Coldplay has agreed to pay a seven-figure sum to their former manager, Dave Holmes, in order to prevent private details being revealed in court. The band had been sued by Holmes, who had managed the group for 22 years before parting ways with them in 2022 over a contractual dispute. Holmes claimed that he had helped to organise recording sessions, samples, and string arrangements for the band’s unreleased tenth and eleventh albums, and that he was owed £10 million in unpaid commission. In October, Coldplay countersued Holmes, alleging that he owed them damages of over £14 million and had taken out two loans from Live Nation without their knowledge.
Coldplay denied Holmes’ claim “in its entirety,” with their counterclaim saying that they did not extend his management agreement “following a period of increasing concern regarding Mr Holmes’ conduct.” It added that negotiations over a new contract for their forthcoming albums broke down. Holmes allegedly lost control of the budget for their ‘Music Of The Spheres’ world tour and overspent by £17.5 million. Coldplay is now managed by a team led by Phil Harvey.
Celebrating their record-breaking fifth occasion topping the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury Festival on the weekend, Chris Martin and the band freestyled verses about the fans who showed up on the jumbotron. During their encore, Martin and co. celebrated Glastonbury founder Michael Eavis, and legendary actor Michael J. Fox, who joined them to play guitar on ‘Humankind’ and ‘Fix You’. The band was also joined by numerous special guests, including Victoria Canal, who helped sing ‘Paradise,’ Little Simz, who came out to perform an unreleased new song ‘We Pray,’ which features Burna Boy, and Elyanna, who helped with backing vocals on ‘We Pray.’ Femi Kuti, who had performed on the Pyramid Stage earlier that day, performed with Chris Martin and Elyanna to perform ‘Arabesque.’ Laura Mvula also came out to lead a choir in singing ‘Violet Hill’ later on.
While NME’s four-star review of their Glastonbury set praised Martin’s words about the festival, “‘I look around and I see so many amazing wonderful people from all over the place, and that’s what makes Glastonbury the best city in the world in my opinion,’ he offers, honouring ‘the most peace-loving, love-making people’ that make up the Glasto populace. He admits that Coldplay have ‘stolen so much of the ethos of Glastonbury’s vision,’ and as a result they become ‘a band of 100,004 people’,” less impressed fans took to social media to question Martin’s apparent accent change during the performance
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