[2015-11-29] Coldplay's Chris Martin Reflects on Paris Attacks (USA Today)

[atlas2000]

Coldplay's Chris Martin reflects on Paris attacks

Coldplay was eagerly anticipating hopping on stage at the Belasco Theater here to perform selections from the band's new album, A Head Full of Dreams, for a group of invited guests.

 

But when news of the deadly Paris attacks broke that afternoon, plans changed. More than once.

 

"At first, we were just depressed, thinking, 'What's the point, what are we doing, why bother?'" singer Chris Martin says. "But then we just decided to go on stage anyway and play some music."

 

Coldplay opened with John Lennon's Imagine — the same song memorably performed by pianist Davide Martello on the streets of Paris after the horrific slaughter of 129 people by Islamic extremists — and played old staples from the band's canon such as Sparks and Fix You.

 

For Martin, opening with the iconic Lennon song was obvious.

 

"Our job as musicians is just to tell the truth, so that maybe it resonates with others going through something similar," he says. "Imagine was going be so resonant because it's about the antithesis of that kind of terrible activity, as is much of Bob Marley's music. Our role that night was to play those kinds of songs."

 

That choice, and the event itself, proved cathartic, Martin says.

 

"For me personally, it was just so nice to be with my friends, and to think, well, everyone here is pretty cool and wants to feel good," says Martin, who has long been a supporter of a range of charities, while the band has lent its talent to efforts to end extreme poverty around the world.

 

"It's so easy to get despondent and despairing about things in the world. If it isn't a terrorist attack, it's an earthquake or an outbreak of something. So your options are to give up and do nothing, or to live more fully than ever. I don't want to give up hope, because that doesn't get you anything."

 

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[Christa42]

Good article to learn from

[alisbe]

^^ that's true. The last paragraph caught my attention. When someone forget his/her purpose on life and think that hope doesn't exist, it's then life becomes something difficult to deal with. But when we don't give up we always find the solution in the most positive way.

[oldiefan]

Hence Chris's lyrics - :) " under this pressure, under this weight, we are diamonds taking shape" Soooooo true.