9 years of X&Y

On June 6th 2005, Coldplay released their third studio album, X&Y and it instantly resulted in world domination for the band, with X&Y becoming the highest selling album of 2005 and expanding their fan base of Coldplayers across the globe in the process!

Happy 9th birthday…. A pic.twitter.com/R4kjH5MWBj
— Coldplay (@coldplay) June 6, 2014

We will take a look a the 9 things that we love about X&Y, a special era of music for Coldplay that will always live in our memories, in video form! There are a million things really to love about X&Y so choosing a selection of this truly amazing album is very hard! The big 10th birthday happens next year to which we will do something special for! Until then, lets reminiscence over the fantastically energetic X&Y....

1) The countdown

The famous Square One countdown at the start of each live show. Perfect live show opener in every way and when that countdown reached zero, you know it was time for Coldplay to rock! The video below is from the 2006 Brit Awards which has been re-uploaded by the Brit Awards in full 1080p. To play the album track, Square One in favour of a more popular single was a brave move that night by Coldplay but one that we can applaud still and its always great to see Chris jumping around the stage, the energy in the performance was something else and there wasn't any floor space left untouched!https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-PlOVq15sE

2) MTV Live Leak

The marvelous MTV live leak aired a few days before the release of X&Y and was filmed in New York. The band would then go on to conquer the US and score their first #1 album there. The show was intimate, the sound was massive and if there is one video to capture the whole feel of X&Y, this is the one! Coldplay performed tracks such as What If, A Message and Low in the exclusive show.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3QFihUhJm0

3) Glastonbury 2005

"Ah, give me weather that does no harm, yeah, Michael Eavis and Worthy Farm, ah give me mud up to my knee, the best festival in history" were the lyrics festival goers and Coldplayers went absolutely mad to during a live performance of Politik. Glastonbury 2005 was one of Coldplay's finest live performances, it had it all. The sing along to Everything's Not Lost and The Scientist, the second take at the start of Warning Sign, the lovely acoustic Don't Panic and even a cover of Kylie Minogue's smash hit, Can't Get You Out Of My Headwith Jonny's Guitar screaming throughout and who could forget Chris' ode to Jonny, "Ladies and Gentleman, Mr Jonathan Buckland.....aged 28 years old.....my best friend and the best guitar player that ever lived.....except maybe Slash".https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1lEyTf8-VI

4) "Crazy Frog, where are you now?!!"

When Coldplay released Speed of Sound in the UK, it was destined to become a number 1 hit as it took over the radio waves like no other Coldplay single perhaps bar Clocks, had done before. Unfortunately, an awful mobile phone ringtone/gimmick known as The Crazy Frog by Axel F tragically ended up outselling Coldplay to claim the number 1 singles spot and deny Coldplay their first number 1. Coldplay, like great bands do, focus their efforts on memorable live performances and Chris and the boys truly exorcised the Crazy Frog demon with one of Chris' greatest quotes, "Crazy Frog, where are you now?!!" during the Glastonbury 2005 performance seen above and begs the question, where exactly is the Crazy Frog now? In a parallel universe with Darius and Gareth Gates, probably.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0k_1kvDh2UAhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k85mRPqvMbE^ Booooooo!

5) How We Saw The World / Twisted Logic tour

The feature performance of the Twisted Logic tour (to which the title track was never played live) was from Toronto which aired in various countries as 'How We Saw The World' on March 26th 2006. Many of us have watched the brilliant 58 minute show many times but i'm sure we can all agree that it produced one of the biggest gem's of Coldplay's history, Swallowed In The Sea, live in Toronto, enjoy!https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTbBdfX1moY

6) Every track on X&Y had potential to be a single

Picking the singles during the X&Y era was a guessing game largely. It was an album full of singles some may argue, which can be viewed in favour of X&Y or not. Fix You was an obvious choice and was indeed the 2nd single off the album but it could of been anything after that! Talk was the rocking 3rd single and after that, it varied depending on what country you were in. The Hardest Part was available sparsely across Europe and was a radio only single in the UK, while What If and White Shadows were released in parts of Europe, bringing rare CD copies with brilliant pieces of X&Y themed artwork.Tom Lord Alge, the award winning American music producer, mixed both What If and The Hardest Part. These mixes are very similar to the originals with more strings and a slightly 'heavier' sound. What If (Tom Lord Alge mix), you can find on our multimedia forums or Youtube. The audio clip following this is the said mix of The Hardest Parthttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_RrHwHUOuI

7) The B-sides

Things I Dont Understand, Proof, Your World Turned Upside Down, Pour Me(Live), Sleeping Sun, Gravity (Studio Version) and How You See The World were the b-sides from the X&Y singles. The X&Y era produced a great deal of new material. Gravity is featured below which was originally given to Danny McNamara, lead singer of Embrace which became a top 10 hit for the band a year before Coldplay released their version of the track as a B-side to the Talk single.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6d_GdLxIqE

8) Lights will guide you home

That video, where Chris Martin strolls down the streets of London then runs into the Reebok Stadium in Bolton, UK, with tens of thousands of crazy Coldplay fans and before the band harmonize, Chris swirls around that infamous light bulb which resulted in a burst of fireworks. One of the signatures of X&Y, along with the Square One countdown. Fix You has successfully stapled itself amongst Coldplay's greatest.

9) The feel of X&Y

The album has an eerie 'spacey' sound and feel throughout, to which a lot of fans fell in love with. This is reflected in the title track of the album which was not played often, mainly in the early stages of X&Y. The live show in Madrid of April 2005, along with The Austin City limits performance, really shows the perhaps under-rated side of X&Y.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CsOXUUCNYe0

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9 years of X&Y - The 9 things we love about X&Y! (in videos)