Coldplay celebrated the release of their debut album ‘PARACHUTES’ yesterday by appearing at LONDON OXFORD CIRCUS HMV.
A capacity crowd of 700 turned up to hear the band play a set of seven songs after the store closed. The set comprised ‘Spies’, ‘Don’t Panic’, ‘Bigger, Stronger’, ‘Shiver’, ‘Trouble’, ‘Yellow’ and ‘Everything’s Not Lost’. All the songs appear on ‘Parachutes’, with the exception of ‘Bigger, Stronger’ from their debut Parlophone release ‘The Blue Room EP’. The band only played the track after fans shouted requests.
The set was broadcast live on Xfm and webcast on [url=]www.hmv.co.uk.
After playing, Coldplay then signed copies of their album for everyone present and were at the store until 11.30pm.
This morning, HMV spokesperson Simon Winter told nme.com: “We do a lot of these but it was one of the best I’ve ever seen. We were absolutely up to our limit capacity-wise, and I had to turn fans around outside. It was really, really successful.”
Winter also said ‘Parachutes’ was already outselling its competitors. He said: “Almost everybody there last night bought a copy of the album and sales today indicate they’ll be number one by a long shot. I’d imagine they’ll sell about 60,000 copies this week.”
Coldplay successful appearance was in stark contrast to last Friday’s (July 7) Artful Dodger signing appearance at the same store. One witness told nme.com that of the four people who showed up, two had only arrived to see Craig David and were disappointed when they discovered the garage crooner was not to appear.
“The staff had to put their coats on to make it look as if they were in the queue getting their CDs signed,” said the onlooker.