It was sent this afternoon. Maybe check it didn't squirrel its way into your spam folder?

Or perhaps its delivery has been affected by the postal strike.

Have checked Fraser,not there alas,thanks anyway.
Just said a prayer to St Anthony and checked and lo and behold,there it was . Excellent

Jamie is a decent enough celebrity chef. He's done his bit for school kids and the national diet, showing a bit more care about food than some of the other pancake tosseurs. And I've done some of his recipes and found them to be be quite tasty.
Coldplay on the other hand are as enticing as a cold fried egg.

What were Elbow like?

Sounded exactly like the records did they? Had to use a telescope to see them did you? What were you expecting, shithead Martin to slash himself with glass? Jay Z to come on? Drive by shoot-outs?

..no band that's worth anything sounds "exactly" like the record.
Coldplay's problems start with their bloody awful, meaningless name, then escalate from there to their crap songs, bland image and useless lead singer, a man so wet, if the band replaced him with James Blunt, it would be an improvement.

I saw footage of them headlining a festival over here in Belgium and was immediately struck by the thought "They look and soung bored of themselves" Everything about all 4 of them was so utterly bereft of joy or enthusiasm that one had to think a good 13-14 year break would do them the world of good

Their albums wash over me - if one's on in the car I can't tell when one track ends and the next one starts.

Thing is, Viva la Vida is a good, quite affecting pop record on its own. Amongst the rest of the album it just gets lost. Are they really the same live?

Coldplay are - for me - quite clearly one of the best acts of the past few years and I just don't understand why people feel the need to knock them. I've been a fan ever since the first singles, and I'm amazed by the vitriol they've provoked among normally calm and reasonable people. Clearly the Massive are no exception here.

I get the fact that everyone likes what they like, and that's as it should be - it's the driving force behind this site apart from anything else. But what I don't understand is what people have against this band which leads the usually eloquent posters on this blog to descend into name-calling and knee-jerk grumpiness rather than providing a decent explanation. I suspect it's simply because they're popular, but maybe I'm being unfair.

Why do I like them? Because they make intelligent, life-affirming pop; because they can effortlessly knock out an anthem that sounds timeless; because they can unite huge crowds without resorting to beered-up laddishness; because they so clearly love what they are doing. No doubt all those reasons are ripe for criticism and are exactly what you'd expect of someone who only 'nearly likes' music. But come on, Word-people: if this IS the home of "intelligent life on planet rock" give me a reason for your hatred. Not just the hatred.

of drizzle.

...stems back to a 5-star review I once read of X&Y, which spent an entire paragraph taking Martin to task for his, frankly, rubbish lyrics. To my mind, if the lyrics are rubbish, you don't deserve five stars. A biased opinion, obviously, but there you are. Also, you can sing "Yellow" over almost any Coldplay song. : )

And we always reach the same conclusion: they're dull

They're the 2000s equivalent of Phil Collins, Sade, Dire Straits, Simply Red and every other boring rock band whose CD cases have filled the gloveboxes of sales reps' Vauxhalls over the past 20 years. Music for people who don't really care very much about music.

Not that there's anything wrong with that of course. No one has to care about music, you might just like a nice tune, so fair enough. But Coldplay are bland as hell.

...let's just say that Coldplay are a band whose greatest hits CD - when it's eventually released - is something I'd buy, but only after it's been around for a while and is in the sale for a fiver or less. There's just not enough substance there to want to pay more.

They've done a couple of likeable tunes that I'd be happy to hear again, but their sound is much too polite and simplistic. They lack the passion and vitality of 'proper' rock music, but at the same time they also have none of the glamorous panache or bare-faced spunk of classic pop. There's not even much of the tabloid-friendly 'personality' factor that has sustained the otherwise similarly mediocre Gallagher Brothers Band through their tune-free career. No offence to anybody who disagrees, but to me the 'Play are THE band for people who feel they ought to like *some* music but find most of it far too challenging and would rather look at a nice picture of a puppy, or a lovely new settee.