Coldplay have become such a monstrously big entity in modern music that it’s easy to forget they, you know, they have released several really good records over the years. They did not become one of the world’s biggest bands just because they have a fantastic array of fireworks at their gigs, even if they do have a mesmeric handle on pyrotechnic. Theirs is a career built on intricate, stirring singalongs and melancholic ballads that somehow transmitted a certain euphoria – the dazzling showmanship came second. Their 2000 debut Parachutes, which turns 25 this week, is where it all began.
A quietly mesmeric debut, its huge success was by no means assured, its four creators - Chris Martin, Jonny Buckland, Guy Berryman and Will Champion – bearing no resemblance to future superstars at the time. They looked exactly like what they were – four well-spoken young men fresh out of uni who’d never seen a hairbrush and would have zero issues with eating a Chicken & Mushroom Pot Noodle for breakfast. Coldplay had the potential and the tunes alright – early, pre-Parachutes releases The Blue Room EP, Brothers & Sisters and Shiver had suggested there was something magical stirring – but they were a long way from possessing their contemporary swagger. At that point, walking onstage at Wembley Stadium, where Coldplay will play ten sold out shows this summer, would’ve had them in therapy for the rest of the year.
