Simon Williams, founder of Fierce Panda, the independent label that released Coldplay’s debut single Brothers & Sisters in 1999, was enchanted. We’ve learnt that we love what we do and loads of people love us, too.” We quickly got used to that and I think that’s fine. Coldplay found the backlash “tough”, says Champion. Sutherland also notes Coldplay weren’t “cool” but “won everyone over with their songs and spirit”. ![]() Former Creation Records boss Alan McGee once labelled their sound as “bedwetters’ music”. ‘Not cool’ĭespite Coldplay’s early success, however, the band always had its detractors. At live shows, he points out, it still “gets an ecstatic reception, even from those who were far too young to experience it when it was released”. It was clearly going to be a hit.” Coldplay may have had many bigger songs but “Yellow”, says Sutherland, will “always reach new audiences”. “Something so simply melodic and sweetly optimistic stood out a mile. “It was dominated by noisy, angry American rock bands,” he says. He remembers the new millennium as a “funny” year for music. It’s a sentiment echoed by Music Week editor Mark Sutherland, who was writing for Melody Maker when Yellow came out. I think ‘Yellow’ represented something that was possibly under-represented.” “There was a lot of that nu metal, like Limp Bizkit. “I think, especially when we took the song to America, it was something that was very different to what was on the radio,” says Champion. The timing of the song’s release worked in the band’s favour, its tender tone forming a stark contrast to the brash rap-rock that was popular at the time. I can’t really imagine how it would be if that song had fallen in someone else’s lap.” Where it all began: Coldplay in September 2000 (Photo: EMI) “We’re extremely grateful for it because it really enabled us to build Parachutes around it, allowed us to go to America and play to bigger audiences. “It was something that we needed, something that would allow us to get to more places,” says drummer Will Champion. It was a surprise to the record label and, Martin’s faux-confidence aside, to the band themselves. Released two years to the day after Martin’s prediction, Yellow, the second single from debut album Parachutes (which is 20 years old this Friday), shot to number four in the UK charts and made an impact in the US. ![]() But before any of this came a simple song called Yellow. They have sold more than 75 million records, won countless awards, including nine Brits and seven Grammys, and collaborated with some of the world’s biggest pop stars, from Noel Gallagher to Rihanna and Beyoncé. Each of their eight albums has reached number one in the UK. The televised lineup included several jazz legends (the first six are listed in the order of their solos) Ben Webster – tenor saxophone, Lester Young – tenor saxophone, Vic Dickenson – trombone, Gerry Mulligan – baritone saxophone, Coleman Hawkins – tenor saxophone, Roy Eldridge – trumpet, Doc Cheatham – trumpet, Danny Barker – guitar, Milt Hinton – double bass, Mal Waldron – piano, Osie Johnson – drums.The original Yellow single, released in 2000 (Photo: Parlophone Records)Ĭoldplay, of course, have made good on Martin’s starry-eyed promise. Noting that the cameras were employed as “straight reportorial tools”, Jack Gould observed in a New York Times review: “It was the art of video improvisation wedded to the art of musical improvisation the effect was an hour of enormously creative and fresh TV.” Within two years, both Young and Holiday had died. When the show was over, they went their separate ways. And in the control room we were all crying. It was as if they were both remembering what had been-whatever that was. Lester got up, and he played the purest blues I have ever heard, and were looking at each other, their eyes were sort of interlocked, and she was sort of nodding and half–smiling. Young was very weak, and Hentoff told him to skip the big band section of the show and that he could sit while performing in the group with Holiday.ĭuring the performance of “Fine and Mellow”, Webster played the first solo. Jazz critic Nat Hentoff, who was involved in the show, recalled that during rehearsals, they kept to opposite sides of the room. The show’s performance of “Fine and Mellow” reunited Billie Holiday with her estranged long-time friend and stirring collaborator Lester Young for the final time. Eastern Time, live from CBS Studio 58, the Town Theater at 851 Ninth Avenue in New York City. ![]() The one-hour program aired on Sunday, December 8, 1957, at 5 p.m.
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