03 February 2025
Newsdesk
This Piano Room session was pre-recorded so was presented by Jo Whiley, as Vernon explained, “Coldplay are the biggest band in the world so we had to pre-record this Piano Room to fit it into their schedule and, unfortunately, I wasn’t able to be there, so the one and only Jo Whiley is hosting it.”
They performed a previous hit – Viva La Vida, a new song - All My Love, and a classic cover - Sunshine On Leith by The Proclaimers. They chatted about their upcoming tour and the new song, returning to Glastonbury in the future, Jo Whiley giving Chris Martin butterflies and more...
Chris opened the interview by calling Jo the ‘best DJ of all time!
Chris Martin: Can we call you the best DJ of all time...
Jo Whiley: You can, but do you mean it?
Coldplay: [collectively] absolutely!
Talking about the their classic hit, Viva La Vida, that they perform as their first song for Piano Room:
Chris: It turned out... Phil, who’s our fifth member, told us that our label had told us to take that song off the album ‘cause they didn’t think it sounded like Coldplay, but Will kept it on because he said, ‘No this is our best song’, so thanks Will.
Jo played Chris a clip from the first time she interviewed him on the phone many years ago where he said he’d been writing thank you letters for his Christmas presents and was outside his parent’s house on his first mobile phone:
Chris Martin: I remember, I was so nervous to talk to you [Jo]... I got told Jo Whiley’s going to call and it still gives me butterflies and I think I still have that with you more than any other interviewer… it’s like when you bump into a teacher, you still think of them as your teacher. Whenever you’re interviewing us I sort of close down a bit [laughs].
Jo: Like I’m your teacher?
Chris: No, but I think it’s because at that time there was such a disparity between you and us. You know, we were not famous, we were nothing.
On playing Glastonbury again:
Jo: Will you play Glastonbury again, I was thinking?
Chris: Not for a long time.
Jo: It'll be the Legends slot won’t it?
Chris: Maybe
Jo: If you're lucky.
Chris: But we might go back with an ice-cream van for a few years!
On favourite highlights of people joining them to perform on stage
Guy: Well, Michael J Fox at Glastonbury I think was a big deal for all of us. Growing up, he was our hero. Still is!
On their classic cover of Sunshine On Leith by The Proclaimers, their final track on today’s Piano Room:
Chris: Then this cover that Guy sent me three days ago [before the band prerecorded their Piano Room performance], he said listen to this song by The Proclaimers, and I'd never heard it before, and it blew me away... I'd never heard it before and then I watched the Hibernian fans singing in the terraces and it just gets me so much, that song.
