If Coldplay haven't achieved world domination by 2010, it sure won't be for lack of trying. By year's end, they'll have played every mid-to-major U.S. market at least twice, in many cases to crowds that have doubled, and they'll have done so with a handful of tunes that have sold millions. (See a photo gallery of the show here).

Although Coldplay and Slipknot share a love of despairing album titles (Coldplay's Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends and Slipknot's All Hope Is Gone) and a fondness for costumes (see Coldplay's "Violet Hill"), we never expected to write a single story that contained both these bands.

Oh, Chris Martin. One would think, given Joe Satriani's recent plagiarism accusations directed at Coldplay, that you'd try to keep your mouth shut about the artists you've "drawn inspiration from."

In a slightly sketchy part of north London, a cockney blonde whom we'll call Myrtle smokes a cigarette in the driveway of the plain white-fronted former bakery that serves as recording studio, office, and grown-up clubhouse for the members of one of the worlds' biggest bands, Coldplay. Myrtle says she works at the office next door, and when asked if the guys are good neighbors, she hedges.