Coldplay news [NME (March 1st, 2003)]
Coldplay: ‘We’re like The Beatles in America!’
CHRIS MARTIN AND CO CONTINUE TO STORM THE STATES WITH MASSIVE ALBUM SALES AND STADIUM GIGS
“Madison Square Gardens is a huge leap-but of any British band, they can do it”
Jonathan Cohen, Billboard
As Coldplay prepare for superstardom in the US – the first British band to achieve that status in a generation – they have told NME: “We’re like The Beatles there now.”
Last week it was announced that Coldplay, who have been touring the US relentlessly for the last eight months, were stepping up a league with gigs at the vast Madison Square Garden in New York and the Los Angeles Hollywood Bowl. The shows, part of Coldplay’s biggest US tour, see them follow in the footsteps of mammoth acts such as Bruce Springsteen, The Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin.
“We’re like The Beatles there now,” Coldplay guitarist Jonny Buckland said last week.
“Actually, we’re definitely not the biggest thing in America. I think Shania Twain is the biggest thing in America, but it’s exciting at the moment. It’s weird.”
Oasis and Blur both struggled to repeat any of their European success in the US. Radiohead managed to score significant album sales, but have never played the sort of venues Coldplay are stepping up to now. Robbie Williams has continually struggled, and despite costly promotional campaigns and setting up a home in Los Angeles, he still shows no sign of becoming a star in the States.
Industry insiders in the US are now beginning to talk about Coldplay as a band that could become the new U2. Jonathan Cohen, reviews editor on industry bible Billboard, told NME that Coldplay had succeeded because they built on a solid fanbase established with their debut album, and also because they toured and toured.
“They have spent oodles and oodles of time here,” Cohen said. “They’ve done club shows and radio station shows and bigger venue events – they worked and worked. And for ‘Clocks’ to be in the rock chart Top Ten (calculated through radio airplay) is significant. They’re sitting alongside acts like Foo Fighters and Nirvana. The quality of their album across the board has carried them.”
‘A Rush Of Blood To The Head’ is still in the US Top 30 six months after its release. It has just been certified platinum in the States, having shifted a million copies.
“Madison Square Garden is a huge leap for them,” said Cohen. “But of any British band, they can do it. They have the potential to have a long and interesting career. Chris Martin has a little bit of Bono about him.”
Some thanks for Coldplay’s success should go to Capitol, their US label, he added.
“They know something the rest of the industry doesn’t. Their track record for English bands is unparalleled. They seem to sign acts who develop and grow over time.”
Capitol is the same label responsible for Radiohead in the US. They are also looking to The Music to lead a new wave of young British bands.
Chris Martin’s symphony to ‘Beethoven’ Liam
Chris Martin has revealed he thinks Liam Gallagher is like Beethoven. Speaking last week, the Coldplay frontman rhapsodised about ‘Songbird’ – the first song that Liam had penned for Oasis to be released as single.
“I think it is the most beautiful song in the world,” Martin said on Radio 1. “It makes me cry, that song – that is such a heartfelt, beautiful song. Liam Gallagher always gets some bad stuff but it’s like that film about Beethoven… his girlfriend says, ‘How could I not love him ’cos he writes such beautiful music’… anyone who can write something like ‘Songbird’ is basically alright by me.”
Meanwhile, Noel Gallagher has revealed that Liam and Oasis guitarist Gem Archer are in the studio writing new songs, while he plans to take a year off.
“I’m officially on holidays until this time next year. I’m a lazy little shit! If I can get out of doing anything I will, y’know,” Noel told Channel 4. “I can wangle a year out of the management company before they say get back to work.”
He said that after ten months on the road, he’s planned how to fill his time: “I’m going travelling, holidays, catch the end of the football season which I never get to do, go to New York for a bit.”
Noel said he’d be happy for Liam to take a lead in songwriting after the success of ‘Songbird’.
“Liam and Gem are doing demos in the studio, and if it’s anything like the stuff he was playing on tour with his little acoustic guitar it’s really good.
“In an ideal world, he’ll write 15 mega, mega tunes and he can pay my way for a while! If at the end of a year off he’s written 15 songs, I’ll be, ‘Alright!’.”
Noel also said it’s time for a new rock maverick to emerge in the UK, and predicted how the end will come for Oasis. “We’ve got Travis and Coldplay, who are fantastic. They’re nice boys, they write great songs, but we need another Liam or another lan Brown or another Bobby Gillespie.
“It will happen sooner or later. Somebody was saying to me, ‘Will there be a symbolic passing of the baton?’ What will happen is somebody will come and take it from me, and in one album will make me obsolete. And when that happens, we’ll bow out.”
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