Will Call Winner: Coldplay at the Forum

It's rather a strange crop here at Will Call this week.

First, there was the announcement that the recently reunited New Kids on the Block would be coming to Staples Center on Oct. 8. Yes, you heard that right — the 20,000-seat Staples Center. With all due respect to their multiplatinum sales in the late '80s and pre-Nirvana '90s, this is a group of guys who were so ashamed of their original formula that they switched their name to the back-to-the-drawing-board acronym NKOTB in 1993. Well, what was obvious then is even more obvious now: Boy bands don't age well! Yet after 15 years on the shelf, the reunited Kids think they're popular enough to fill the Lakers' living room? Tickets go on sale Monday, so I suppose we'll find out soon enough.

Next up, Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band: They announced a show for Aug. 2 at the Greek Theatre. Now, Ringo's a Beatle and can do no wrong as far as I and a lot of people are concerned, and I'm sure he'll have no problem when tickets go on sale Sunday. But his All-Starr Band — Colin Hay from Men at Work, Billy Squier of "The Stroke" fame, Average White Band's Hamish Stuart, that freakishly pale proponent of the keytar Edgar Winter, the "Dream Weaver" Gary Wright and drummer Gregg Bissonette — is a pretty funny hodgepodge of different eras and genres. Who put the lineup together? JackFM?

Then there's Bonnie Tyler, who should escape from karaoke purgatory in time to appear at the Canyon Club on Sept. 24 (tickets on sale now). Watch this to understand just how strange and over-the-top this female answer to Meatloaf really is.

Aside from the obvious, there was some straightforward and infinitely more current news: The Jack White-Brendan Benson bonanza the Raconteurs will appear with the Kills at the Greek Theatre on Sept. 22 (tickets Saturday); those Afropop-flavored indie rockers Vampire Weekend have added a second show at the Wiltern, on Sept. 18 (tickets on sale now); Dim Mak's dance rock impresario Steve Aoki will head the Elements of Life Benefit at the Roxy on Monday (on sale now); Supreme Beings of Leisure will bring their lounge-y trip-hop to the Viper Room on July 10 (on sale now); and Amy-Winehouse-lite singer Duffy will be visiting the El Rey Theatre on June 19 (on sale now).

So who's the winner? That'd be Coldplay, who'll appear at the Forum on July 15. The foursome has a new Brian Eno co-produced album, "Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends," coming out June 17, but as far as I'm concerned, you can blame it all on "A Rush of Blood to the Head." Tickets go on sale Saturday for that one.

-- Liam Gowing

Photo of Coldplay courtesy of MTV