Mike Skinner had already established himself as one of the most exciting new artists of the 21st century with The Streets’ 2002 debut Original Pirate Material, a record that blended UK garage, lo-fi hip-hop beats and pulsing synths with entertaining, heavily-stoned tales of life in your twenties in early 00s Britain, but everything went up a notch with his ambitious 2004 follow-up A Grand Don’t Come For Free.
The record’s biggest track (but not its best – that’s Blinded By The Lights or Empty Cans, surely?) was the stirring break-up ballad Dry Your Eyes, a song that hit the top-spot of the UK charts 20 years ago this week. Its doleful chorus was delivered by Matt Sladen, with the singer-songwriter’s version picked over a take from Coldplay’s Chris Martin. In an interview at the time, Martin said he was the one pushing the idea that his voice didn’t work on the track.
“There was this version of it which I sang the chorus,” the Coldplay frontman explained. “But I said I didn’t think it was as good as the version where Mike sang the chorus. Then he didn’t think that was as good as the version where some other dude sang the chorus, so neither him nor me sing on the chorus.”
“But it was cool to spend the day with him,” Martin continued. “He’s an amazing guy; you know there are some great rappers coming out. I don’t know whether he’d class himself as a rapper or a MC or whatever.”
Looking back on the lost duet in an interview with The Guardian a few years ago, Skinner agreed with Martin’s version of events.
“It was never released because Chris just thought it didn’t need him,” said The Streets man. “When you’re making music, you’re constantly trying different things. Sometimes you think something’s really good when it isn’t and other times you don’t really pay much attention to something and suddenly there’s a whole field of people singing it. The people decide and you just become this weird facilitator. I’ve hung out with Chris since; whenever we’ve been in the same area of the world, we’ve had dinner and stuff.”
Whilst the Chris Martin-featuring version of Dry Your Eyes never received an official release, it did surface on the internet ten years ago. Have a listen below:
