Biography of Chris Martin | Composer and singer.

(Christopher Anthony John Martin; Exeter, Devon, 1977) English composer, singer and leader of the band Coldplay. This British formation gained particular recognition and popularity after the success of his fourth album, Viva la Vida or Death and All his Friends (2008), which earned three Grammy Awards and was the biggest selling album of the year.

Chris Martin

Although born in Exeter, capital of the County of Devon, Chris Martin was raised in a small nearby village, Whitestone. He was the eldest of the five children of the marriage formed by Anthony, a sworn accounts censor, and Alison, Professor of music. He was educated at Exeter Cathedral School and at Sherborne School (in Sherborne, Dorset), one of the most expensive of United Kingdom private schools. It was there where, with two fellow students, formed his first band, The rockin' ' Honkies, dedicated to rhythm and blues and soul, and where he met who years later would be his manager Phil Harvey.

In 1996 Martin joined the University College of London, the third oldest higher education of England institution; He studied ancient history and graduated with honours in Greek and latin. In Ramsay Hall, the University residence, Martin met Jonny Buckland, guitarist like him. They soon made crumbs and formed Pectoralz, first embryo of Coldplay. Shortly after another companion of the campus, bassist Guy Berryman, would join them and, as a trio, they began playing in small clubs in Camden. In January 1998, there was a new incorporation, the drummer Will Champion. The band changed its name, first by Starfish and subsequently by Coldplay, name that would achieve international recognition.

Coldplay

In May 1998, Coldplay self-financing his first recording, Safety, an EP on limited edition (500 copies) intended as a promotional model and that eventually would become cult for fans. Safety drew the attention of independent label Fierce Panda, who in 1999 released a new EP of the group, Brothers & Sisters, which already specialized press echoed. While they fogueaban with performances by small format in British clubs, the band signed by the record label Parlophone, which in 1999 released the mini-album The Blue Room and the singles Shiver and Yellow, previews of what would be their debut album, Parachutes, the disc which would give them to know and that encaramaría them to the charts of the United Kingdom.

Parachutes appeared in November 2000 and only during the Christmas holidays were sold 1.6 million copies; He won two British Awards: best British group and best British album. The New Musical Express (NME) one of the weeklies most important musicals in the country, appointed them group newcomer of the year, in addition to giving them the award for best single ( Yellow) and the best concert of the year. His second album, A Rush of Blood to the Head, presented in 2002, was the confirmation of the group, which in 2003 won two Grammy Awards in the categories of best album of alternative music and best performance by a group or duo vocal. That same year Chris Martin married the American actress Gwyneth Paltrow, which would have two children, Apple (2004) and Moses (2006).

After rolling through the stages of the five continents between June 2002 and September 2003, on a tour that included appearances at Glastonbury and Rock Werch festivals and in which he took the opportunity to record a CD and live DVD, Live 2003, Coldplay is locked in studios to record what would be their third album , X & and. The album, released in 2005, led them to make his second world tour, Twisted Logic Tour, from June 2005 to July 2006. In 2006 were one of the most ovacionados groups in the huge anti-poverty Live 8 concert, held in London's Hyde Park.

Chris Martin in concert

But the best of this British Group was still to come. In June 2008 it appeared their fourth album, Viva la Vida or Death and All his Friends, produced by Brian Eno. Two months earlier the band had offered the possibility of listening to one of the singles from the album, Violet Hill, through its web site. The theme was downloaded by two million people in one week. Viva la Vida or Death and All his Friends was the album most sold in 2008, with more than eight million copies worldwide, and became a social phenomenon to Coldplay. The single one that gives title to the disc, which is also downloadable on the net, in February 2009 won the Grammy for best song of the year. Such was the success that the band released live the life The Ultimate Edition (2009), a double CD which included acoustic versions of old hits, new tracks and even a collaboration with rapper Jay-Z.

Engaged in the promotional tour The Viva Vida Tour since mid-2008, the guys of Coldplay arrived in Spain in September 2009. And did so in a unique concert in Barcelona, a city that already had acted previously, although in small format, and linked to a certain attachment: not in vain the song Viva la Vida had been regarding Pep Guardiola musical to cheer their players during a historic season for the Football Club Barcelona , a free publicity he had seen throughout Europe and which gave the group even more popularity than it already had. If in 2008, they had played for little more than a thousand people, now filled the Olympic Stadium of Montjuic, where sixty thousand participants chanted their subjects.

Extracted from the website: Biografías y Vidas