Coldplay

It's become fashionable for so-called music fans to dislike Coldplay. I personally find a lot of their music too melancholic for my taste. On the other hand Pam loves their haunting melodies.

There is no denying the group have a huge following: for example 500,000 fans in the UK have bought their latest album 'Viva La Vida' in the last fortnight. Added to which, they have claimed the ultra-rare honour of scoring a No1 in the single and album charts on both sides of the Atlantic putting them alongside musical greats including The Beatles in terms of transatlantic success. It’s only the second time Coldplay have made the Top 10 of the singles chart in the US and the first by a British group since The Spice Girls 11 years ago.

The last British act to achieve the “double double” was Rod Stewart in 1971 with the single 'Maggie May' and album 'Every Picture Tells A Story'.

Where Coldplay have succeeded is by using the power of the Internet to help boost their sales. 'Viva La Vida' had the largest pre-order on iTunes and has achieved a record number of downloads already. Add to this the sales of physical copies of the album, means that the band’s fastest-selling album to date has already been certified double platinum which is remarkable when you consider that, eight years ago Coldplay were the warm-up act for Ocean Colour Scene.

Coldplay are now No1 in 14 countries around the world, including Australia, Japan, Korea, Germany and Israel.

So love them or hate them you can't deny their success.