Formation and beginning (1996-1999) 

Martin, Berryman, Buckland and Champion met as university students at College London, and founded in September 1996 a band. Martin studied Greek and Latin, Buckland studied mathematics, astrophysics and astronomy, and Champion studied anthropology. Berryman studied engineering and later architecture. Unlike all the other band members, he never graduated.

Chris Martin and Jonny Buckland, who met during orientation week at college, were the first members of the band. They first played in a band called Pectoralz until Guy Berryman, a classmate of the two joined them. Originally, the four members of the band were founded under the name Starfish. Under this name the band played some gigs in small clubs initially in Camden. Phil Harvey, a fellow student and friend of Chris was hired as a manager for this purpose. Martin's room-mate, Tim Rice-Oxley (now bass player and piano player at Keane), was a member of a band called Coldplay (inspired by Philip Horky's poetry book Child's Reflections, Cold Play). As the members of this band has long wanted a new band name - Coldplay sounded to their opinion too depressing - they had no problem with the name of Martin to leave the band.

In March 1998, the Safety EP was released, of which only 500 copies were published. This was mostly as a demo, so that only 50 copies were received in the official sales. The EP is a rarity and is traded enormously among collectors. Coldplay made a contract with the small independent label Fierce Panda Records. The first release was the Brothers and Sisters EP, recorded in February 1999 in just four days.

In the spring of 1999, Coldplay signed a five-album deal with Parlophone, where they are still under contract. After their first appearance at the Glastonbury Festival, the band went into the studio to record their third single The Blue Room, they sold 5000 of them. During production, there were disputes within the band, so that Champion was kicked out by Martin from the band, but was briefly brought back out again. To avoid further trouble, the four decided some rules within the band: 1. Profits are shared, 2. Drug use leads to exclusion from the band.

Commercial breakthrough (2000-2006) 

The first album Parachutes was highly praised an instant commercial success and also by the critics. Parachutes was nominated for the Mercury Music Prize (2000) and won a Grammy in 2001. Overall, the album has sold over eight million. In Great Britain it was, 33 weeks in the Top Ten. The band made a name with this LP and was often compared to the English band Radiohead.

The second album A Rush of Blood to the Head of 2002 was more complex - now with more rock elements - and more intellectual than the debut album, but this did not detract from the success and was able to satisfy its critics. It got the album two Grammys, in the categories of Best Alternative Album and Best Song for In My Place. In addition, the work was first place in the German and British album charts. In the U.S. it reached the fifth. With this album, it surpassed the success of their debut, with over twelve million units sold so far.

With X & Y, their third studio album, Coldplay tied to the success of their first two albums. With 8.3 million copies sold, it became the world's best-selling album in 2005 To date, it sold over 10 million copies. But even with their first single Speed of Sound, they landed a big hit worldwide. They played for the first time in the Top Ten in the U.S. Billboard charts and the Top 20 in the German music charts and won the MTV Europe Music Award 2005 for Best Song for the track Speed of Sound. In the United Kingdom, Coldplay was the jump to the top of the charts through the first commercial single release of a ringtone (Crazy Frog) denied in June 2005. In addition, Speed of Sound more renown as the official theme song of the ZDF (agerman TV channel).

On July 2 2005 Coldplay played at the Live 8 concert in London. In addition to their own song In My Place, Fix You, they played together with Richard Ashcroft Bitter Sweet Symphony by The Verve.

The band was heavily influenced by the Scottish band Travis. Chris Martin said in an interview that without the band Travis there would be no band called Coldplay . The song writing, especially in older material, was greatly influenced by Jeff Buckley. The more recent pieces are still more towards Radiohead, Travis and U2. However, Echo and the Bunnymen, with their singer, Ian McCulloch, Chris Martin is a close friend and ex-Beatle George Harrison and the Norwegian pop band a-ha had influence on the musical career of the band.

By Melanie Bradley