Viva Coldplay by Martin Roach, serial biographer, is one of those books that come with the warning subtitle: 'a biography'. Books with that subtitle tend to be quickly written (this one is a revised version of a book that went before, Nobody Said It Was Easy), shallow texts dedicated solely to the more famous events in a celebrity's life and come with sometimes nauseating sycophantic praise for the celebrity being covered (I read one about J.K. Rowling that followed this template to the letter and was a complete waste of my time).
For anyone who is unaware, Coldplay is a British band that formed in 1996 or thereabouts. They went on to storm the charts and crack America with a series of successful albums and singles. I've heard quite a few of their songs as they were hard to miss during the late 90s, so I do at least have some knowledge of the songs. This book goes into detail about how each new single and album was instrumental to their overall success (repeat as needed until you put down the book).
While the book does seem very well researched (there are a lot of detailed anecdotes and quotes attributed to the band), the writing verges on the sycophantic a lot and this can make it difficult to read (at least, without making me reach for my revolver). It's obvious that the man is a fan, and it shows far too much. This makes it feel like the band can do no wrong in the author's eyes. Don't get me wrong, it's nice to see a clean-living band but sometimes you want scandal; it makes things more interesting.
The book was definitely interesting at times and I did find myself learning a lot more about the band (well, more about Chris Martin than the band - they remain very much in the background throughout). However I do feel that those times didn't come often enough.
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