Coldplaigarism

After the claims that Coldplay might have borrowed one of the songs on their new album, former Macca PR bloke turned Coldplay spokesperson Murray Chalmers issued a strident denial:

"We totally refute their claims, and there are two facts that make it easy to disprove them," said the band's spokesman Murray Chalmers. "First, on the night in October when the band say Chris Martin was watching them, he was actually working at the Air Studio in London, and we can prove that. Second, even if he had been at the gig, "Viva la Vida" was written and demoed seven months before the night in question, so it couldn't possibly have been copied."

It's a terrible thing to be accused of, plaigarism, isn't it... oh, hang on, though, what's this The Times has noticed in an interview for Borders?:

But Martin hasn't done himself any favours with this promotional interview for the album in which he admits that Coldplay are "the world's worst—but most enthusiastic—plagiarists as a band".

It's curious to delight in your own musical 'borrowing' only to throw a massive strop when someone else accuses you of the same thing; perhaps it's just the band can't bear to be thought of stealing off people like Creaky Boards.

"Close to retail"

It's been an interesting experiment - except when the website crashed. According to the band's spokesperson, people aren't taking the piss when ordering the new Radiohead album at the 'name your price' site:

"Although the idea is that you can decide what you want to pay, most people are deciding on a normal retail price with very few trying to buy it for a penny."

Murray Chalmers - for it is he - doesn't say if he means "retail" as in "new release in an independent high street shop" or "back catalogue in a dump bin in Tesco" sense, which offers something of a spread for how much people are offering.