timeline

Coldplay

A London band that began at University College London in the 1990s, broke through with Yellow in 2000, and has since sold more than 170 million records.

Origin
London, England
Years active
1997-present
Genres
alternative rock, pop rock, post-Britpop
Labels
Fierce Panda, Parlophone, Nettwerk, Capitol, Atlantic

London

Chris Martin and Jonny Buckland met in their first week at University College London, in September 1996, and began writing songs together in early 1997. Guy Berryman joined months later and the trio demoed without a drummer as Big Fat Noises. Will Champion became the drummer in January 1998. They played their first gig, as Starfish, at the Laurel Tree in Camden on 16 January 1998, and in May released a self-financed EP, Safety, paid for by Martin's friend Phil Harvey, who soon became their manager.

The scout Debs Wild found them at the In the City showcase in Manchester in September 1998. On 3 January 1999 they became the first unsigned act on Steve Lamacq's BBC Evening Session, and that April they signed to Parlophone. Dan Keeling, the A&R man who signed them, later recalled first seeing them in 1998 in an Egyptian theme bar, in front of about 20 people, and thinking them a little bit naff. The band later agreed to run as a democracy and to fire anyone who used hard drugs, a rule inspired by R.E.M. and U2.

Parachutes and A Rush of Blood to the Head

Ken Nelson co-produced Parachutes, recorded between late 1999 and May 2000, mostly at Parr Street Studios in Liverpool. It entered the UK chart at number one in July 2000 and was nominated for the Mercury Music Prize. Yellow gave the band its first top-five single in Britain. The album won the 2001 Brit Award for British Album of the Year and the Grammy for Best Alternative Music Album, and sold 2.7 million copies in the UK. Rolling Stone's Matt Diehl called it a work of real transcendence, while Pitchfork called it harmless and pretty, and nothing else.

The band began the follow-up in September 2001, moved from London to Liverpool, and by June 2002 had finished an album they thought was rubbish. Clocks, a piano riff Martin had written late one night, led them to hold the release back by two months. A Rush of Blood to the Head came out in August 2002 and also debuted at number one in the UK. It produced Clocks, which won the Grammy for Record of the Year, and The Scientist. Alexis Petridis wrote in the Guardian that it sounded like an album ready to take on the world, and win.

X&Y and Viva la Vida

X&Y (June 2005) was produced with Danton Supple after a year of recording in which the band wrote sixty songs and discarded fifty-two. It entered the charts of 32 countries at number one and was the best-selling album of 2005, with 8.3 million copies. Its second single, Fix You, reached number four in the UK. Jon Pareles of the New York Times named them the most insufferable band of the decade, and Martin later said the album was too long.

For Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends (June 2008) the band worked with Brian Eno, who required every song to sound different, and recorded in churches and in Spanish-speaking countries including Mexico and Spain. The title track, Viva la Vida, took its name from a Frida Kahlo painting and became their first number one in both the UK and the US. The album won the Grammy for Best Rock Album and was the best-selling album of 2008. The guitarist Joe Satriani sued in December 2008, claiming the song borrowed from his own. The band denied it and the case was dismissed.

Since

Later albums were Mylo Xyloto (2011), Ghost Stories (2014), A Head Full of Dreams (2015), Everyday Life (2019), Music of the Spheres (2021) and Moon Music (2024). The band headlined the Super Bowl 50 halftime show in February 2016 and Glastonbury five times, the fifth in 2024. My Universe, with BTS, was the first song by a British group to debut at number one on the Billboard Hot 100. The Music of the Spheres World Tour began in Costa Rica in March 2022 and is listed as the most-attended tour of all time and the first by a band to gross $1 billion.

They have won nine Brit Awards, more than any other group, and seven Grammys. They remain a divisive band. Alan McGee, the former head of Creation Records, called them bedwetters, and the insult stuck. Yet the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame added A Rush of Blood to the Head to its list of 200 definitive albums and Yellow to its Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll exhibit.

Members

Records

Songs

U2, Radiohead, Travis, Jeff Buckley, Brian Eno

Where to go next

Official

  • Coldplay The band's own site, with news, gigs, releases and the Coldplay Messenger newsletter.

Reference

Writing and criticism

Interviews

Fan sites and communities

  • Coldplaying A fan discussion forum with games and downloads.

Sources

  1. Coldplay, Wikipedia
  2. How Coldplay's Yellow altered the course of 21st-century rock music, The Independent (2020-06-24)
  3. Ken Nelson: Recording Coldplay's Parachutes, Sound On Sound
  4. Coldplay: A Rush of Blood to the Head, The Guardian (2002-08-16)
  5. Coldplay's A Rush Of Blood To The Head voted best album in Radio 2 poll, The Guardian (2013-04-01)
  6. Parachutes, Pitchfork (2000-11-07)
  7. Ashcroft and Coldplay nominated for Mercury Music Prize, The Guardian (2000-07-25)