I'm not the biggest Coldplay fan. I've heard their music on the radio, and I like it. It's decent music, but, unlike many people, I don't think it's the best stuff ever. There was nothing there that made me say, "Hey, this is fresh stuff! I need a copy! I must go out and get this!" It sounded vaguely regurgitated to my jaded ears. And Martin's whiny, high-pitched vocals did nothing for me musically.
After reading this, I'm pretty damn glad I didn't contribute to Chris Martin's ever expanding ego.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - British rock band Coldplay played Manhattan on Tuesday to promote their highly anticipated new album and said they are uncomfortable that they sell so many albums they can move a major corporation's stock price.EMI Group Plc, the world's third-largest music company and owner of Coldplay's label Capitol, warned in February that profits would be lower because the band took longer than expected to finish their first studio album in three years.
This I can understand. The fate of a record company resting on your shoulders would not be an easy thing to deal with...or so we'd think, if we were assuming that Coldplay was actually, you know, a humble entity.
This does not appear to be the case.
{...}But lead singer and charismatic frontman Chris Martin said in an interview, "I don't really care about EMI. I'm not really concerned about that.""I think shareholders are the great evil of this modern world," Martin told Reuters before a concert at Manhattan's Beacon Theatre.
But however uncomfortable Martin is with what he called "the slavery that we are all under to shareholders," the reception to Coldplay's third studio album will be closely watched by EMI shareholders.{...}
Oh, it's slavery, is it? Shareholders are the "great evil of this modern world."
{...}Still, for all the corporate involvement in the band of four friends who met in university, Martin said it was all worth it, since it gave them artistic freedom and the ability to talk about subjects dear to them such as fair trade, or paying fair prices for products such as coffee and cotton from developing nations.On Monday, the band recorded an episode of VH1's "Storyteller" show and told the audience there, "Deadlines mean nothing to us. We'll sink the whole company (EMI) if we have to," Billboard reported.
Hmmph. Someone's got a wee bit of a head on them, haven't they?
In this day and age of program trading---where missing projected numbers by a hundredth of a percentage point can cause the NYSE to go down fifty points in the blink of an eye---one would sincerely hope that the brokerage houses have factored Martin's mouth into their programs.
Furthermore, it'd be pretty nice if everyone who held EMI stock would tell Martin to bugger off, and to not bite the hand that keeps him and Gwyneth in expensive soy-based products (he's a vegetarian, don't you know) by dumping said stock. You know, sort of like these guys. Only without the violence.
Posted by Kathy at May 18, 2005 10:34 AM