Coldplay will pause touring

"We're not touring this album," frontman Chris Martin told BBC News. "We're taking time over the next year or two, to work out how our tour can be sustainable as well as actively beneficial. We want our future tours to have a positive impact".

Coldplay will release their new album Everyday Life on Friday and, instead of spending months on the road, they are playing two gigs in Jordan, which will be broadcast, free, to a global audience on YouTube.

The concerts, will take place in Amman on Friday at sunrise and sunset respectively, mirroring the two "sides" of their new album. All proceeds from the show will be donated to an environmental charity.

"Our next tour will be the best possible version of a tour environmentally," Martin said. "We will be disappointed if it's not carbon neutral. The hardest thing is the flying side of things. But our dream is to have a show with no single use plastic, to have it largely solar powered."

The WWF – World Wide Fund for Nature - welcomed Coldplay's initiative. "It is fantastic to see world-famous artists stepping up to protect the planet. We all have a responsibility to lead by example in the face of this climate and nature crisis - inaction is not an option if we are to preserve our planet for future generations," said Gareth Redmond-King, the organization's head of climate change.

The UK band last travelled the world with their A Head Full of Dreams Tour, which saw them stage 122 shows across five continents in 2016 and 2017.

Staging a world tour isn't as simple as bunging Chris Martin and his bandmates in the back of a mini-van with a map and a year's supply of digestives. In fact, the band's last tour employed 109 crew, 32 trucks and 9 bus drivers, who travelled to 5 continents, playing to 5.4 million people at 122 concerts.

 There's no easy way to calculate the band's carbon footprint; but the music industry's most recent figures  suggest that live music generates 405,000 tons of greenhouse-gas emissions in the UK every year.

It's not just flights that cause the problem. Fans travelling to and from shows are the biggest source of pollution; but there's an environmental cost to producing merchandise, powering the spotlights and moving stages from venue to venue.

At the most extreme end of the scale, the ambitious "claw" structure that U2 took on the road in 2009 required 120 trucks to shift it around. According to one environmental group, the band generated the equivalent carbon footprint of a return flight to Mars. Since then, the industry has stepped up its efforts to become more sustainable.

Radiohead swapped spotlights for LEDs, which use a fraction of the power needed for a traditional lighting rig. The 1975 have stopped making new merchandise, and are donating £1 from every ticket sold to One Tree Planted, a non-profit organization that plants trees all over the world. And U2 have enacted a number of changes,  from recycling guitar strings to using hydrogen fuel cells.

Coldplay are going one step further. They don't just want to be carbon neutral, but to have tours that are "actively beneficial" to the planet. And by putting their concerts on hold, they're giving up a huge pay day: The Head Full of Dream tour made $523m.

The industry will be watching to see what solutions they come up with.

From BBC (edited)

Coldplay - Daddy (released Nov 20, 2019)

You can also watch the video by clicking on the Play Button

Coldplay - Fix you

How about filling in the blanks below while listening to the song?

When you try your ________, but you don't succeed
When you get what you want, but not what you _____

When you feel so tired, but you can't ______
Stuck in reverse

And the tears come streaming down your _______
When you _______ something you can't replace
When you love someone, but it ______ to waste
Could it be ________?

_________ will guide you home
________ ignite your bones
And I will ______to fix you

And high up above or _______ below
When you're too in love to _____ it go
But if you _______ try you'll ________ know
_______ what you're worth

_________ will guide you home
________ ignite your bones
And I will ______to fix you

You can also watch the Coldplay video by clicking on the Play Button below

The French victim of a work accident

• Part A – While reading, please fill in the blanks with words beginning with the given letter.

A French court ruled that a man w________ died from a heart attack after having sex with a woman he met on a business trip is a 'victim of a professional accident'. 

Xavier X, w_____ last name has not been d_____________, was an engineer working in the Loiret département in central France  on b___________.of his employer, TSO, a French railway construction company.

He m___________ a local woman on a night in February 2013  and .was found dead from a heart attack shortly after the pair had sex. 

French labor uthorities ruled that Xavier X  was the victim of an industrial accident and his employer is liable for damages.  Xavier's death should be classified as an 'accident du travail', which e___________ the victim's family to be awarded benefits from both the state and employer. 

As a result, any partners and children of Xavier’s will receive a monthly benefit of up to 80 per cent of his salary u___________.what would have been his retirement age.

Thereafter, TSO will have to contribute towards Xavier's pension.

Xavier's employer argued a___________ the decision but lost in every appeal. 

TSO, the company, a________ that it could not be held liable for the worker's death because his heart attack was unconnected to the job. It also added that the employee was not in the hotel room paid for by the company during the liaison and that the encounter was adulterous. 

French judges brushed aside these arguments and claimed that an employee travelling for work remains the employer's responsibility, r ________  of what the employee does on and off work hours.  

The ruling stretches back ten years when the French courts declared that any accident suffered by employees on work trips away f_______ their work headquarters amounts to an 'accident du travail'.

In 2017, a French company was held  liable for a travelling businessman who injured his hand at a disco in China. The court ruled that it did not m________  if it was 2 AM and the man was off duty.  

• Part B – Ask questions so as to get the underlined answers

1 - Xavier died from a heart attack .

2 - His employer will have to pay his dependents.  

3 - Any partners and children of Xavier’s will receive a monthly benefit of up to 80 per cent of his salary.

4 - No, they didn’t.  Xavier's employer lost in every appeal. 

5 - The company argued that his heart attack was unconnected to the job. 

6 - French judges brushed aside these arguments

7 - French judges claimed that an employee travelling for work remains the employer's responsibility,

8 - The ruling stretches back ten years. The courts declared that any accident suffered by employees who are away from their work headquarters amounts to an 'accident du travail'.

9 - The ruling remains in place only when the  employer can prove that the worker intentionally broke from their 'mission' for personal reasons

10 - In 2017, a French company businessman injured his hand at a disco in China. 

• Part C – Fill in the blanks with the following expressions

As well as - Due to - Even though – However -

 In spite of  - Otherwise - Since - Therefore -  Unless - Whereas

1 -  ________  Xavier X was a 'victim of a professional accident', a French court ruled that the company will have to pay his dependents.

2 - The company will have to pay Xavier X’s dependents ______________ the French court’s ruling.

3 - French labor courts claimed that Xavier X  was the victim of an industrial accident. . ____________ his employer is liable for damages

4 - _______________ the employee hurt his hand at a disco at 2 AM and the man was off duty, the company was liable for his injury.

5 - The employee hurt his hand at a disco at 2 AM and the man was off duty.. ________________ the company was liable for his injury.

6 -________  the employer can prove that Xavier intentionally broke from his 'mission' for personal reasons, the ruling remains in place. 

7 - Xavier X died ___________________ the man in China only injured his hand.

8- Xavier died ____________________ the emergency doctors immediate assistance

9 - French judges ruled that an employee travelling for work remains the employer's responsibility during on work hours ___________________ off work hours.  

10 -The family sued the company.  ______________ they wouldn’t have been granted the benefits.

From The Daily Mail (edited)