Coldplay guitarist Jonny Buckland has plenty of memories from the British group’s last North American tour earlier this year – and not all of them good.
“The one that overshadows everything was going on for one song in New York and having to leave the stage ’cause Chris [Martin] had lost his voice,” Buckland says. “We did ‘Yellow’ with someone from the crowd singing. It wasn’t the best experience. And the gig we did in Chicago, the biggest indoor gig we ever headlined, there was a bucket by the side of the stage ’cause I was so sick. Guy [Berryman] was feeling really ill as well, and Chris was on the verge of losing his voice again.
“But we loved it last time. It was really great, apart from being a short tour.”
The quartet’s just-started tour finds it not only healthier but even better-known than before, thanks to the success of “Yellow” on radio and a gold certification for Coldplay’s debut album, Parachutes, which also hit No. 1 in the group’s homeland. But Buckland says he and his bandmates are still getting used to their burgeoning status. “We thought [Parachutes] was good,” he says. “I don’t know if we thought it would do anywhere near what it’s done, though. We judge success on an entirely different scale; if it had been a Top 10 record in Britain, we’d have judged that as a great success. This is kind of off the scale, really.”
Coldplay has new music to perform these days, with working titles such as “In My Place,” “Animals,” “Rush of Blood to the Head,” and “God Put a Smile On Your Face.” “We’ve got quite a lot, like six or seven completely finished songs – although obviously they’re not completely finished until they’re recorded,” Buckland says. “We’ve got another 10 or 15 that are half-finished. Hopefully we’ll have quite a few songs for the next record.”
Buckland says Coldplay will probably do some recording during July, then hunker down with co-producer Ken Nelson during the fall, after it finishes touring to support Parachutes.