Coldplay coldcocks the shareholders

A post at Hit and Run (pointedly titled Will the Next Album Feature Tiny Violins?) pointed to this brilliant examination of why rock musicians should sing rather than pontificate on economic issues:

Coldplay lead singer Chris Martin today launched an attack on his record label EMI and the company's shareholders.

It came after EMI, the world's third-largest music company, warned that profits would be lower because the band took longer than expected to finish their first studio album in three years.

How dare those cretins at head office criticize the genius of Chris Martin?

"I think shareholders are the great evil of this modern world."

Martin told reporters at Manhattan's Beacon Theatre that the band was uncomfortable that they sell so many albums they can affect a major corporation's stock price.

"It's very strange for us that we spent 18 months in the studio just trying to make songs that make us feel a certain way and then suddenly become part of this corporate machine," Martin said backstage.

He criticised what he called "the slavery that we are all under to shareholders".

If it makes Martin uncomfortable, just imagine being one of those poor shareholders!