Coldplay delight fans on Italian TV

(ANSA) - Rome, November 14 - 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.