TORONTO — After spending 18-months holed up in London writing and recording a new album, Coldplay unleashed its newest torch songs to a ravenous Toronto audience on Wednesday playing a steamy and sweaty set.

The band, led by frontman Chris Martin, seemed thrilled to reveal the material to its ardent fans. For their part, devotees gobbled it up with fervour, hooting, hollering and clapping their way through the hour-a-half-long show which mixed equal parts new songs and old favourites. "Thanks for having us back. You're a wonderful country," gushed Martin, dressed all in black.

Tried and true tracks from the band's 2002 album, A Rush of Blood To The Head, made up a large chunk of the show, part of a series of select gigs in North America to build buzz for the band's forthcoming CD, X&Y, out next month.

The crowd didn't seem to mind, blissfully singing along with The Scientist, In My Place, Clocks, Politik, Warning Sign and God Put A Smile Upon Your Face.

New songs - What If, Till Kingdom Come and the current radio hit Speed of Sound among them - were met with polite but eager applause.

Tickets for the sole Canadian stop at the waterfront's Kool Haus were snapped up in under one minute. Outside the venue, scalpers were commanding upwards of $200 a ticket. Some entrepreneurs snagged $500 each on EBay in the days leading up to Wednesday's concert.

The band has been in town all week promoting the upcoming disc.

On Monday, police were called in to disperse an excitable crowd of 1,500 that had blocked Yonge Street traffic outside a radio station where Martin and guitarist Jonny Buckland were doing a short acoustic set.

For those unable to take part in this week's Coldplay fever, Martin told the crowd the foursome would be back in Canada in August.

As well, the concert was filmed by MuchMusic for a special on the band next month.