Coldplay are a British alternative rock band formed in 1996 by lead vocalist Chris Martin and lead guitarist Jonny Buckland at University College London.
Chris Martin and Jonny Buckland first met during their orientation week at University College London (UCL) in September 1996. The pair spent the rest of the university year planning a band, ultimately forming a group called Pectoralz. Guy Berryman, a classmate of Martin and Buckland, later joined the group. By 1997, the group, who had renamed themselves Starfish, performed gigs for local Camden promoters at small clubs. Martin also had recruited his longtime school friend Phil Harvey, who was studying classics at Oxford, to be the band’s manager. Coldplay have since accepted Harvey as the fifth member of the group. The band’s line-up was completed when Will Champion joined to take up percussion duties. Champion had grown up playing piano, guitar, bass, and tin whistle; he quickly learned the drums (despite having no previous experience). The band finally settled on the name “Coldplay” which was suggested by Tim Crompton, a local student who had been using the name for his group. By 1997, Martin had also met then Classics student Tim Rice-Oxley. During a weekend on Virginia Water, they asked each other to play off their own songs on the piano. Martin, finding Rice-Oxley to be talented, asked him to be Coldplay’s keyboard player but Rice-Oxley refused as his own band, Keane, was already operational. Days after, this event would shape the second line-up of Keane and keep Coldplay’s unaltered, thus leaving both bands as quartets.
After completing their final examinations, Coldplay signed to Parlophone for a five-album contract in early 1999. After making their first appearance at Glastonbury, the band went into studio to record a third EP titled The Blue Room. Five thousand copies were made available to the public in October, and the single “Bigger Stronger”, received BBC Radio 1 airplay. The recording sessions for The Blue Room were tumultuous. Champion was briefly fired from the band, but Martin later pleaded with him to return after kicking him out, and because of his guilt, went on a drinking binge. Eventually, the band worked out their differences and put in place a new set of rules to keep the group intact. Inspired by bands like U2 and R.E.M., Coldplay decided that they would operate as a democracy (and that profits would be shared equally). Additionally, the band determined they would fire anyone who used hard drugs.
Yellow
“Yellow” was written in a Rockfield studio in Wales called the Quadrangle, where Coldplay began working on their debut album, Parachutes. One night after finishing recording “Shiver”, the lead single of the album, the band took a break and went out of the studio. Outside, there were few lights on and the stars in the sky were visible and “just amazing”, according to the song’s co-producer, Ken Nelson. He told the band to look at the stars, which they did. Vocalist Chris Martin was inspired by the sight and the song’s main melody, consisting of a chord pattern, popped into his head. At first, Martin did not take it seriously “as he relayed the tune to the rest of the band in his worst Neil Young impersonation voice”. Martin has said, “The song had the word ‘stars’ and that seemed like a word you should sing in a Neil Young voice.” The melody “started off a lot slower”, according to drummer Will Champion, and it sounded like a Neil Young song. Not long after, despite not taking the song seriously, Martin’s idea worked out when he had developed the tempo of the verse. When guitarist Jonny Buckland started playing it and supplemented it with his ideas, they had created the riff, “and it sort of got a bit heavier”.
While composing the song’s lyrics, however, Martin could not find the right words. He was thinking of a specific word, which he deemed a missing key word in the lyrics, to fit the song’s concept. He looked around the studio and found the telephone directory Yellow Pages, which happened to be situated nearest to him. Martin later titled the song “Yellow” as a reference to the directory. He quipped, “In an alternate universe, this song could be called ‘Playboy.’” The lyrics progressed from there with the band collaborating. Bassist Guy Berryman came up with the opening line “Look at the stars”. That night, having quickly composed the song, the band recorded it.
http://djallyn.org/media/Coldplay-Yellow.flvLook at the stars
Look how they shine for you
And everything you do
Yeah, they were all yellowI came along
I wrote a song for you
And all the things you do
And it was called “Yellow”So then I took my turn
Oh what a thing to have done
And it was all “Yellow”Your skin
Oh yeah, your skin and bones
Turn into something beautiful
You know, you know I love you so
You know I love you soI swam across
I jumped across for you
Oh what a thing to do
‘Cause you were all “Yellow”I drew a line
I drew a line for you
Oh what a thing to do
And it was all “Yellow”Your skin
Oh yeah your skin and bones
Turn into something beautiful
And you know
For you I’d bleed myself dry
For you I’d bleed myself dryIt’s true, look how they shine for you
Look how they shine for you
Look how they shine for
Look how they shine for you
Look how they shine for you
Look how they shineLook at the stars
Look how they shine for you
And all the things that you do
- Audio from the 2000 album, Parachutes
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