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 "We're
trying to say that there is an alternative," says Chris. "That you can
be catchy without being slick, poppy without being pop, and you can be
uplifting without being pompous. We wanted to be a reaction against
soulless rubbish."
Chris Martin grew up in Devon, Will Champion in Southampton, Guy
Berryman in Scotland (and later Kent), and Jonny Buckland in North
Wales. They came together as undergraduates at University College London
in 1996 and quickly started playing as a group. All four shared a
passion for music and a quiet determination to be as good as they
possibly could be. "We used to play in bathrooms, the basement, even in
the park," laughs Chris. "Anywhere we could find to play."
Coldplay Links
They already knew they were onto something special. "We were determined
to do it from the start," says Jonny. "From the moment I met Chris, I
really did think that we could go all the way. Do something."
Eventually agreeing on the name Coldplay, in May 1998 they recorded the
four-track Safety EP and pressed 500 copies, which got them a gig at the
In The City music festival held in Manchester, England. Their set
brought them to the attention of Simon Wililams, who signed them to his
Fierce Panda label for one single, "Brothers And Sisters," which in turn
led to their deal with Parlophone. In October, following Coldplay's
appearances at the Glastonbury and Reading festivals, Parlophone
released the limited (5,000 copies) Blue Room EP, while the band
concentrated on recording their debut LP.
Coldplay began the year 2000 bottom of the bill on the NME Brats Tour,
though the fact that most venues were already full by the time they took
the stage signalled that they wouldn't be in that position for long.
Their first Parlophone
single, "Shiver," made the U.K. top 40 in
February, but it was the anthemic "Yellow" in June that propelled
Coldplay into the spotlight when it entered the U.K. charts at number
four. With its happy-sad refrain and perfectly pitched video--a soggy
Chris stumbling across a British beach, from sunset to sunrise--the song
became a universal touchstone. That summer, "Yellow" was everywhere,
ensuring Coldplay's mid-afternoon Glastonbury slot was as packed as it
was celebratory.
Debut full-length Parachutes did even better, entering the U.K. album
chart at number one that July. Bucking against a climate of emotionally
empty lad-rock, it connected on a big scale--11 tracks of acoustic-fed
beauty that earned superlative reviews and seemed to touch everyone that
heard them. Nominated for the Mercury Music Prize, by the end of 2000 it
had gone four times platinum.
The band spent much of 2001 away from Britain. They toured Parachutes
around the world, notably across America--where they became a rare U.K.
success story--and wrote material for their next album. Expectations for
the band were high, not least from Coldplay themselves. At the time,
Chris told the press that if the new songs weren't up to standard, they
would call it a day.
A Rush Of Blood To The Head, Coldplay's second album, was recorded in
London and Liverpool, once again with Ken Nelson and the band
co-producing. It marked a significant move forward, adding a more
powerful sound to their arsenal. Future stadium anthems "In My Place"
and "Clocks" were there, alongside wiry piano ballad "The Scientist," a
song that would come to surpass even "Yellow" as an emphatic tour de
force.
With Coldplay raising the bar with their music, the world was happy to
see if the band could rise to new challenges. A headline slot at
Glastonbury isn't the easiest place to debut new material, but taking to
the stage on June 29, 2002, Chris greeted 100,000 excited punters with a
cheery "OK?" and led the group into the thunderous opener "Politik." Few
who walked away from the encore an hour and a half later doubted that
this was a band now capable of being a global concern.
When it was released in August, A Rush Of Blood To The Head got
universally enthusiastic reviews and entered the U.K. charts and number
one and the U.S. charts at number five. By the start of 2004, it had
sold 9 million copies and earned the band 17 major accolades, including
three Grammys, numerous MTV Video Music Awards, and an Ivor Novello
Award for Songwriters Of The Year. Consolidating their earlier U.S.
success, Coldplay now soared in America--setting themselves a punishing
schedule from May 2002 to August 2003 that saw them crisscrossing the
continent six times, performing 155 shows in places like Calgary and
Albuquerque, as well as wooing increasingly starry audiences in Los
Angeles and New York, where they sold out legendary venues the Hollywood
Bowl and Madison Square Garden. "Once you're established in Britain, you
become kind of uncool," says Guy. "But it's not such a bad thing. It
makes you work even harder."
Names as disparate as Bono, Mos Def, Beth Orton, P. Diddy, PJ Harvey,
and Jake Gyllenhaal started to sing Coldplay's praises (and sometimes
sing onstage with them, too) as they toured A Rush Of Blood To The Head
throughout 2003. The band also got to meet, and write with, the late
Johnny Cash.
Coldplay have used their position as one of the world's biggest bands as
a platform to campaign for a number of charitable, environmental, and
anti-globilization groups. Chris has visited Haiti and the Dominican
Republic with Oxfam to witness how the poor are affected by inequitable
global trade rules, raising awareness for the Make Trade Fair campaign.
It's a cause the whole band supports. "What people don't understand is
that rock 'n' roll is about doing exactly what you want," says Chris.
"One of the most rock 'n' roll things we've done is get involved with
Fair Trade."
Coldplay are currently recording their third album. |
