TORONTO - Under a grey sky and intermittent rain, Coldplay gave a grateful Toronto crowd an early look at its long-anticipated fifth album with a free outdoor show at MuchMusic headquarters on Wednesday.

Fans lined up along Queen Street West -- shut down for the occasion -- in the wee hours of the morning for a chance to take in a one-hour show from the British rockers, who hadn't visited the city since a show at the Rogers Centre more than two years ago.

With a constant drizzle raining down, fans huddled under umbrellas and donned plastic parkas during the show, and the band showed their gratitude for the crowd sticking it out through the dreary weather.

"I can't believe all of you put up with the wind and rain to be here," frontman Chris Martin said between songs.

"I said before no one would show up.... We're English, we're very insecure."

But the audience's affection for the band was obvious.

While waiting for the show to begin, fans collectively hummed the melody from "Viva La Vida" and chanted the band's name, some clutching brightly coloured signs that wilted in the rain.

Part of the draw was the opportunity to hear some of the new tunes cooked up for the band's upcoming album, the cryptically titled "Mylo Xyloto," due out Oct. 24.

It's been more than three years since we've heard from the London Brit-poppers. Their last record, "Viva La Vida," opened at No. 1 in Canada, the U.S., and across Europe en route to millions in sales and three Grammy Awards.

And much of the band's set was composed of new material, from buoyant first single "Every Drop is a Waterfall" to "Paradise," an ornate bit of chamber-pop resized to stadium scale. Other new highlights included the driving "Hurts Like Heaven" and the cheerfully roaring "Charlie Brown."

"We have some new songs -- if you don't like them, you don't have to buy them or anything," Martin said in his carefully self-deprecating way at the start of the show.

Still, the crowd responded most warmly to more well-worn corners of the group's catalogue, with the loudest cheers coming for early alt-rock hit "Yellow," anthemic stunner "Viva La Vida" and Grammy-winning piano ballad "Clocks." As has become a recent custom of his, Martin also tossed out a few bars of Amy Winehouse's "Rehab."

The band has always excelled at making tunes that are at once earnest and expansive, personal and universal, and the diverse crowd gathered on Wednesday was evidence of their broad appeal.

The rockers have long been even bigger in Canada than Stateside -- for instance, their past two records combined have been certified platinum in Canada nine times, as opposed to five in the U.S.

And Martin enthusiastically paid respect back to his devoted Canuck followers.

"Coming to Canada," he said with a dramatic flourish, "is always like taking a bath in greatness."

And he even tossed out a reference to one of Canada's most recently prominent pop-star exports: Justin Bieber.

"It's a strange time in a man's life when he realizes he's old enough to be Justin Bieber's dad," said the 34-year-old Martin.

"Along comes this wonderkid who makes you feel like an old man. It's good though. It's good to age."