Coldplay plan summer of big surprises.

Last week's phenomenally successful free single download just the start, claim Coldplay management and label

Coldplay have not finished with surprises in the run-up to the release of Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends, with a "significant major initiative" planned around another single taken from the album on May 21.

With the band recording additional material that did not make the album's final cut, Parlophone is also promising a treat for fans, with a number of other non-album tracks eventually seeing the light of day.

Downloads of the giveaway digital single Violet Hill hit around the 1.5m mark at the end of last week, and the band's management company, LA-based 3D Management, and record company Parlophone are now ratcheting up the marketing campaign to follow the free download that started on April 29.

Coldplay's manager Dave Holmes is already promising something special for the third week in May. "It's one pretty significant thing, although I can't afford to have it get out," he says. "You'll understand why when I tell you, but it is a major initiative with huge global reach."

However, Holmes does allow that the activity will involve another track from Viva La Vida, which is scheduled to follow a few weeks later on June 16.

Parlophone managing director Miles Leonard says that the band had wanted to record an album that was "really short and concise".