Friday Snippets and Soundbites

• VisitBritian, the national tourism office for England, Scotland, and Wales, announced its "Made in Manchester" contest this week. The idea is that people design a New Balance sneaker for Grammy nominated singer/songwriter KT Tunstall. Tunstall will judge the entries and select the winner. New Balance will only make two limited editions of the winning shoes—one for the winner and one, of course, for KT Tunstall. The winner will also get an all-expense paid trip to Manchester to attend a live performance on June 17. Check it all out at www.madinmanchester.us.

• Speaking of the British, popular British band Coldplay is at work on their fourth studio album. It's set to hit stores in May and is still untitled. They say this album will be markedly different. "We felt like the first three albums were a trilogy, and we finished that," says guitarist Johnny Buckland. "So we wanted to do something different." The band let Rolling Stone hear some of the tracks, and the magazine says the songs are darker, rougher around the edges, and "bracingly different from Coldplay hits like 'Clocks‘ and ‘Speed of Sound.’”

• Police in Maine are searching for a man accused of stealing a guitar from a music store. That's not all that strange, but how he did it is. The man reportedly picked up the Fender Stratocaster, hid it in his pants, and pulled a sweatshirt over the top. Two other men served as lookouts, and the store's video surveillance caught it all on camera.

• And while we're talking about random and strange police stories, police in Cincinnati say they just followed the trail to find the thieves they suspected of breaking into a candy store. A trail of candy and wrappers, that is. The four suspects were arrested a few blocks away from the store and are accused of stealing about $400 worth of candy.