Coldplay life and biography

The origin of the band began when Chris Martin met Jon Buckland during their first week as the students of University College London in 1996. Shortly thereafter, Guy Berryman joined them, followed by a multi talented young musician, Will Champion. On January 8, 1998 they eventually came up together with Chris as the vocalist, guitarist, and keyboardist; Jon as the lead guitarist; Guy as the bassist, and Will as the drummer. "It's like when bacon, and eggs, and mushrooms, and chips are put on the same plate," Chris had commented about his band, "It becomes something greater than the individual parts. It becomes a cohesive whole, that's tasty." All members then gave their approval to name the band "Coldplay", originally took it from their friend, Tim, who derived the particular word from a poem. Furthermore, they chose Phil Harvey, Chris' old friend, to be their manager.

Being supported by Phil, Coldplay made up their first recording entitled "Safety" which was an EP contained 4 tracks and restricted its release to 500 copies only. One of the songs in the EP, "Bigger, Stronger", turned out to be highly acclaimed by the U.K. press, leading the band to earn an appearance at In The City music festival for the unsigned band in September 1998 in Manchester. However, it was their performance at London's Camden Falcon on December 7 that attracted Simon Williams, the New Express Magazine's (NME) major journalist and also co founder of an indie label named Fierce Panda Records. Williams then offered the band to record under his label, thus their next EP "Brothers & Sisters" was launched in the following year. The band started to be noticed as their single "Brothers and Sisters" was played by Steve Lamacq of Radio 1 while hitting the 92nd position at U.K. music charts.

This early success of Coldplay captivated Parlophone Records to provide a recording contract with the band in May 1999. As a result, "Blue Room" EP was released five months later, evoking the band to gain positive responses from music press who praised them as a band to watch in 2000, even NME Magazine included them in its January Premiere tour. Nevertheless, this particular EP ignited criticism and comparison upon the band's similarity to the major British band Radiohead. Concerning this matter, Guy Berryman wisely remarked: "The comparisons to Radiohead don't bother me. We're kind of clued up enough to understand that as a new band we're going to be compared to big stars. The easiest way for a journalist to describe a band is to compare it to somebody else. Chris and Thom Yorke can sing high and low with great strength and that's what people associate us with."

To the fans' relief, those criticisms and comparisons faded when Coldplay came up with a new single entitled "Shiver" in March 2000 for the critics gave excellent reviews toward this single. Being played through U.K top radios and MTV Europe, "Shiver" was the band's first single to reach the 35th rank at U.K. Top 40 Chart. In the anticipation of their debut album, the band released another single, "Yellow", and performed wonderfully at Glastonbury music festival. They gained great accomplishment since "Yellow" landed to the 4th rank of U.K. Singles Chart while their gig was considered as the highlight of the festival, bringing them to be one of the most promising music groups in U.K.. This achievement was followed with the launching of their first full-length album entitled "Parachutes" in July 2000. It soared right to the top position of U.K. Album Charts after several weeks of its release, then securing its place in the top 10 for 33 weeks.

Through "Parachutes", the band attained huge popularity and commercial success since the album has amazingly sold for 1.6 million copies in U.K. along with a nomination of Mercury music Prize. They afterwards expanded the album distribution to U.S. under Network Records in November 2000. "Parachutes" appeared to be well received there, joining Billboard Top 200 Chart at number 51. The band then held their U.S. tour early in the following year as well as appearing in some notable U.S. shows, such as "Late Show with David Letterman" and "Saturday Night Live." 2001 apparently was a glorious year for Coldplay as they gained gold status in U.S., 3 NME Awards, and also 2 Brit Awards for The Best British Album and Group. By October 2001, the band started to work on their materials for the next album. Having been rumored to split up during the recording, they finally launched "A Rush of Blood to the Head" on August 27.

This second album of Coldplay received high acclaim from critics as well as fans, claiming the album as a mature and sophisticated work, which transcended its predecessor. Dealing with the praise, Amazon's Editorial Staff writer, Aidin Vaziri has written: "...As a band they have advanced to a stage where they outshine nearly every one of their rivals in terms of imagination and emotional pull. A Rush of Blood to the Heads is a soulful, exhilarating journey, moving from the cathartic rock of "Politik" to the hushed tones of "Green Eyes" without once breaking its mesmerizing spell." Sitting on the number 5 of Billboard 200, the album captured the attention of people worldwide, becoming top number one in UK, Australia, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Hong Kong, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Norway, and Switzerland, making the album reached multi-platinum. This remarkable success then established Coldplay as one of the phenomenal alternative bands in the world.

During early 2003, Coldplay took their time to conduct world tour around Europe, Canada, and U.S.. On November 11, the band launched a CD/DVD package, "Live 2003", which contained the band's performance at Sydney's Horden Pavilion during their world tour and also a new track entitled "Moses." At the end of the year, Chris Martin finally married his sweetheart, an Oscar winning Hollywood actress, Gwyneth Paltrow. By April 2004, this couple happily embraced their first daughter, Apple Blythe Alison Martin. In the meantime, the band decided to concentrate on recording their third album throughout the year. During this process, Chris took his time to compose songs for other artists, like Embrace's "Gravity" and Jamelia's "See It in A Boy" which both were quite successful. After spending more than a year, 18 months to be exact, Coldplay's latest album, "X&Y" was finally released on June 6, 2005. Jon Buckland gave his explanation about this long duration: "We needed to feel that we'd move on, that we were excited by it," He said, "And we weren't willing to put it out until it was right." The extension turned out to be proved worthy since the band once more attained huge success with the new album.

Containing 12 compositions plus a hidden track, "X&Y" strengthen Coldplay's hold as one of the most prominent bands as it rocketing to the highest position at U.K. music charts a week after its launching. The band also has confirmed to carry out their "Twisted Logic" tour around Europe in June and July, before visiting North America in August. Being famous and successful, the music group remains independent as Will Champion stated: "It's been all on our own terms. We have 100 percent control over any aspect of whatever we do, and that's really important to who we are and the music we make. We take control of the recording, the videos, the artwork. We're not a band that can be pushed around, although we do have some amazing advisors." They also keep maintaining the social awareness by involving themselves in the campaigns of Oxfam's Make Trade Fair and Amnesty International as well as took part in various charity projects, such as Band Aid 20, Live 8, and the Teenage Cancer Trust. Furthermore, they still manage to preserve their commitment to democracy, equality, and rejection of using cocaine. It can be understood if they are adored and respected everywhere, even by some well-known artists like Brad Pitt, Julia Roberts, Jack Nicholson, Winona Ryder, Tobey Maguire, and many more.

With numerous gigs in their schedule, the band slipped some time in December 2006 to work on their next album. By early 2007 the project has been relocated to Barcelona, Spain where the band performed in front of churches so that their knowledge of "Hispanic" theme is thickened. The album that has Brian Eno as the helmer is still untitled but is definite for early 2008 release.

Discography

2009 : Limited Edition Tour Pack
2008 : Prospekts March [EP]
2008 : Viva La Vida/Prospekts March
2008 : Viva la Vida
2007 : Gift Pack
2007 : 7 Inch Collection
2005 : X&Y
2003 : Live 2003

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