Coldplay gear up for an eventful summer starting June 17 with the international release of their latest album Viva La Vida. Anticipation for the new album, produced by Brian Eno and Markus Dravs, has been so high it has already spurred two top 40 singles in America.
“Violet Hill,” debuted and peaked at number 40 on the Billboard chart, and title track “Viva la Vida”, which also debuted the same week, sits comfortable at number 2 (at press time), a career high for the band. This chart placing bests the performance of previous chart peak of “Speed of Sound” at number 8 back in 2005.
To celebrate the arrival of their fourth studio album the band will play a couple of free concerts in London (June 16 at the Brixton Academy) and New York City (June 23 at Madison Square Garden). Tickets to these shows were given away via a contest held on the band’s website earlier in the year.
Viva La Vida North American Tour
Coldplay plan a North American tour to promote Viva la Vida, which should also feature tracks from their three previous best-selling albums Parachutes (2000), A Rush of Blood to the Head (2002) and X&Y (2005). The tour kicks off in Los Angeles with two sold-out shows at The Forum on July 14 and 15 and stretches well into the fall with their final date on November 26 in Phoenix, Arizona.
The band will play four Canadian dates during their tour starting with the Pemberton Festival in Pemberton, BC on July 27 before playing Montreal’s Bell Centre on July 29 and Toronto’s Air Canada Centre the next night. The band then returns to play their final date in Canada on October 20 at Ottawa’s Scotiabank Place.
Coldplay on TV
Fans of the band unable to get tickets to their concerts can catch a glimpse of Coldplay via a series of televised interviews and profiles. On June 26 MuchMoreMusic will rebroadcast the profile they originally aired on June 12. On June 16 MusiquePlus offers a Coldplay Special as does eTalk on CTV and its French Language equivalent Flash on TQS. American audiences can catch the band in interview on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart on June 26 and on the TODAY Show the next morning.
Viva La Vida is the highly anticipated follow up to 2005’s X&Y which debuted at number 1 in 32 countries and has sold 10 million copies worldwide to date according to their label, EMI.
