“He was holding a guitar, and he’s, like, ‘Come with me, come with me,’ and he grabbed me and dragged me into one of the bathrooms…and he played this tune that I’ve never heard before or since.” After he’d finished, despite Whitecross’ praise, Martin exclaimed, “I knew it! Sh-! F-! I’m talentless.” Back at University, “I was heading to some lecture and I bumped into Chris in the corridor,” Whitecross recounts. Holmes was also one of the few who understood Martin’s “crisis of confidence,” as Whitecross describes a sort of insecurity/defense mechanism/humble-brag the singer continues to employ even today. Speaking to Variety, Holmes recalls giving his mother a copy of Coldplay’s 1999 debut “Parachutes.” Says Holmes: “I told her, ‘I just started working with this band, and they’re going to be as big as U2.
“Chris, hours later, is waving his hands in front of the camera and talking about how they’re gonna be the biggest band the world after they’d just had the worst gig of all time.”įew outside of the “drunk farmer” in attendance believed Martin at the time, but manager Dave Holmes says knew all along that Coldplay would go down in history. Recalling a gig at a remote farmer’s college in which Coldplay’s set got pushed back to two in the morning, Whitecross says he was astounded by Martin’s buoyant nature. In his formative days, full of blind confidence and boundless energy - even while still sporting braces - it didn’t matter if there were only three people in the audience. In the end, it was Martin who gave the greenlight with a warning: “Go off and make whatever film you want to make. Known for his directorial work on the Oasis documentary “Supersonic,” Whitecross says it took years for the band to come around to the idea of a film - this despite him having collected more than 1,000 hours of footage since 1999.