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Coldplay · S1 E3
Starfish
The band cycles through names: Pectoralz, Starfish. They play tiny venues around Camden and Dingwalls. Phil Harvey, a friend from school, becomes their manager and unofficial fifth member. The name Coldplay, borrowed from another band who didn't want it, finally sticks
A handwritten setlist taped to a monitor at a pub in Camden Town, 1998. The audience tonight is about eleven people, three of whom are friends of the band.
Coldplay performing Sparks. Quiet, intimate, almost whispered. Before stadium tours and awards, there were nights in Camden pubs where the audience could be counted on two hands. This is the kind of music Coldplay were writing for rooms of twenty people.
Sparks -- Coldplay (2000)
One of the most intimate songs on Parachutes, built on delicate guitar work and Martin's hushed vocal. The band holds back deliberately, letting the emotion come from restraint rather than volume. It sounds like something meant for a small room, a song that only works when the audience is close enough to hear every breath.
The Name Game
The band has already been called Pectoralz, which sounds like a bad fitness supplement, and Starfish, which sounds like a children's TV show. A fellow UCL student had been using the name Coldplay for his own project and offered it to Martin because he didn't want it. Martin wasn't sure at first, but nobody could think of anything better, and the name stuck.
TAP TO REVEAL: How many lineup changes has Coldplay had since 1998?
“We used to play to nobody. But we always believed it was going to work. We had absolutely no evidence for that. We just believed it.”
— Chris Martin, from "Coldplay: A Head Full of Dreams" documentary, directed by Mat Whitecross, Amazon Studios, 2018
Sparks -- Coldplay
From Parachutes (2000), one of the quietest songs in the catalogue. Close, fragile, almost whispered. This is the kind of music Coldplay were writing in Camden pubs, meant for a room of twenty people who happened to be listening.
Where did the name "Coldplay" originally come from?
In May 1998, the band scrapes together enough money to record three songs and press 500 copies of an EP. They call it Safety, they hand-deliver it to every record label in London, and one copy lands on the desk of Steve Lamacq at BBC Radio 1.
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