26th, something like that").
All of which seems to confirm earlier suspicions that the sessions with Brian Eno for the current album Viva La Vida were so productive that they had songs to spare - although the band still claim the next album is far from finished. In the meantime, we got to hear a laid-back Coldplay democratically choosing the title for the EP, live on air, with the added bonus of Stipe having the casting vote.
Released from the uncomfortable routine of promoting a record Martin - and the rest of the band for that matter - chatted away as if we'd just met at a bus stop. There's even a point where I thought bassist Guy was about to get his holiday snaps out.
To follow the interview, they went on to play a tiny gig in the BBC Radio Theatre in front of about 300 fans which was equally warm and relaxed. Martin, sporadically chatty and self-deprecating, was also back to his old cheeky self, introducing Trouble with the line "We wrote this song so long ago that some of you weren't even in your 40s."
Which is a subtle role reversal isn't it? Band heckle audience! I've heard groups berate their followers over sundry, silly matters before; or seen failing support bands try and shout and swear their way off a stage, but I don't think I've come across a band taking the micky out of us. But here lies some of Coldplay's charm.
And anyway, maybe it's about time that some bands sharpened up their act. We've given them enough stick down the years.
The grief bands get at gigs comes in many forms. There's the ironic cheer when a support band announce "This is our last song", or the more minimal, basic "get off you're rubbish (or colloquial words to that effect)". But I quite admire a clever heckle. Does anyone remember the new wave band 'These Animal Men' falling apart on stage at Reading Festival and in a gap in the shambles someone at the back of the tent, helpfully hollered "Taxi for These Animal Men!" Being chaps who could duly take a joke they used the line as the title of their next album!
I once saw a friend of mine - the guitarist in a band - stumble and nearly keel over during a particularly effusive guitar solo in the middle of one of their songs. He managed to regain his composure before toppling off the stage, looked round to see if anyone had noticed and casually raced to the end of the song. Sadly someone had noticed. After the applause had dribbled away a lone voice shouted: "Oi you! Fall over again!"
It didn't sound malicious, but as all good heckles do, it burst that bubble of cool. And that's enough for most people....until audiences go bad.
The most destroying heckle I've ever heard was saved for The Tears - the band formed by ex-Suede members Brett Anderson and Bernard Butler. Making their big London debut at the Astoria - which was all pomp and bluster for the opening five minutes - they finished their second song, only for a voice of doom to cut through the hall.
"Awful. (pause). Really awful."
Never have three words sounded so loud (they reverberated round the theatre for what seemed like hours) and so viciously damning. I wonder if they ever truly recovered from them. For a group of well respected, not to mention tactically aloof musicians to be cut down to size so easily must have been incredibly traumatic. It's like those nightmares you have about giving a speech at school, except you're naked on stage at the lectern and you've forgotten the words. And then the headmaster from the back of the class yells "Awful Lamacq! Really awful."
This is why I've revised my opinion about introducing football chants at gigs. Although don't let me stop you if you're faced with some talentless over-priced twerps getting too big for their boots. I'd suggest "Down with the Britpop, you're going down with the Britpop." Or maybe: "Hit band no fans, hit band no fans." Or even: "One song....you've only got one song." Although don't try that one out on Coldplay. They've apparently got bloody hundreds of songs.
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coldplay are possibly the worst band to have ever disgraced the charts. they exude mediocrity in everything they do and perpetuate the disgusting benile state the charts have been in over recent years. As far as I'm concerned if they never released another album it would be too soon.
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Regardless of personal preference, surely 6 Music should be playing music that is outside the mainstream? Is it possible to get any more mainstream than Coldplay? Or, for that matter, Keane?
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steve mate show some respect to your audience
If we liked Coldplay we would be listening to Radio 1 or Radio 2.
This is two weeks in a row you have featured unlistenable shows for the majority of your audience. First Keane now Coldplay.
What have you got next week - Duffy? How about some Backstreet Boys (if they are still going). Bit of Steps perhaps?
How about something we HAVENT heard before.
Please make me want to switch your show on at 4pm after the wasteland that precedes it.
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I've got to agree with ethalrocks. Coldplay are one of the blandest, most insipid bands around at the moment - they don't merit any attention on 6 music. They're the kind of band who are liked by people who don't really like music - almost like James Blunt, the reason why they are so ubiqutious is because they're so unremarkable and inoffensive. They make music for people who don't really like music - people who think of music as aural wallpaper rather than something to actually engage with and be passionate about.
Sorry Steve, but this kind of fawning fluff shouldn't have any place on 6 music - I want to be challenged, baffled, annoyed and enraptured by new music that I've never heard before: I don't want to be told that Coldplay are churning out yet another album as if it's something that serious music fans should care about.
Leave that kind of rubbish for Radio 1 fans to get excited about. 6 music is supposed to be different: the fact that Chris Martin and his boring bandmates had a few off-cuts from their recent album-making session that they think they might be able to sell is not big news. Something to be avoided, rather than praised.
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Coldplay are definitely a mainstream band now, and that's no necessarily a bad thing (see Oasis) cept Coldplay TRY to be mainstream. Their music is now made for the 14 year old girls and 30 something couples with no musical taste. They want to be big and radio friendly. Their live shows do not include raw gems such as their Bsides and Parachutes any longer. So that's why they should be shunned by 6music. Only their good songs like parachutes minus Yellow should be played. None of this Viva la Vida (speed of sound remake) rubbish. If they want to be sellouts, let them be. Bands that charge 100 bucks a ticket should be barred as a general rule. Especially those as young as Coldplay.
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Is Coldplay Sarah Palin's favourite band?
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