Coldplay: Rumours of a Split?

Chris Martin Foresees Band Break Up After Next Studio Album

Nov 23, 2008

Rumours abound about a potential split for Coldplay, the band behind Parachutes, A Rush of Blood to the Head, X & Y, Viva La Vida and now Prospekt's March.

It’s hard to imagine a world without Coldplay, who have been climbing ever higher on the ladder of musical fame since the release of their latest album, Viva La Vida, and it's follow up EP Prospekt's March.

In a shock interview frontman Chris Martin has suggested that his band are likely to spend 2009 saying farewell and packing in as much as possible ahead of a split before Martin, now 31, hits his 33rd birthday. Talk about raining on your own parade.

Just as Coldplay fever hits an all time high following the record breaking release of their bestselling album yet, Viva La Vida, and it’s follow up 8-track EP, Prospekt’s March released on Monday in the UK and US, the news could have the unfortunate effect of causing the tidal wave of Coldplay shaped love to recede into something more closely resembling a muddy puddle.

Exploring the Rumours

However, on closer inspection, the story was posted on nme.com and has since been taken down, suggesting that perhaps some industry bigwigs intervened. This is not the first time such a rumour has been started, spread and then quelled when it comes to Coldplay, a similar internet based rush of conspiratorial whisperings abounded in the run up to the release of X & Y too, only to be decisively quashed by label EMI.

Perhaps it’s all part of the publicity plan: buy now, they won’t be around for long, that kind of thing. Perhaps it’s just Martin voicing his own far from definite musings about what he might like to do in the future as if he’d forgotten for a moment the level of his own celebrity and the fact that these casually dropped bombshells actually take on a life of their own.

In any case, his reasoning is far from sound. To be worried about not being able to “fit into our musical trousers” aged 33 is laughable, as is the idea that any band of that calibre would want to go out “at the top” when they are clearly making history with more promised.

Just a few weeks ago, in a interview for coldplay.com Chris thanked fans for being on mighty form this year and promising that his band would “get better and better”. This would be a big argument towards taking Chris's comments "with a pinch of salt" as has been recommended by the band's own question and answer service at coldplay.com, The Oracle.

Conveniently the rumours and the proposed timescale for the suggested split ties up quite neatly with the band’s supposed fulfilment of a 5 album agreement with EMI. It is widely held that Coldplay have only to produce one further album, tabled for this time in 2009, to fulfil their contract and to leave them free agents, though EMI have insisted that the band is tied into a more long-term relationship than this.

Obviously companies would have to be careful what they say when their share prices are affected by what their biggest bands do or don’t do. Coldplay’s delaying of Viva La Vida from the originally planned release date saw EMI’s share price drop significantly.

Take Chris Martin With a Pinch of Salt

Whether this means the band staying together or, as has been suggested, Chris Martin branching out into a new solo career, remains to be seen. In any case it’s a shame to see smug 'I told you sos' in the media from those who always thought Chris would run out on his bandmates given half a chance.

Coldplay have always been a staunch democracy. Whilst Martin has always enjoyed a greater share of celebrity and acclaim, or criticism, due to his prolific writing talents, and more significantly, his marriage to actress Gwyneth Paltrow, and subsequently ‘fabulous’ lifestyle amongst the Hollywood ex-pat community, he has always been one of the first to demand recognition for his band members.

Coldplay is not just Chris Martin, as Viva La Vida abundantly proved. Champion’s energetic spliced beats and inventive percussion drives the album; Buckland’s guitars spice it up and deny any accusations of generic drivel (though those are still thrown, inevitably and somewhat pathetically); Berryman’s mysterious presence as that moody good looking one, who doesn’t say much but plays bass fantastically, seals the deal.

In 2008 the band have shown a more tightly bound, cohesive presence than ever before, and that’s not just down to those revolutionary-style outfits they wear just about everywhere these days.

There could be, and probably is, nothing in these rumours at all. Similar ones have been rearing their heads for years. Certainly Coldplay are unlikely to be going anywhere for the time being. Whilst there is a sneaking feeling that there could be some industry sizes chess moves being played out here (hands up any conspiracy theorists?), it could all be harmless hot air.

Whether all of this means a new Coldplay deal being negotiated (not that they even need a label anymore), the continuation of the status quo, or a new solo project for Chris, it’s unlikely that the band are going to fizzle away from our musical consciousness, not when they have orchestrated one of the most successful, virtual fireworks display of an album (plus EP) of their careers.

The copyright of the article Coldplay: Rumours of a Split? in Current Pop Music is owned by Lisa Sutlieff. Permission to republish Coldplay: Rumours of a Split? in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.