Coldplay: the band that owns the moment

Interview, August, 2003 by Elton John

CHRIS MARTIN BY ELTON JOHN

ELTON JOHN: You just played Madison Square Garden last night, right? How was it?

CHRIS MARTIN: It was amazing.

EJ: The Garden is my favorite venue in the world to play. The floor bounces-you must've noticed that.

CM: Well, we're kind of soft rock. No one really moves.

EJ: Oh. please! I saw you in Atlanta, and you're not at all. But listen, you must feel as if you've come a long way as a live band.

CM: Well, we have a lot more smoke and mirrors. Also, don't be shy-Atlanta was the concert where you came up onstage and played with us.

CM: Really? I don't believe you.

EJ: Yeah. It was great to play with you guys. And it blew me away that the whole audience knew every single word to every song of yours. [laughs]

EJ: It was like going to an old Rod Stewart concert, where he never used to sing because the audience sang all the words. You must be thrilled about what's happening. You've made a giant leap from the first album, Parachutes, which was a great debut, to your second, A Rush of Blood to the Head [both Capitol]. And as a performer within a band, you've certainly got so much confidence. I like the fact that you play the upright piano.

CM: Thanks. We thought about a grand piano, but I don't think we could get away with it.

EJ: Well, you're so long and spindly that it really has a great effect, I think. It's a bit Charlie Chaplin-esque. And the sound is great too.

CM: Thank you. It's been fun, everything that's happened to us. Today I'm feeling relaxed because we've finished touring America for this album. But when I think about where we were a year ago, it's totally bonkers, really. When you're on tour, you get caught up in the whole thing. You're worrying about day to day, and then you sit back and go, "Wow, we went from that to this."

EJ: When I saw you, I thought, "Oh, my God, I haven't seen a band like this since I saw U2 a long time ago." [Martin laughs] I know it's big shoes to fill, but I felt--and everybody with me that night said--"God, this is a big band."

CM: We just wrote a song called "Monday, Bloody Monday." We reckon it's going to be massive. [John laughs] It's weird: You must have had comparisons too, but we've had so many now that we're not sure who we are.

EJ: Yeah, well, you're uniquely yourselves. I get the feeling that you're all close.

CM: I hope so.

EJ: Because being in a band, you've got four different personalities going on, and you're. with each other a lot of the time, and you drive each other crazy. And that leads to friction, which sometimes leads to great bands not seeing their life span through because of the personal things that go on.

CM: Right, right. Well, it's hard for us to be unhappy at the moment. All we're thinking about now is writing new songs. After a year of promoting one album, you stop going at it. We stopped at the beginning of the new record's release because we were all very tense about releasing it, and I'm sure we will be on the next one as well.

EJ: So, are you going to do an album fairly quickly?

CM: No, no, no. We're going to try to reinvent the wheel.

EJ: Do you get homesick when you are on the road?

CM: A bit, but our families and our girlfriends will be with us a lot on this tour, so we're basically having the time of our lives.

EJ: I'll bet. Have you been to the cinema? What do you like to do when you have any days off?

CM: That's a good question. The main thing I like to do is write music. And vie watch a lot of films, I suppose. I used to love going bowling, but then we stopped because we thought it was pretty cheesy. We play football. We do everything your average young man does.

EJ: Do you guys travel by plane or by bus?

CM: We have a sort of hodgepodge. We don't have our private Elton jet yet, but we occasionally get flown.

EJ: A lot of bands really like going on the bus because it gives them camaraderie.

CM: The other day we spent four hours on the bus watching The Osbournes. I was really suspicious about the show when I first heard about it, although it must be weird for them to have cameras around all the time.

EJ: Invasion of privacy is a complex thing to deal with. You must be having to confront it now, what with the band's success and everything else. For example, everyone knows who you are going out with. When I saw you, I didn't even mention it because (a) it's none of my business and (b) it's something very precious to a person.

CM: I never talk about it. [About the paparazzi]--there're worse things going on in the world. But sometimes you see your potbelly in the paper--it's annoying.

EJ: In a very public life, privacy is very important. But back to The Osbournes--with something like that you get used to the cameras. David [Furnish] did a documentary on me once named Tantrums & Tiaras, and it was a year of him following me around with a handheld camera, and I just didn't realize it was there after a while, which was really good.

CM: How did you feel about that film?

EJ: I loved it. Because I know the behavior; people thought it was a bit outrageous.