"Before we went away I packed my big parka jacket, hats, gloves, long johns, all sorts of good stuff. There's all this winter clothes in my bag and it makes me laugh everytime I open my suitcase because I'm in Australia," Coldplay bassist Guy Berryman told ChartAttack in a trans-Pacific late night phone call. With the time difference close to 20 hours, he was celebrating the warm glow of the morning sun while we prepared to go out for the evening.

The quartet is making their North American debut in Vancouver, BC at a sold-out gig Thursday, Feb. 8 at the Commodore Ballroom. They also leave North America via Canada with their sold-out show at the Warehouse in Toronto on Feb. 20. With a month of holidays under their belt and a "warm-up" tour of Australia completed, they've set their sights on conquering North America. "We had a nice holiday with a month off. All the work, press and promo was getting a bit much for us," Berryman says. "We weren't enjoying this very much, so what's the point in doing it? We're not making any music anymore. We're just playing these songs and doing stuff we don't like. It's nice to have time off to be with our families. I feel pretty good now. Australia is a pretty amazing place. The crowds are amazing. It's nicer now that we've recharged ourselves."

While the majority of U.K. acts arrive in North America and have to start their careers almost over, Coldplay have skipped that step known as touring to half capacity crowds and driving around the country in a van. They've gone straight to tour buses and large venues. "It's quite strange the fact that we are coming over to these places and people know who we are. That's the power of media."

Balancing overexposure in the U.K. and a burgeoning fame in North America that included television network ABC using their smash hit "Yellow" as their theme tune has been mildly overwhelming. Coldplay seem to be honest enough not to want to keep milking their debut Parachutes to the point where we're sick of them. "What I never want to do is see us go onstage and not really look forward to playing these songs half-heartily. I never want to see that. As long as we're getting up there and playing them with conviction then we'll keep on doing it." Plans are already underway to bring the group back for another North American tour, possibly in May.

That would probably suit Berryman just fine, as he has no qualms about the touring lifestyle. He's got very little tying him down back home, he says, "Unless I was in a band I probably wouldn't see half these places I've been to already. We just come out here and do our thing. It's not like we're enjoying some kind of rock 'n' roll life style that every kid dreams about. It's pretty hard work."

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