Coldplay is one of the most iconic bands in the music industry. Well, the United Kingdom is known for its fantastic rock music! Back in the day they had The Beatles, Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin and the rest of the old-timers. And the 21st century brought us Muse, Radiohead and Coldplay. Now, you can call it alternative rock, post-Britpop (yep, it’s an official genre) or even piano rock, but that’s not what’s important: The most important thing is – this band knows how to touch the hearts and minds of regular folks, and that’s what really counts. Coldplay has been putting out great music since 1996, which means they’ve been at it for 20 years now! This band is all about love, freedom, cheerful tunes and experimentation. So, if this kind of music is your cup of tea, then please, do check out the following facts about Coldplay – arguably the biggest and the most influential British band of our time.
– The band came together in London 2 decades ago. Chris Martin is the head, the front man and the lead vocalist, plus, he sits behind his piano and makes wonderful sounds with it :). As for the rest of the fellas, they play the bass, drums and guitar – nothing less, nothing more. Martin and Johnny Buckland (that guy who plays the electric guitar) met at the UCL (University College London) and decided to form a band together.
– Interesting facts about Coldplay: This might sound a bit odd, but at first the band was called Pectoralz; they changed the name in 1997. No, not to Coldplay – to Starfish! Will Champion, the man behind the drums, had no previous experience with the instrument, but he still joined the band and stuck with it to this very day.
– Did you know that Coldplay asked Tim Rice-Oxley of Keane to join them and play the keyboards? Well, he respectfully declined, because he wanted to start his own band, not to be a part of someone else’s. At the end of the day, both Coldplay and Keane are great bands!
Interesting Facts About Coldplay – 2 Best-Selling Albums, Tons Of Awards, Charity Work
– More interesting facts about Coldplay: The band recorded their first LP Parachutes in 4 different studios. And while the very first single, Shiver, could only reach #35 in the UK top 40 chart, the second single, Yellow (yep, that awesome song we all love) managed to hit number 4.
– Coldplay signed with Parlophone Records back in 1999, but they used to be signed to Fierce Panda before that. Wouldn’t it be great if they stayed on the original label and stuck with Starfish as the official name of the band? The press-release would look like this: “Fierce Panda proudly presents Yellow, a song by the band Starfish :).
– “Viva La Vida”, one of the band’s signature tracks, hit number one on the Billboard UK Download Chart. The self-titled album did pretty great as well – it became the best-selling album in the world in 2008! By the way, the band’s third LP, X & Y, did the same in 2005.
– Interesting fact about Coldplay: Overall, this legendary band has won 62 awards, including 7 Grammys, 9 Brit Awards and 5 MTV VMA awards. And, they have sold almost 60 million records worldwide! The band has released 5 albums so far, with Ghost Stories being their latest LP.
– Awesome fact about Coldplay: They support several charities and donate big amounts of money on a regular basis. Buckland used to work as a school cleaner, and that’s what kept the band going. Martin said once that U2 and Travis were their biggest influences.
