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    Coldplay: The story of how {The Revolutionaries} took on the world and won (Q Magazine article)

    coldplay2008a.jpgWe recently published an article announcing that Coldplay would be featured in Q Magazine's 'Artists of the Century'. The issue is now on sale. For those unable to get a copy below is the Coldplay article (and transcript) written by Glastonbury's Michael Eavis that is featured, which you can also discuss here at the Coldplay forum. We will have further interviews about Coldplay from some of the other artists soon...

     

    When I used to milk the cows myself, I had a Marconi valve radio in the milking parlour. That's where I first heard Marc Bolan, Bowie, The Smiths and Primal Scream, and booked them for the festival.

     

    When I stopped milking after 40 years, I got a Roberts radio for the farm kitchen. It doesn't have quite as crisp a sound but I can still remember the morning I came down and first heard Coldplay's Yellow. I just thought it was such a beautiful and uplifting sound. Chris Martin's voice is just so inspiring on that record. It was the start of the millennium and I think we all wanted to feel that way a little bit, didn't we? "Look at the stars, look how they shine for you?" Brilliant stuff...

    That was early 2000, but I didn't actually meet them until later that year, when they stepped in to help me during a crisis. We have a Pilton fete each year - to say thank you to the village for putting up with us. The Strokes were booked, but they had to pull out at the last minute. Emily, my daughter, said: "Why don't you phone Chris?" She had his number. She just dialled and put me on. He was in Paris, but he agreed to fly to Bristol where I picked the band up in one of the farm vehicles. I always remember the security woman at the airport telling me that I couldn't park a farm vehicle outside the revolving doors at arrivals. It was on the drive back to Pilton that I said: "Will you headline the Friday night next year?" Chris was delighted and we shook on it. The manager got a bit worried because they were working on A Rush Of Blood To The Head. But Chris was as good as his word. The show was extraordinary. Sometimes you get a feeling: "This is going to be one of the biggest bands ever." I got it that Friday night.

     

    Chris has integrity, a conscience and he's funny and intelligent. That's quite a good combination. It's not for me to comment on the lifestyles and beliefs of the bands we put on, but we have bands where they come on and deliver something incredible and intense but afterwards that's it. It is refreshing to meet a rock star and think, "This one's got a brain." He went to Sherborne, a local school, and when I chat to him there is a definate South West bond.

     

    I think it's difficult for someone to be that famous and retain a sense of themselves as a person. After they last played he came back to the farmhouse and we had a little party. Chris tried to tame the farmhouse piano. He played till 4am and only afterwards did he complain saying, "That piano could do with tuning." I admire a rock star who's willing to battle away on a piece of old junk.

     

    I admire a man who's willing to take a risk. We saw them again when their third album, X&Y, was coming out. EMI issued a profits warning partly due to the delay in the album and Chris said, "Shareholders are evil." It reminded me of Isambard Kingdom Brunel building the Great Western railway from Paddington to Bristol in the 19th century. It was a labour of love, but the financiers forced him to get it done. Chris has faced a lot of that this decade. He is trying to retain some human values in a world of pounds, shilling and pence.

     

    I think you can tell a lot about someone from the way they react to my cheese. These rock stars can buy anything, so I like to give a cheese as a thank you. A hand-made cheese. That cheese is part of the farm and what we're trying to do here. Some people don't understand that gesture. But Chris totally gets my cheese.

     

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