The first week of college is generally a time to make friends, find a party, and learn where classes are. For Chris Martin and Jonny Buckland their orientation week at the University College London in September 1996 that first week was the beginning of the road to a superstardom that they could not fathom. Martin spent the rest of the academic year plotting to start a college band.

That early edition of Coldplay was called the Pectoralz. It consisted of Martin as the lead singer, a backup guitarist, and a pianist and Buckland as the lead guitarist. The two brought in their classmate Guy Berryman, who become the bassist and by 1997 the group, now known as Starfish, was playing little clubs in the Camden section of London. The group kept on picking up friends, with Phil Harvey becoming the manager and Will Champion becoming the drummer, learning to play on the job.

Starfish needed a name, that name came from friend Tim Crompton. Starfish became Coldplay. Crompton had been using the name for his own band, but found the name too depressing. The name would become a staple on radio stations around the world as the new Coldplay quickly found a fan base.

The group found a sound that lands somewhere between Jeff Buckley and Oasis. That melodic alternative, sometimes piano, rock was featured the Safety EP. Distributed mainly to friends and music labels, the EP landed them a deal with the independent label Fierce Panda. In 1999, the first truly commercial release was the Brothers and Sisters EP, a three-track album made over four days in February of 1999. The group stayed cool and completed school before signing with Parlophone Records.

The five-album deal kicked off with the release of The Blue Room EP. Coldplay almost went through its first lineup change during the tense recording sessions. Martin kicked Champion out of the group. Martin took back his words and begged him to come back, new rules creating a democracy that evenly split the profits and banned hard drug use were put in place and the EP yielded a single, “Bigger Stronger,” that earned some air time on Radio 1.

Three EPs and no hits put the group and the label in a difficult position. The group began to make some headway when “Shiver” breached the Top 40 in the UK and finally broke out with the release and popularity of “Yellow”. The song’s heavy music video rotation on MTV took the group from a lucky spot with other struggling new bands on the Carling Tour to the release of their first full-length album, Parachutes, in July of 2000 and their first headlining tour.

Despite criticism for a resemblance of the album to Radiohead’s sound around the time of The Bends, the album won the Mercury Music Prize, a British award for the best album of the year, and debuted as the number one album on the UK charts. The American release of the melodic pop album complete with distorted guitar came months later in November and heavy touring off U.S. clubs in 2001 as well as appearances on popular programs like SNL, Late Night with Conan O’Brien, and the Late Show with David Letterman helped the album win over fans and critics alike, winning the Best Alternative Music Album award at the 2002 Grammy Awards.

Coldplay returned to the studios with producer Ken Nelson and quickly recorded A Rush of Blood to the Head. The singles “In My Place,” “Clocks,” and “The Scientist” took over the radio and their music videos were featured on MTV as the group toured five continents following the release of the album in August 2002.

The new album brought a whole new slew of accolades. Rolling Stone’s readers voted the group the best artist and band of the year in 2003. The new album again won Coldplay the Best Alternative Music Album award at the Grammys, but also went one step further and won the Record of the Year for the single “Clocks”.

Two huge hit albums and years of heavy touring left the members of Coldplay exhausted. They went into recluse in 2004, focusing on recording their third album. With a new set of influences from a wide array of sources, including David Bowie, Depeche Mode, Pink Floyd, and Kate Bush, the result was the album X&Y.

The album’s release was delay until June 2005 in the UK and Europe, but the change in schedule did nothing to stop the incredible success of the album. Coldplay’s new album was the best selling album that year and single “Speed of Sound” edbuted number one in 22 different countries. Coldplay was now officially a global phenomenon. Now in the forefront of the music world, the group found its new album to be met with harsh critical backlash from some and praise for others, they were called the next U2.

The release was accompanied with the Twisted Logic Tour, a headling tour that embraced festivals like Coachella, Glastonbury, and the Austin City Limits Musical Festival. The group also continued its history of political activism with a performance at