Coldplay irked by corporate pressures

British rock band Coldplay played Manhattan yesterday to promote their highly anticipated new album and said they are uncomfortable that they sell so many albums they can move a major corporation's stock price.

EMI, the world's third-largest music company and owner of Coldplay's label Capitol, warned in February that profits would be lower because the band took longer than expected to finish their first studio album in three years.

But lead singer Chris Martin said in an interview, "I don't really care about EMI. I'm not really concerned about that."

"I think shareholders are the great evil of this modern world," Martin told Reuters before a concert at Manhattan's Beacon Theatre.

But however uncomfortable Martin is with what he called "the slavery that we are all under to shareholders," the reception to Coldplay's third studio album will be closely watched by EMI shareholders.

The band was formed in 1998 and hit big in the United States in 2002 with the release of A Rush of Cold Blood to the Head.

Having sold 20 million albums worldwide to date, their June 7 album release and subsequent two-month tour of North America in August and September will play a large role in determining EMI's corporate profits.

Martin said the album was delayed because their first eight months of recording sessions produced songs that lacked the "spark" of such earlier hits as Yellow, Clocks and The Scientist.

- REUTERS