\n Chris Martin and Jonny Buckland met in 1996 during their first week at the\u00a0Bloomsbury institution and began writing songs together.\n<\/p>\n
\n \n Initially performing as Pectoralz, the duo moved into a flat together at 268\u00a0Camden Road the following year.\n<\/p>\n \n Close to the epicentre of indie cool, the flat had once been home to Bernie Rhodes, manager of the Clash. It was here, joined by fellow students Guy Merryman and Will Champion, that they held their first\u00a0rehearsal.\n<\/p>\n \n \n Their\u00a0first gig\u00a0on\u00a0January 16, 1998 was at The Laurel Tree pub in Bayham Street –\u00a0a venue which\u00a0was a Britpop hotspot frequented by members of Blur, Suede and Pulp.\n<\/p>\n \n Costing \u00a34 entry with a flier, the gig\u00a0was performed to a roomful of friends under the shortlived\u00a0name Starfish, chosen according to Jonny at the last minute “in a panic”.\n<\/p>\n \n Their\u00a0proper debut came the following month at\u00a0The Dublin Castle, a venue which had helped launch the careers of the likes of Madness.\n<\/p>\n \n \n It was at the pub that\u00a0they\u00a0met ace soundman Dan Green, who has mixed almost every Coldplay show since and\u00a0went on to co-produce albums.\n<\/p>\n \n Hyde Park<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n \n In April 1999 they signed their first publishing deal aboard pedalos in the middle of the Serpentine in Hyde Park, swiftly followed by a\u00a0record deal with Parlophone in Trafalgar Square.\n<\/p>\n \n The following year their breakthrough debut album Parachutes\u00a0featuring the hit single Yellow catapulted them to success.\n<\/p>\n \n Back then their equipment fitted into the back of a Ford estate and cost \u00a312 to shift. Their Music of the Spheres World tour which arrives in Wembley on Friday requires a fleet of articulated trucks and it’s partly to reduce carbon emissions that they wanted to play a long stint of consecutive shows.\n<\/p>\n \n \n In 2004\u00a0when Chris Martin was married to film star Gwyneth Paltrow they bought a large house in Belsize Park which they applied to extend in 2009.\n<\/p>\n \n Not far away is The Bakery,\u00a0a recording studio\u00a0at 4A Fleet Road which the band first rented\u00a0in 2006 to provide a space to rehearse, write, and work.\n<\/p>\n \n Sandwiched between an estate agent and a restaurant, the studio was housed in\u00a0an old bakery and also included their management offices.\n<\/p>\n \n Working with producers Dan Green and Rik Simpson, the first Coldplay album to be recorded there was Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends.\n<\/p>\n \n \n The group told NME they rehearsed there every\u00a0Thursday and recording sessions took place for 2011 album Mylo Xyloto.\n<\/p>\n \n Over the following years, Chris Martin was often\u00a0spotted around Hampstead and Highgate, whether dropping into the Highgate School summer fair or visiting Swiss Cottage Special School to\u00a0perform the\u00a0hit \u2018Paradise\u2019 to pupils in the music suite.\n<\/p>\n \n Coldplay perform at Wembley Stadium on August 22, 23, 26, 27, 30, 31 and September 3 and 4.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As Coldplay prepare to start\u00a0their record-breaking run at the national\u00a0Stadium\u00a0we take a look back\u00a0at their early North London…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":361341,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7757],"tags":[748,393,4884,257,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-361509","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-london","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-london","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115065602940631955","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361509","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=361509"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361509\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/361341"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=361509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=361509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=361509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Chris Martin and Jonny Buckland met in 1996 during their first week at UCL in Bloomsbury. (Image: Wikimedia Commons) Camden Town<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n
The Laurel Tree in Bayham Street, which later became a Brew Dog pub was the venue for the band’s first gig under the shortlived name Starfish. (Image: Wikimedia Commons)\n<\/p>\n
In February 1998, the band played legendary Camden Town pub The Dublin Castle appearing as ‘The Coldplay’. (Image: Wikimedia Commons) Performing as ‘The Coldplay (formerly known as Starfish)’, they had arranged to borrow a drumkit from the previous band on the bill who took it\u00a0home in a hissy fit at their promoter.\u00a0So drummer Will Champion\u00a0had to improvise using\u00a0the floor and his drumsticks.\n<\/p>\n
From 2006-2010 the band converted an old bakery into a studio and management offices on Fleet Road before converting an old church hall a few doors up into a bigger studio called The Beehive. (Image: Wikimedia Commons) Belsize Park<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n
Chris Martin drops into the Highgate School fair in 2015. (Image: Newsquest) A\u00a0few years later in 2009 they converted\u00a0The Beehive, a larger\u00a0building at 17 Fleet Road that was once a church hall.\n<\/p>\n