12 Coldplay Months of 2010: FEBRUARY (*almost* £11k Viva Jacket sold!)

[Megalomania]

Hello and welcome to February's Coldplay Review.
*sorry for lame title*
Read, and enjoy. . .

Feb 1- Apparatjik live debut @ WMF Club in Berlin
http://www.coldplaying.com/index.php...ticle&sid=6980

Live debut of Guy's fantastic side project. . .

What do you get when you combine Coldplay bassist Guy Berryman, Magne Furuholmen from a-ha, Jonas Bjerre from Mew and producer Martin Terefe? Why, a new supergroup with a Swedish name, of course. Apparatjik, which is a Swedish term for people who create bottlenecks in otherwise efficient organizations, first formed to provide music for a BBC show called Amazon Tribe: Songs for Survival.

Apparatjik played their first concert at the WMF Club in Berlin recently, as part of the music and art festival "Club Transmediale". You can see some short videos of the performance here and here at the World of Music forum.

The concert lasted around 40 minutes, with the band members playing inside a specially constructed cube. "This concert is as much an art performance, as a concert", Jonas Bjerre told NRK's Lydverket, which will have a TV-report about the concert next Wednesday. The Berlin concert is the only Apparatjik performance that has been planned. "We would like to continue our collaboration, but if that will result in more music or something completely different, who knows", the band says.

Magne was not the only a-ha member in Berlin that night, as Morten Harket had also come to witness the event. "[This was] refreshing, and even though Magne doesn't really have time to do this right before our own tour starts, I think this is the best preparation he could have done", Morten tells Lydverket. The Apparatjik album was also released last week. It's called We Are Here and can now be purchased as an MP3 album or pre-ordered as a CD/DVD set here.





Feb. 2- Chris’ Viva jacket raises £10,000
http://www.coldplaying.com/index.php...ticle&sid=6975

An eBay auction of pop memorabilia from some of Britain's biggest acts has raised around £50,000 ($80,000) so far for survivors of the Haiti earthquake, organizers Oxfam said on Monday. Among the top lots sold so far is Chris Martin's "Viva La Vida" tour jacket, which fetched £9,600, and three pairs of VIP tickets to the Glastonbury festival which raised around £7,000 each.

The Fender Stratocaster guitar played by Alex Turner in the Arctic Monkeys' "I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor" video made £4,600. The eBay auction total is set to rise significantly, with a Damien Hirst print already bid up to £12,100 and a Rolf Harris oil painting at £7,650.

The auction is one of several initiatives by celebrities to raise funds for Haiti. Last month, MTV hosted a telethon featuring George Clooney and U2's Bono among others, which raised more than $61 million, and the "Hope For Haiti Now" charity album debuted at No. 1 on the U.S. pop chart last week.





Feb 4- EMI in danger
http://www.coldplaying.com/index.php...ticle&sid=6977

The future of EMI, the British record label behind Coldplay, Robbie Williams, Madonna and Lily Allen, was plunged into doubt today when it admitted to making massive losses.

The 113-year-old company slumped to a pre-tax loss of £1.75 billion in the last financial year and is struggling to repay bank loans. Its private equity owner, Terra Firma, has been forced to demand extra money, at least £105 million, from its investors to meet terms of the deal set by lender Citicorp. If it fails to, the US bank could seize control of EMI.

EMI, also home to Kylie Minogue, David Bowie and Katy Perry, has disclosed pre-tax losses of £1.75 billion in annual accounts for the year to 31 March 2009. They were filed by its parent company Maltby Capital today.

Terra Firma, headed by financier Guy Hands, bought EMI for £4.2 billion in 2007. It has been forced to disclose the losses as it prepares to sue Citigroup in a dispute about how much the US bank knew about the state of the record label's finances before the deal. Terra Firma has already had to inject more than £100 million over the past two-and-a-half years as it struggled to meet the bankers' terms. EMI's chief executive Elio Leoni-Sceti is working on a new business plan that will be submitted to Terra Firma investors within weeks.

The losses have been caused mainly by financial write-offs, and the underlying day-to-day performance of EMI has been relatively successful. The accounts showed the group made an operating profit of £293 million. This week EMI has four albums in the US top 10, and an 18 per cent share of the market. Like other record labels it has been fighting a battle against illegal downloading.

Over the past five years the recorded music industry's global revenues have fallen 30 per cent, and in 2009 they dropped by 10 per cent to $15.8 billion. It is estimated that 95 per cent of music downloads worldwide are illegal, according to trade body the IFPI.

EMI has also been weakened by its heavy debt burden following the takeover by Terra Firma. Since the deal it has undergone a dramatic change, with the “rock n roll” culture clashing unhappily with the “suits” from private equity. Insiders and some artists complain Terra Firma has no feel for the “music biz”.

In December 2007 Radiohead quit the label, guitarist Ed O'Brien complaining: “It's been taken over by somebody who's never owned a record company before, and they don't realise what they're dealing with.”



Feb 9th- Phil Harvey writes about Nuclear Disarmament
http://coldplay.com/newsdetail.php?id=585

The wonderful Mr. Phil Harvey wrote a very serious yet very necessary message on Coldplay.com. . .

“No rational person should want nuclear weapons in the world. As long as they exist, the destruction of the human race (and all life on Earth) is only a few button-pushes away.

Today, there are still 23,000 nuclear weapons in the world (enough to destroy all life on Earth several times over). It is far from impossible that one of these weapons could fall into the hands of terrorists.

The International Atomic Energy Agency predicts that, by 2030, 60 countries may have acquired nuclear weapons.

President Obama is an active supporter of nuclear disarmament.

If the US and Russia commit to reducing their nuclear arsenals, this will pave the way for eventual global disarmament. The Non Proliferation Treaty will be reviewed in May 2010.

Get involved: www.basicint.org

pH”


Roadie 42 Blog # 111
http://coldplay.com/newsdetail.php?id=591&page=0

Where our favorite Roadie tells a humorous story of his encounter with an alarm. . .

Where on earth does the time go? One minute it's Christmas and I'm rushing about wondering whether we're going to get the eBay auction finished, or whether it's going to finish us first. Suddenly, I look around to see that the Latin America leg has begun and it's nearly March.

Before I start telling you how lovely it is to be in Argentina, howsabout I fill you in a little on what's been happening since we last spoke?

Firstly, the Beehive is really beginning to feel like home. The builders' dust has settled, the smell of paint has faded and we've all established our little workspaces, spreading instruments, equipment and tea cups around the place in equal measure.

I’m sure there’s a word to describe the psychological phenomenon of moving into a new place and automatically thinking that someone is going to break in. It’s not quite like we’re living here (although a few notable persons are coming close…), but everyone is beginning to feel comfortable and it’s natural to want to keep the less pleasant aspects of the world out. The alarm system arrived a few days after all the equipment, which may be what kick-started my paranoia.

Not long after the alarm is fully installed, I drop in late at night to drop off some cable and gave it an unplanned test. There is the customary set of hoops to jump through if you arrive and have to open up. I've had all of it explained to me and am confident I can come and go as I please. My first attempt reveals that there is a detail with one of the padlocks that I haven't completely grasped. As I stand repeating the number to myself and reading it off the padlock, the beeping of the alarm counts down my allotted time to get inside and identify myself. It gets more and more impatient before finally throwing an almighty strop and calling the police.

I call Dan Green on my mobile who can't hear me over the din of the bells and wailing alarm. He quickly understands what is occurring and explains the missing trick. I'm in. I placate the alarm system and phone the head office to ask them to call off the police. They ask me if I’d like them to call Phil Harvey back and tell him that there are actually no intruders. I groan and text him. “Can confirm alarm fully functional and very loud. Please continue with your evening...”

The following Friday, I'm hit with a migraine that leaves me unable to see daylight without severe pain. Not unusual for folks in our line of work, but entirely booze-unrelated in this case (I hardly drink these days…). I miss the day completely, but am recovered and wide awake in the evening. I decide to head into the Beehive and get a bit of work done. I manage to get inside without incident and make my way up to my office. It’s Friday and being an industrial area, all around is deserted. To feel a little less alone I hop online and see that, despite the hour, Anchorman is logged into chat.

It seems he’s about to appear on the radio. I decide to tune in, but I’m quickly distracted. There is a noise downstairs. Not a squeaky boards noise, or a grumbling of the boiler noise. This is like something very heavy being knocked over. The way the staircase echoes does nothing but make it sound more huge. (Mental note: experiment with Led Zeppelin drum-sounds...) I cut the radio and scan my office for a weapon. I have a large metal tripod. Before I go off for a look around I message Anchorman. “Big noise downstairs. Think someone is inside. Going to investigate. Text me in 15 mins. If no reply, call the police”.

It’s funny how big a building can start to feel when you’re not entirely sure if you’re alone. I feel a bit of a tit wandering about with a tripod raised over my shoulder but eventually convince myself whatever it was, it’s nothing to worry myself about. I get back to my chat with Anchorman:
“All clear”.

“Thank God for that. Right, I’m off to bed. Mrs. Anchorman has just asked me what I’m doing up so late and I told her I thought you might be dead”.

I’m led to believe that her response was a bleary, “OK, well don’t be long”. How reassuring!

So that's me and my security-related escapades (I won't even recount the night I met the new cleaner at 11pm and introduced myself by emerging from my office at the top of the stairs with a metal table-leg raised above my shoulder...). What of the band? The new songs?




Well, the ground floor of our new home has seen a bunch of fresh tunes being moulded, shaped, kicked around and sometimes changed beyond all recognition. I'm constantly surprised by exactly how much work gets done in a day. I figured (like pretty much everyone else who's not spent much time in a studio), that making an hour or so of music over the course of a year works out as a lot of tea breaks and time to read the paper, whichever way you slice it.

This being Coldplay though, it's nothing like that at all. Work begins brisk and early each day with minds focused intently on the job in hand. If a song is deemed not to be working, the root of the pain is sought out and generally identified very quickly. New approaches, slight massages or even radical amputations are approached with urgency.

A single song can exist in several very different forms all within the same day. The mood can go from elation at striking upon a new melody, to a complete loss of confidence and then back to "I can't wait 'til Brian hears this" all within a few hours. The rate of progress is astonishing.

The impending three week working-holiday in Latin America has not just served as a tantalising escape into the sunshine; it’s also focussed work within the Beehive’s six-sided rooms into a very powerful and concentrated team effort in the weeks leading up to departure.

Just as one pays off bills, empties the fridge and has a mad tidy-up session before leaving for a holiday, so the band are making sure to leave a neat place in the recording to walk back into once the tour is done and they're back at it. Some songs sound ready, some barely started, some may never see the light of day, but they've pushed everything to as complete a state as they can before they pick up the suitcase and head out the door.

As a tangible representation of this, co-producers Rik Simpson and Dan Green have put together a bunch of rough mixes and sequenced them together according to the "possible running order" that Chris recently wrote up (on the Beehive wall, naturally). There is now a file all locked up in the depths of the building that they can huddle round and listen to from start to finish. They can judge their progress now - and then again when they get home.

What's that? What does it sound like? Well, it sounds like this:



So, that brings us up to the now. We've arrived in Argentina - truly one of the most wonderful places on earth. The pace of life, the passion and warmth of the people, the gorgeous weather - it's all about as different from the London winter we've left as it's possible to get.

By a strange and wonderful scheduling quirk, we've somehow arrived on Tuesday with no show to do until Friday. Talk about result! The crew has been drawn back together from all manner of spots across the globe, so a wander round the town on our first day here means soaking in the very foreign-feeling surroundings, whilst constantly bumping into old friends and having reunions in the middle of the street a few thousand miles from home.

Dan Green and I wander through the old part of town and wind our way through the antique shops into a gorgeous piazza, complete with a couple dancing the tango to a distorted boombox running off a car battery.

And what do you know? We're looking for the best spot to stop for a sit and a drink when a voice calls my name from over my shoulder. Who should it be but Bash (Will's drumtech). He's sitting in the sun nursing a beer and watching the world (and the women) go by. We pull up a couple chairs and join him for an hour. In the corner of the square, there is graffiti in Spanish, none of which I can really understand.

One word looks familiar though.



I have a feeling we're in for a fantastically pleasant few weeks.

R#42



Roadie 42 Blog #112
http://coldplay.com/newsdetail.php?id=592&page=0

Mr. Roadie 42 tells us about the South American tour. . .

After my first day in Buenos Aires being wonderfully relaxed and tourist-y, it's been heads down getting the show together for a bit. It's a little strange going back into stadium-sized gigs after a lengthy period of relatively normal living. I distinctly remember going into the European shows feeling very, very comfortable and relaxed. A hundred and fifty shows on one tour will do that to you....

Here though, the stadium feels absolutely enormous (basically because it is...). Everyone is trying to remember exactly what it is that they used to do to make sure that their little cog in the machine kept moving smoothly.

We had a great run through with the band yesterday, in the empty stadium. That's shaken the dust off nicely, but I have a feeling that 50,000 screaming Argentinians is what we really all need to get us comfortably back into gear.

I'm sat outside the dressing room where I believe Guy and Will are chatting to a film crew from Brazil. I can hear the crowd beginning to fill the floor outside. I'd better go get busy with cables or something to keep the nerves at bay.

Here's a little footage of where we're at from yesterday's production rehearsals.

R#42


26 February 2010: River Plate Stadium, Buenos Aires, Argentina
http://www.wikicoldplay.com/26_Febru...res,_Argentina

This was the first show of Coldplay’s Latin America 2010 tour, and revealed the premiere of a brand new song, Don Quixote/Spanish Rain.

Don Quixote

YouTube - Coldplay - Don Quixote (new song) (Live in Argentina, 26-02-2010)

And left the board very happy about new material!





28 February 2010: Apoteose Stadium, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
http://www.wikicoldplay.com/28_Febru...aneiro,_Brazil





So, all in all, February was a great month for Coldplay!

[BerrymanGirl1]

Nice review!!

[nancyk58]

Thanks for a nice review!

[Tash]

Good review, thanks!

[Megalomania]

Thanks for the nice comments!

[busybeeburns]

excellent review! hmmm, what should I vote for?

[Tash]

Don Quixote/Spanish Rain!

[clisaj]

great job, dear!

i had a hard choice between Apparatjik and Spanish Rain, but chose Apparatjik cause they don't play Spanish Rain anymore

[Arantza]

Apparatjik FTW!

[Juanma]

I was in those gigs


Brilliant

[laga]

Live @River Plate Stadium, Buenos Aires, Argentina
best day of the year

[Raphaele]

thanks

[Isab3lla]

Spanish Rain! I want to hear a studio version of the song

[JackZ]

i never really like apparatjik, sorrrrry

[jeremyy]

wow thanks for sharing us but can anyone tell me about Roadie 42? who is this?