Photograph by Joshua Prezant for RollingStone.com

Confetti paper butterflies. Giant yellow beach balls (dropped during “Yellow” — get it?). Super high-definition live video. Friday’s opening night of the last leg of Coldplay’s Viva La Vida tour in West Palm Beach was an Olympics-esque spectacle, complete with five orbs dangling over the band’s heads that served as screens for more state-of-the-art camera work.

(Check out photos of Chris Martin and Co.’s “Vida” spectacle, straight from the tour opener.)

Coldplay are playing big sheds for this summer stretch — about 16,000 fans filled the Cruzan Amphitheater — and, despite their sad songs, grand gestures suit them. The quartet, dressed in their Sgt. Pepperesque jackets, want nothing more than to please. That’s why they twice made excursions to small ancillary stages in the middle of the venue, to show their “respect for the lawn,” as Chris Martin said in one of his many shiny, hammy comments (someone hire him a script doctor). He then choreographed the audience to hold up their lighted cell phones and perform what he called “the first ever Mexican phone wave,” before leading the band into an acoustic cover of the Monkees’ “I’m a Believer.” Believe. (more…)

Photo: Metcalfe/Getty
Starting with their May 15th show in West Palm Beach, Florida, Coldplay will give all fans that attend a gig on their North American Viva la Vida summer tour a free live album, the band revealed on its Website. Fans who aren’t holding tickets to any of those performances can get the nine-song collection, LeftRightLeftRightLeft, as a free download on the band’s official Website starting May 15th. Physical copies of the album will only be available at Coldplay’s concerts, however. The live album culls performances from several cities during the band’s last year of touring and will be available only during its summer tour, which runs until August 9th.

“Playing live is what we love. This album is a thank you to our fans — the people who give us a reason to do it and make it happen,” Coldplay said in a statement. Over half of LeftRightLeftRightLeft’s track list draws from the both the band’s Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends and their recent Prospekt’s March EP. The collection is rounded out by their X&Y hits “Fix You” and “The Hardest Part’ plus A Rush of Blood to the Head’s “Clocks.” (more…)

Photo: Getty

Joe Satriani has opened up about his plagiarism lawsuit against Coldplay, calling it the “weirdest thing I’ve ever been involved in.” Satriani credits his rabid fan base for bringing the similarities between Coldplay’s “Viva La Vida” and Satriani’s own “If I Could Fly” to his attention. “Almost immediately, from the minute their song came out, my e-mail box flooded with people going, ‘Have you heard this song by Coldplay? They ripped you off man.’ I mean, I couldn’t tell you how many e-mails I received,” Satriani said.

Making the supposed copycatting even more hurtful to Satriani is that “If I Could Fly” took almost a decade to complete and was intended as a love letter to his wife. (more…)

Photo: Getty

Coldplay, no strangers to plagiarism accusations, are now being sued by guitar virtuoso Joe Satriani, as the guitarist is accusing the band of ripping off his 2004 track “If I Could Fly” for their own Grammy-nominated hit “Viva La Vida.” Satriani filed a copyright infringement suit against the band in Los Angeles yesterday, accusing Coldplay of stealing “substantial original portions.” The Satch is seeking a jury trial, damages and “any and all profits attributable to the alleged copyright infringement.” And considering the album and the single were among the biggest sellers this year, not to mention the centerpiece of an Apple iTunes campaign, Satriani stands to make a sizable profit if the jury agrees with him. (more…)

Photo: Getty

Though they’ve got one of the year’s top-selling and most acclaimed records in Viva La Vida, the men of Coldplay are still humble about their world tour. “We’re proceeding as if it’s our last, because it’s the only way to proceed,” frontman Chris Martin says. “You’ve got to have deadlines, you know. What that means is we’re going to pour everything we can into next year and not think beyond that.” Click below for more on Coldplay, including how Martin prepares his voice for all those high notes.

• On the Road With Coldplay

Related Stories:

• More From Issue 1067

• Album Review: Coldplay, Viva La Vida

• Chris Martin: Jesus of Uncool

With the release of their Prospekt’s March EP only a week away, Coldplay have unveiled the updated video for the remixed Viva track “Lost+,” featuring Jay-Z. The new-ish video pretty much takes the original video of “Lost!,” recorded live at Chicago’s United Center, and digitally adds Jigga to the performance via black-and-white television. Watch the original, Hova-less version here. Surprisingly, the band didn’t utilize any of the entrants in that “Lost?” video contest they launched last month. (more…)

Photo: Hogan/Getty

Coldplay are hosting a video contest for their Viva La Vida track “Lost?” with the winner being awarded VIP treatment at the band’s concert in London this December. The band encourages fans to use creativity and any medium (animation, photography, stop-motion, etc.) in the contest. “Don’t use anyone else’s material (i.e. Please don’t splice together your favourite scenes from Spider-Man 3 and Mean Girls),” the band says in the contest guidelines, and “don’t bother with Coldplay live footage or photographs as there’s enough of that on YouTube already.” Entrants are asked to post their videos on YouTube. Chris Martin and gang will judge the finalists before picking a winner on December 5th. And what’s at stake? (more…)

Photo: Bedder/Getty

Coldplay’s Viva La Vida or Death And All His Friends is barely two months old and already the band are aiming for a 2009 release for their next album. The sessions the band had with producer Brian Eno were so “incredibly fruitful,” a source at Coldplay’s label EMI said, that they recorded more music than a single album could house. “The majority of the follow-up is already in the can, though they will have to go back into the studio at some point to add a few more songs,” the source told the U.K.’s Telegraph. So why the rush? (more…)

Always democratic, Coldplay revealed to their fans this weekend not one but two videos for the abridged title track of their new album, “Viva La Vida.” In the Hype Williams-directed video above, Coldplay stick with the motif they showcased in that iTunes commercial you’ve no doubt saw a million times leading up to the album’s release, with each member of the band performing in front of what looks like either computer screensavers, cloud formations or really muddy lava lamps. The “official alternative” video, directed by “Heart-Shaped Box” and Control visionary Anton Corbijn, casts Chris Martin as a king, walking around from landmark to picturesque landmark with a framed copy of Delacroix’s “Liberty Leading the People” (Viva La Vida’s album cover) tucked under his arm. Shot in a film stock that echoes ’70s porn, Martin searches for a place to hang his painting, ultimately finding solace with the rest of Coldplay on what could be the same beach where the band filmed their “Yellow” video. Check out Corbijn’s version after the jump. (more…)

Having already recruited Santogold for their Viva La Vida tour, Coldplay will now employ a YouTube contest that will allow unknown groups the opportunity to be an opening act for one of the biggest bands in the world. The contest is run in conjunction with radio stations in six markets: Boston, Chicago, Washington, D.C., Hartford, Philadelphia and San Jose, CA. In each case, potential warm-up acts are asked to upload their videos onto YouTube, where a panel of judges comprised of radio station employees will watch all the clips and whittle the nominees down to fifteen. After that, fan voting reduces the finalists to three. Coldplay will watch the final trio and decide which band wins. The prize: 20 minutes of stage time as Coldplay’s opening act, $2,000 and ten tickets to the concert. To enter the contest, check out Coldplay’s tour page.

[Photo: Getty]

Could Chris Martin be joining Lil Wayne in saving the music industry? One week after Weezy’s Tha Carter III sold 423,000 in its first day of sales on its way to a platinum debut, Coldplay’s Viva La Vida posted similarly big numbers Tuesday, selling 316,000 copies. Viva is expected to usurp TC3 as the SoundScan king next week on its way to expected sales in the 700-750,000 range. If Coldplay can hit that number, it will be the first time since 2005 that albums with sales over 700,000 topped the charts in consecutive weeks. 50 Cent’s The Massacre single-handedly last conquered that feat. Coldplay’s last album, X&Y, sold 737,000 in its debut week in 2005. Coldplay’s big Tuesday is the third-best since SoundScan launched their Building Chart last year, with only Kanye West and Lil Wayne faring better. Viva La Vida also broke the record for most iTunes downloads in a single day, previously held by Jack Johnson. To read Chris Martin’s journey in creating Viva La Vida, check out an excerpt from his Rolling Stone cover story below.

• The Rolling Stone Interview: Chris Martin

[Photo: Getty]

At last night’s free Coldplay show in London, frontman Chris Martin joked that his band’s song “God Put a Smile on Your Face” sounded an awful lot like Radiohead’s “2 + 2 = 5.” “Sorry, we shouldn’t be talking about plagirism,” he joked. “Ignore that!”

In fact, Coldplay has been chased by people accusing them of lifting liberally from Radiohead, something that Martin owns up to in the current issue of Rolling Stone. “Sometimes I feel like they cleared a path with a machete, and we came afterward and put up a strip mall,” he says. “I would still give my left ball to write anything as good as OK Computer.”

The line can certainly be drawn to a handful of their songs (especially from their first two albums), but can the same thing be said of their videos? Click below for Rock Daily’s investigation into Coldplay’s complete video library and just how much they’ve been influence by Radiohead’s visual output.

• The Complete Coldplay Video Guide

• Coldplay Showcase Viva La Vida at Free London Show

Did Coldplay steal the melody of their iPod commercial-fronting single “Viva La Vida” from a Brooklyn indie band? That’s what the Creaky Boards are alleging in a new YouTube clip. According to the band, “We were flattered when we thought we saw Chris Martin in the crowd” when the band performed at a CMJ showcase in October 2007. In the side-by-side comparison of the two tracks, the verses do seem a tad similar, though according to a Coldplay spokesperson, “Viva La Vida” was actually written and demoed in March 2007, well before Martin was supposed to have seen the Creaky Boards perform (Coldplay’s people also added that Martin was not in New York that weekend). Ironically enough, the name of the tune the band claims Martin nicked is “The Songs I Didn’t Write.” The Creaky Boards singer seems to be okay with it all, saying “I wish Coldplay the best of luck. If they ever want to collaborate, I’ve got some microphones we could use in my bedroom.”

Rolling Stone Associate Editor Brian Hiatt spent seven hours over the course of two days talking to Coldplay frontman Chris Martin for this issue’s cover story. Click above for how Bill O’Reilly inspired Martin and why he’s not bothered by the Coldplay diss in The 40-Year Old Virgin.

• The Jesus of Uncool — Chris Martin: The Rolling Stone Interview

Coldplay’s Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends stands to be one of the biggest albums of the year, and fittingly, frontman Chris Martin graces the cover of the new issue of Rolling Stone, which hits newsstands today. Martin is a rare, complicated rock star, reluctant to dwell too much in the spotlight but eager to put his fame and influence to good use. Click below for an excerpt from the interview with Martin, including how he thinks the election of Barack Obama would change the world, and also check out the gallery of live photos from Coldplay’s career.

• The Jesus of Uncool: Chris Martin — The Rolling Stone Interview

• Coldplay Live: Concert Photos From Throughout the Band’s Career

[Photo: Nadav Kander]