TICKETS for the Coldplay concerts at the Reebok stadium are selling out fast on the back of the band's hotly awaited new album.

Fans have been snapping up the remaining tickets for the two Summer Concerts at the Reebok on July 4 and 5 since the release of X&Y, the band's third album, last week.

Coldplay are the latest in a number of big name acts to perform at the stadium, following the likes of Elton John and Lulu.

Up to 500,000 copies of the new album are expected to be sold this week. If sales top 700,000 it will beat the record set by Manchester band Oasis in 1997 with their album Be Here Now. A spokesman for Reebok said: "Ticket sales are going well. We have almost sold out the first night and we have around 10,000 tickets left of the second concert.

"We have sold our allocation but the agencies still have tickets and we are trying to get more from them.

"When the album was released there was a surge on ticket sales."

Often billed as the next U2, Coldplay first emerged on to the music scene in 2000 with their debut album Parachutes. The follow-up, A Rush of the Blood to the Head, sold 11 million copies worldwide. And X&Y, the group's third album, is likely to give them the status of being Britain's biggest band of their generation.

Devon-born Chris Martin formed the band five years ago, meeting the rest of the band at university in London.

The band's Reebok dates form part of their world tour. And it is rumoured that Martin's Hollywood superstar wife Gwyneth Paltrow could be among the thousands of fans at one or even both concerts.The two met and married in Los Angeles and are now proud parents to one-year-old Apple.