hmmm interesting somethin' on CP!

[Canadian_Aphrodite]

heres a lil something i found (from a hard rock radio station site...) that i found quite interesting.,..usually they have profiles on punk rock groups like B.Y.O.B, Billy Talent, Alixisonfire etc. its kinda funny how they talk bout coldplay...it has tons of info on CP and pretty muuuuch rocks...i unno y i'm posting this lol...just thought some ppl would find it cool to read thru and find some stuff (they didnt kno bout the band b4) out...read it if ya like!

Sara :D

 

 

 

Cold Play

Sunday November 28, 2004

 

Coldplay is one of those bands which - for whatever reason - found tons of fans almost immediately. And not only in just at home in the UK, but pretty much everywhere in the world.

I mean, you gotta admit that in today's musical environment, Coldplay sticks out. No detuned guitars, no hip-hop influences, no screaming singers. Hell, the singer spends most of his time at the piano singing ballads, fer crying out loud. But at the same time, no one would mistake Coldplay for a bunch of rejects from American Idol.

 

They've found a niche in today's new rock world - a niche that most old-time alt-rock fans thought had disappeared. A niche where texture and delicate dynamics and gentle melodies still exist. No wonder people are calling Coldplay "the new U2" and "the new REM" and "the new Radiohead."

 

How did this happen? Even people who "get" Coldplay are surprised at how big they became in such a short period of time. Let's see if we can't dissect how this all came about.

 

Coldplay is an offspring of the britpop revolution of the middle 1990s. All four members were big, big fans of that golden age of British music.

 

Chris Martin was born March 3, 1977. His dad is an accountant while mom was a biology teacher. He grew up in Devonshire, which is in the southwest of England.

 

And here is an odd fact about Chris' family; his great-great grandfather was the guy who convinced parliament to introduce daylight savings time in Britain in May 1916. His name was William Willett. You can look it up.

 

Growing up, Chris played in a bunch of different bands with names like "The Rockin' Honkies" and "The Red Rooster Boogie Band."

 

For a while, he was in a techno-pop-ish group called "Identity Crisis." They weren't very good and were sometimes booed offstage. Chris also went through a period of time in his teens where he thought he might be gay.

 

Then there's guitarist Jon Buckland. He's Welsh by birth. In his family, dad was the biology teacher, his mom was a music teacher. He was in a bunch of different groups growing up, including a rap act and a metal band...seriously.

 

Will Champion is the band's drummer. He's originally from Southampton. At one time, both his parents were music teachers. The only high school band anyone remembers was called "Fat Hamster."

 

And finally, there's bass player Guy Berryman who grew up in Fife, Scotland. His high school band was called "Time Out." They spent all their time trying to learn Genesis songs.

 

In the middle 90s, all four guys found themselves at University College in London. Chris enrolled in ancient history, Guy got into engineering so he could learn to be an architect like his dad, Will studied anthropology like his father did when he was in school, and Jon opted for astronomy and mathematics.

 

The first two guys to meet were Jon and Chris. It was frosh week 1996 and they were in the student residence playing pool...

 

They spent the rest of the school year trying to come up with a plan for a band. And get this: Chris thought their best chance was to create some kind of boy band like 'N Sync. He even had a name for them: "Pectoralz." There's a dark Coldplay secret.

 

Eventually they ran into Guy who somehow convinced them that he should be a part of their project - whatever it might be. Will came along a few years later when Chris, Jon and Guy were stuck for a permanent drummer. They had someone keeping time, but he didn't think the original songs were any good...so he quit. No one knows where this guy is now.

 

Will was actually a guitar player but when the drummer decided he'd rather head down to the pub rather than rehearse, Will was drafted into keeping time. And from that day - January 6, 1998 - he became Coldplay's drummer.

 

And there's that name: "Coldplay." Where did that come from? Actually, the band borrowed it from another student who had been using it for his group - but he didn't want it anymore because he found it too depressing. Had he not given up the name, Coldplay might have been called "Starfish" or "Stepney Green."

 

The first "official" Coldplay song was something called "Ode to Deodorant." Don't bother looking for it anywhere because they wrote it as a joke. The first official Coldplay gig was held at a pub in Camden in the spring of 1998, and the first official Coldplay recordings took place at around the same time.

 

They spent about £1,500 on three tracks that would show up on what they called The Safety EP. They had no record deal and no way of actually distributing the record. All they could afford to do is print up 500 copies and give them away to friends. Needless to say, original copies of The Safety EP now trade for hundreds of dollars.

 

Coldplay continued to play whatever gigs they could get through the rest of the year - and a lot of them were disasters. People just didn't get what the band was trying to do.

 

That all changed on December 7, 1998. They were playing another show in Camden when a guy from a small indie label called "Fierce Panda" approached them with an offer to release a single. So it was back into the studio.

 

The result was another three-song EP called "Brothers and Sisters" that came out in April 1999. Only 2500 copies were pressed, so once again, we have another Coldplay collector's item.

 

The music on that EP was enough to convince a scout at EMI records to come calling. And as soon as everyone finished their final university exams in June 1999, Coldplay signed their major record deal.That summer, they recorded another EP, this time with the title the blue room.

 

There was a lot of tension and pressure during these sessions and Will actually walked out for a week. Chris - a non-smoker and non-drinker - responded by getting blind drunk. He hasn't had a drink since, by the way.

 

In the end, though, things were worked out - but not before a few rules were laid down. Number one: the band was declared a democracy. Everything - including all profits, no matter who wrote the songs or how they were written - would be split four ways, just like they do in U2 and REM. And number two: anyone caught using coke would be immediately dismissed.

[compguy347]

that's interesting.

but i can't see any of them using coke

well, maybe guy lol

[musicman]

i read somewhere that the coke thing was just chris trying to be like thom yorke :lol:

and the article says that ode to deo was a joke, but i remember debs saying that it was a serious one :confused:

[TimeIsOnYourSide]

he just smokes weed