Fans of the British band
Coldplay began lining up on Sunday morning in front of Milan's
RAI television studios for selfies and autographs with the
band's founding members Chris Martin and Jonny Buckland, who
appeared on Fabio Fazio's RAI 3 evening talk show 'Che Tempo Che
Fa'.
Even Italian President Matteo Renzi - also a show guest on
Sunday - watched the band from behind the scenes as they
performed three tracks from their seventh studio album 'A Head
Full of Dreams'.
Martin told Fazio that the album's message is one of
optimism.
"Everyone has problems, and this album is our perspective
for solving them," Martin said.
The duo first performed 'Everglow', the most recently
released single in Italy, which features Martin's ex-wife
Gwyneth Paltrow with backing vocals at one point in the song.
Martin jokingly revealed how a clip of US President Barack
Obama singing the gospel hymn 'Amazing Grace' ended up on the
album's track 'Kaleidoscope'.
"We told him, 'Listen, in November you'll be out of work -
if you come with us we'll let you sing'".
The clip is actually from the eulogy Obama gave at the
funeral for Reverend Clementa C. Pickney, who was killed during
the church shooting in Charleston, South Carolina in June 2015.
Martin told Fazio he and Buckland met during their first
week as students at University College London, and composed
their first song together in Jonny's bedroom, which Martin
quipped "was as big as this desk".
The duo performed their single 'Hymn for the Weekend',
which went five times platinum in Italy, and concluded with 'Up
and Up'.
Their latest album has been among Italy's top 20 best
sellers since it was released last December, and is currently in
the top 10.
The album fueled a race to buy tickets for two concerts
coming next year on July 3 and 4 at Milan's San Siro stadium.
Tickets sold out after just a few hours, which led the
Italian Antitrust Authority to open an investigation into
possible online scalping operations.
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