Coldplay. Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends.
"Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends" was along waited album and as usual, Coldplay didn't disappoint. One would wonder what those guys could deliver after such an out-of-this-world album; "X & Y". however, their talent never ceases to amaze. The album starts with an amazing instrumental track ''Life In Techicolor'' followed by ''Cemeteries of London'', you get the feeling that it's a visualization of London's earlier life, also the reference to ghosts, witches sends the feeling of being inspired by English novels. ''Lost'', there are four different versions for this song (Lost?, Lost+, Lost-, Lost@), it's kind of a dark song, and some say it's a sequence to ''Everything's not lost''. However, as Chris Martin himself assures, it's a song for ''a lament about spiritual bereftness''. ''42'' is an interesting song as it's considered to be the first Coldplay song not to have a chorus. However, the title of the song is mysterious; it could be a reference to the runtime of the entire album (42 minutes). ''Lovers, keep on the road you're on. Runners, until the race is run, Soldiers, you've got to soldier on, Sometimes even right is wrong'' need I say more? ''Lovers in Japan'' is undoubtedly one of the band's best works, it's one of the joyful moments on the disc, and it also contains a hidden track ''Reign of Love''. ''Yes'', one of the surprises of the album; something unexpected to hear from Marin, yet, his lower register is very admirable. It also contains a hidden track ''Chinese sleeping chant''. The reason for having hidden tracks not included on the album track list might be the band's will to have a ''two in one'' idea, which clearly appears in the title of album ''Viva La Vida/Death and All His Friends''. ''Viva La Vida'', song of the decade? Yes! No surprise that it won The Grammy Awards for Song of the Year in 2009. Although ''Viva La Vida'' clearly contains religious and historical references, still there are a lot of interpretations for the song. The band didn't confirm that it's a reference to the French Revolution. The title of the song is inspired by a Mexican artist Frida Khalo, the Spanish title is interpreted into ''Long Live Life''. It also won ''Best Pop Performance by a Due or a Group'' at the 2009 Grammy Awards. ''Violet Hill'', is the lead single of the album and it was downloaded more than two million times from the band's website. When first listening to ''Violet Hill'', you know you're in for a different Coldplay type. "Strawberry Swing" definitely on of the best songs on the album; it has the feelings of how music should be. ''Death and All His Friends'', what a song to finish such a great album, it's one of the best songs on the album which has a very sublime message ''Never to give up or give much attention to the bad stuff''. It also contains a hidden track ''The Escapist''.
In general, "Viva La Vida/Death and All His Friends" is one of my all time favorite albums, once again this group proves their ability to produce something special and quite different from its predecessors. However, compared to its previous release "X & Y" –my own personal favorite album of all time- "Viva La Vida" is regarded as a failure at imagination, yet, the interesting facts about the album makes it one of the best albums ever made in the history of music. Exaggerating? Well, it won Best Rock album at Grammy Awards in 2009, the album has sold over 8 million copies around the world, it is the best selling album of 2008.
Life According to Coldplay!
Pick Your Artist:
Coldplay.
Are You Male or Female?
The Scientist.
Describe Yourself:
Easy To Please.
How Do You Feel?
No more keeping my foot on the ground.
Describe Where You Currently Live:
Violet Hill.
If You Could Go Anywhere, Where Would You Go?
Amesterdam.
Your Favourite Form Of Transportation:
Parachutes.
Your Best Friend:
Moses.
Your Favourite Colour Is:
YELLOW.
What's The Weather Like?
Rainy Day.
Favourite Time Of Day:
Daylight.
If Your Life Was A TV Show, What Would It Be Called?
X & Y.
What Is Life For You?
Viva la Vida :P
Your Relationships:
Only superstition :D
Looking For:
Green Eyes ;)
Have:
Strawberry Swing.
Wouldn't Mind:
High Speed.
Your Fear:
Trouble.
100 Facts about Coldplay!
1.There are 5 different versions of the song, "Lost!". "Lost+", "Lost@", "Lost?", "Lost-" and "Lost!".
2.During a concert in Australia on the Viva La Vida tour, lead singer Chris Martin ripped his pants live onstage.
3.The first official Coldplay song is called, "Ode to Deodorant". It was written as a joke.
4.In 2008, a group of female fans commented on the way Chris Martin' voice sounded on a video posted on Youtube of the song, "Gravity". The long list of comments ended with a unanimous decision that his voice, "Flows like honey".
5.Chris Martin' father is an accountant.
6.The great, great grandfather of Chris Martin was the same man who convinced English Parliament to introduce daylight savings.
7.Coldplay borrowed their band name from another band, who didn't want it anymore because they found it too depressing.
8.Coldplay might have been called, "Starfish" or "Stephanie Green"
9.The first ever Coldplay recordings took place in 1998, culminating in the EP, "Safety".
10.Only 500 copies of this were ever produced.
11.Nowdays, the "Safety" EP sells for prices ranging from, 80 to 300 dollars.
12.Coldplay originally signed to a small record label called, "Fierce Panda".
13.Once Coldplay had signed to EMI records, they began to produce their 3rd EP, "The Blue Room".
14.During these recordings, drummer Will Champion walked out on the band for a week.
15.Chris Martin, a non-drinker, responded by becoming highly intoxicated.
16.Coldplay created a rule for themselves that states, "Any member of the band caught using hard drugs will be dismissed immediately".
17.The first hit single from Coldplay was the song, "Shiver", making it to #35 in the charts.
18.The film clip to the song, "Yellow" is not what it is meant to be. The rain restricted recording and so the music video was filmed in just 20 minutes.
19.Chris Martin, while writing "Yellow", noticed the phonebook, "The Yellow Pages" and decided that the word,"Yellow" fit nicely.
20.Coldplay' debut album was originally going to be named, "Don't Panic" and then, "Yellow.
21.However, they changed this to, "Parachutes" in order to combat the reputation that they were depressing. They used a parachute as a metaphor, as in when you are falling, a parachute brings you gently back down.
22.In it's first 6 months, "Parachutes" had sold 1.6 million copies in England alone. With 5 million sold worldwide. EMI had predicted just forty thousand.
23.The Coca - Cola company asked Coldplay if they could use the song, "Trouble" in a TV advertisement for Diet Coke.
24.The company that makes Gatorade reportedly offered Coldplay 9 Million dollars to use the song "Yellow" in one of their commercials.
25.Coldplay rejected both offers.
26.In 1999, Chris Martin began writing the song, "In My Place". That song was then dusted off and became the first single off the 2002 album, "A Rush of Blood to the Head".
27.While Chris Martin was recording the vocals for, "In My Place", a man named, Ian Mccullough from the band, 'Echo and the Bunnymen", was sitting on a stool next to him.
28.He was drinking red wine.
29.Coldplay' third album, "X&Y", sold over 8.1 Million copies in its first year.
30.Chris Martin says that he wrote the song, "Speed of Sound", in an attempt to capture all his feelings from the birth of his daughter, Apple.
31.The song, "Fix You" was written as a present to Chris Martin' wife after the death of her father.
32.It is her fathers keyboard that can be heard in the original recording.
33.Coldplay were once called, "The most insufferable band of the decade", in an article from The New York Times.
34.Coldplay have a private recording studio at their band headquarters called, "The Bakery"
35.The title of Coldplay' fourth studio album, "Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends", was adapted from a painting by a Mexican artist by the name of Frida Kahlo.
36.The painting was a still life of 7 watermelons.
37.The artwork for the album was taken from a painting by 19th century artist, Eugene Delacroix. The painting was called, "Liberty Leading the People".
38.Coldplay refer to their first three albums, "Parachutes", "A Rush of Blood to the Head" and "X&Y" as a trilogy.
39.The first single from the album, "Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends" was "Violet Hill".
40.The song, "Violet Hill" was given away for free for one week. It was downloaded more than 2 Million times.
41.By June the 30th, "Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends" was the most downloaded album in history.
42.During Coldplay', "Viva La Vida" tour a regular feature from their website was a tour blog, written by one of the roadies. This person went only by the name of, "Roadie #42", no doubt a reference to the Coldplay song, "42".
43.For their "Viva La Vida" tour, Coldplay' bass guitarist Guy Berryman made all the clothing.
44.Chris Martin has referred to Coldplays guitarist, Jonny Buckland, as his, "Guitar Hero".
45.There are two official music videos for the song, "Viva La Vida".
46.There are also two official music videos for, "Violet Hill".
47.Chris Martin is close friends with actor Simon Pegg
48.Coldplay claim to have fifth member, Phil Harvey. Nicknamed, "The elusive 5th member", Phil Harvey is never seen, even in photographs of him, another member of the band is always covering his face.
49.For the music video to the song, "The Scientist", Chris Martin had to learn to sing the song backwards.
50.The inside cover for the album, "Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends", states that the album was, "Recorded in a bakery, a nunnery, a magic shop, a church".
51.The inside cover for the album, "A Rush of Blood to The Head", states that, 'The Scientist is Dan".
52.During Coldplay' tour to promote their album, "A Rush of Blood to The Head", a roadie by the name of Matt McGinn performed additional guitar during the songs, "Yellow" and "The Scientist".
53.Matt McGinn also wrote a book about his experiences on the road with Coldplay.
54.Three Coldplay songs have been parodied by MADTV. "The Scientist", "Viva La Vida" and "Speed of Sound" were performed on the show as, "The Narcissist", "Viva La Cheata" and "I'm the Most Important Part of Coldplay" respectively.
55.Coldplay released a small side album, "LeftRightLeftRightLeft" as part of a promotion to their, "Viva La Vida" tour. The 9-Track live compilation featured recordings of songs from the tour. It was put up free for download from Coldplay.com and a hard copy was also given away free at concerts for most of the tour.
56.The music video for the song, "The Hardest Part", uses a clip from a short-lived 80s program "Attitudes" on the Lifetime network, and has the band digitally inserted. The band plays beside a stage where an 84 year old woman, with the aid of a 25 year old man, performs incredible feats of athleticism, gymnastics and flexibility despite her age.
57.The song, "Don't Panic", was originally released on "The Blue Room" EP. However there are many differences between that version of the song and the version released on the album, "Parachutes".
58.The 13th of January is known amongst Coldplay fans as St.Odes day. It is to commemorate the the 13th of January, 2006, where a fan, who had purchased an original , "Ode to Deodorant" demo tape from Ebay, 'leaked' the song onto the Internet.
59.The song, "How You See The World", is only available in Japan. However a second version fo the song, "How You See The World No.2", was recorded with re-written lyrics for the charity album, "Help: A Day in The Life".
60.The blocks from the cover art for the album, "X&Y", are the Baudot Code-encoding. A 5 bit alphanumerical code used by telegraphs.
61.Due to an error, the cover of the album does not translate from Baudot Code as "X&Y", but rather "X96".
62.At the conclusion of the final concert on the, "Viva La Vida" tour, the section of Coldplay' official website that listed upcoming show dates was wiped clean and replaced with the words, "Hasta La Vista".
63.In 2003, the song, "Clocks" was used in a trailer for the film, "Peter Pan". The song did not actually feature in the film however.
64.There are three unofficial collections of Coldplay music. "Castles", "A Rush of B-sides to Your Head" and "After After Before".
65.In 2001 Coldplay released a 2-Track Christmas album entitled, "Mince Spies". Only 1000 copies were ever produced.
66."Mince Spies" was given away to members of the Coldplay fan club previous to the release of, "Parachutes".
67.For the music video to the song, "Life in Technicolor ii", four puppets were made in the shape of the four members of Coldplay.
68.During the, "Viva La Vida" tour, these four puppets were photographed at various tourist attractions and random places in the city or area that the band was currently performing in.
69.Chirs Martin plays a role in the popular film, "Shaun of the Dead" as both a zombie wearing a yellow cap and himself.
70.Jonny Buckland also appears in the film as himself.
71.Before one of their live performances on the, "Viva La Vida" tour, the band were provided with a Beef Stroganoff for their dinner. However, because Chris Martin is a vegetarian, he had to be catered for seperatley.
72.Coldplay have released 20 singles.
73.At the 2005 MTV European Music Awards, a backstage sketch featured Borat stealing Chris Martin' trousers and giving them to a little boy.
74.In the "Twisted Logic" tour, during the song, "Talk", Chris Martin would take the mobile phone of an audience member and sing to the person on the other end of the line.
75.On the live version of, "Clocks" featured on the album, "LeftRightLeftRightLeft", Chris Martin sings the numbers 1 - 4 in spanish. I.E - "uno, dos, tres, cuatro".
76.The, "Live 2003" DVD was filmed at the Horden Pavilion in Sydney, Australia on July 21 and 22, 2003.
77.During the, "Rush of Blood to The Head" tour, Jonny Buckland played the harmonica during the performance of, "Don't Panic".
78.Jonny Buckland also then threw his harmonica into the crowd at the conclusion of the song.
79.An acoustic recording of the song, "Lovers in Japan", was given away exclusivley to those who had pre-ordered the album, "Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends" via iTunes.
80.Just before the band took to the stage during the, "Viva La Vida" tour, the instrumental song, "The Blue Danube" by Strauss is played. For those of you who don't know, thats the song that goes like, "Duh Duh Duh Duh Duh, ne ne, ne ne, Duh Duh Duh Duh Duh, ne ne, ne ne" - Yeah it's best just tolook it up youtube it.
81.In an interview with Rolling Stone magazine, Chris Martin commented on the common, anti-coldplay statement, "You know how I know you're gay? You listen to Coldplay". The singer said that he would be offended if Coldplay' music only appealed to one demographic of people.
82.The song, "Clocks" was only added to the album, "A Rush of Blood to The Head" at the last minute.
83.Coldplay have dedicated the album, "Parachutes" to Sara Champion. Sara is the deceased mother of drummer, William Champion.
84.In an interview on Rove Live, Chris Martin described William Champion as, "The sporty one".
85.The album cover for, "Parachutes" is a photograph of a globe that was personally taken by the band with a disposable Kodak camera.
86.The same globe featured in the music videos for, "Shiver" and "Don't Panic".
87.During 2006 a new album for the, "Rockabye Baby!" series was released. It was titled, "Lullaby Renditions of Coldplay" and featured lullaby versions of songs such as, "Clocks" and "Yellow".
88.Before Coldplay, guitarist Jonny Buckland and singer Chris Martin created a group together called, "Pectoralz"
89.The hidden track, "The escapist" from the album, "Viva La Vaida or death and All His Friends" was origonally set to be included as a track in it's own right and named, "Song for the Escapist".
90.Coldplay currently have 5 unreleased songs.
91.Despite being named, "Don't Panic", the actual words, "Don't Panic" do not appear in the song.
92."Viva La Vida" and "The Scientist" also fit into this category.
93.Coldplay give 15% of all band profits to charity.
94.In July 2003, Chris Martin was arrested in Australia for attacking a photogropher in the street.
95.Coldplay's sound engineer, Dan Green, shares a writing credit on the song, "A Spell A Rebel Yell"
96.In December 2003, readers of Rolling Stone magazine chose Coldplay as both best artist and the best band of the year.
97.To kick off their, "Viva La Vida" tour, Coldplay played a small, free show outside the BBC Television Centre.
98.Chris Martin made a guest appearance during season 2 of, "The Extras"
99.Coldplay have 99 official, studio recorded, songs including B-Sides and unreleased songs.
100.Joseph Blay' favourite Coldplay song of all time is, "The Hardest Part".
COLDPLAY
