Celebrating Coldplay!
I am a huge fan of this group: I love their music, I love their messaging, and of course, they were recently caught up inadvertently in a huge social media scandal!
The band formed in 1997, and in the 28 years since has been one of the best selling and most influential bands in music. Here’s the group:
Chris Martin: Lead vocals, piano, and acoustic guitar.
Jonny Buckland: Lead guitar and backing vocals.
Guy Berryman: Bass guitar.
Will Champion: Drums, percussion, and backing vocals.
In July, the band accidentally caused an internet meltdown when their “concert cam” captured this image and shared it live in the arena:
As reported everywhere by everyone:
” A couple embarrassed to be caught cuddling on the big screen at a Coldplay concert in Massachusetts sent the internet into a frenzy.”
This story was EVERYWHERE.
The real story is that, all these years on, the band still sells out massive arenas all around the world…of which I am very proud…why?
Because I gave them their big break!
How I Discovered Coldplay!
OK, before you click away, I brought Coldplay to America, and here’s how it happened – oh, and there was a Royal Family connection!
It all began when the band formed, recorded and released two Extended Play CD’s: “Safety” in 1998 and “The Blue Room” in 1999.
Parachutes was Coldplay’s debut studio album, released by Parlophone in the UK on July 10, 2000, and by Nettwerk in the US on November 7, 2000.
I’ll go back to those dates in a moment, but let’s hear some music first!
Here is the video for “Yellow:”
My “Coldplay / The Royal Family” Connection!
As I said, the band’s debut album was released in the UK in July 2020….I was flying to England every month at that time to work with The Royal Family on a TV series….I would spend my free time scoping out all of the best music at the Oxford location of Tower Records:
I bought their EP’s, a collection of three songs each, which were not available at the time in the US.
I was Executive Producing a ten hour miniseries on E! called “Royalty A – Z.” The other EP on the show? Prince Edward Wessex. It was a massive project that premiered in early 2002.
As you can see from the sticker, I bought an early single of “Yellow.” I fell in love with the song, bought the album when it was released in the UK shortly after, and told my music Producer at E!, Dave Adelson, that we should do a feature on the band.
He told me they didn’t have a US record deal and no one would know who they were, since the album was brand new and only available in the UK…but I persisted and we featured the band – and premiered for the first time in the US their single “Yellow” – on his music report on E! News in August.
I loved that we gave the band their first TV airplay in the US, several months BEFORE the album scored a deal to be released in the US.
Three months later, I turned on ABC and saw a brand new promo campaign airing with bright yellow backgrounds – and it had the song “Yellow”on it – how did they know about a song that hadn’t even been released in the US?
Because we aired it on E! News!
Oh, and if you are wondering, Prince Edward was a polite, friendly and intelligent producing partner…yes, I have some stories, but I’m saving them for the book.
Ok, now back to the band, and some of my favorite songs:
Coldplay’s second album, “A Rush of Blood to the Head” was released in in 2002 and was named NME’s Album of the Year.
The gorgeous song “The Scientist” is on the album, with this video having been seen 781-MILLION times on YouTube!
Enjoy:
Their next release, “X&Y” in 2005 was the best-selling album in the world!
Here’s the mega-selling song from the album, “Fix You”:
Their fourth studio album, “Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends” in 2008 was also the best-selling album in the world that year!
The album was named after a Spanish phrase that best translates into English as “Long live life”.
Here is the brilliant live performance of “Lost” featuring Jay-Z!
In 2011, the band released their fifth studio album, “Mylo Xyloto”, the UK’s best selling album of the year.
Here is the smash hit “Paradise” from the album:
Their sixth album, “Ghost Stories” was released in 2014 – a more moody, sedate collection of songs said to deal with Martin’s failing marriage to Gwyneth Paltrow.
As he said at the time in an interview:
“The idea of Ghost Stories, for me, was “how do you let the things that happen to you in the past – your ghosts – how do you let them affect your present and your future?” Because there was a time when I was feeling like they were going to drag me down and ruin my life, and the lives of those around me.”
Here’s the video for “Sky Full Of Stars” from the album:
The following year the band released their seventh album, “A Head Full of Dreams”, which included this massive hit, the title track:
Since then, the band has released the double album “Everyday Life”, as well as “Music Of The Spheres” and “Moon Music”:
Their most recent album “Moon Music” included the hit “feelslikeimfallinginlove” and yes, there are no spaces in the title!
Take a listen!
So there you have it, a look at one of my favorite bands…by the way, Martin led an all-star tribute a few years ago to Beach Boy Brian Wilson when they shot a special performance of “God Only Knows” – here is the video – as well as Wilson singing the last Beach Boy song ever released, a hauntingly beautiful “Summer’s Gone”:
And speaking of “Royal Encounters”, how about this?
Yes, that is Prince Albert of Monaco, with me in the foreground…if you want to find out how and why I met him in a Tex-Mex bar in Cannes France, click on my story here:
One last thing: Coldplay is just one of many British bands I love, all with a single word as their band name:
Doves, Oasis, Elbow, Keane, and yes, Athlete as well….if you don’t know them, here are a bunch of videos of them all!
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Leave a comment and let me know your favorite Coldplay songs!
Categories: Art, Classic Rock, London, Memoirs, Music, Pop Culture, Talent/Celebrities, True Hollywood Mystery
johnrieber 
Hi John, what a great story to be able to share here. Fantastic
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Thank you for the nice words!
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🌷🤗
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I Love Coldplay!
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Great band. My favourite song is ‘Fix You’.
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That’s a beautiful, inspiring song! Thanks for commenting….
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thanks for Coldplay, because I love them and their songs that hit the heart. my personal favorite song is ‘clocks.’ I’ll never get enough of it.
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Yes, another beautiful song indeed…thanks for the comment!
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Coldplay owes you a big thank you John. Heck, they should be giving you their first gold record. If not that, then certainly some royalties, right? Seems only fair. Chris Martin has definitely been in the news in recent months. If not the concert couple, there have been other things. I liked the interviews that I saw him do with 99-year-old Dick Van Dyke. Martin came across as a down-to-earth nice guy.
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Look, it was a given they would be huge – I was just lucky enough to feature them on US TV months before the album was even released here…my wife has had Chris Martin on her TV show multiple times and he is the nicest, most thoughtful person…and he always references the bad – it’s all of them – he hasn’t gone solo and doubt he ever will…I love that about him
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I may have told you before, but Coldplay leave me completely cold, no pun intended. I have never liked any of their songs, and though they can fill stadiums here with fans, I wouldn’t go with a free ticket and a VIP seat. I just don’t have the ‘Coldplay gene’, obviously. Great backstory about you introducing them though.
Best wishes, Pete.
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You and I are 100% different in our views on this band Pete but hey, that’s why there is so much music to choose from!
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