Where does the band name ‘Coldplay’ come from and what does their symbol mean?

Coldplay are set to release their tenth studio album, Moon Music (full title: Music of the Spheres Vol. II: Moon Music), which drops on Friday, October 4 just past midnight (you’ll be able to follow a live review of that with Paul Reidy, right here on AS USA).

Coldplay are one of the biggest selling music acts of all time, having shifted over 100 million albums in their career, even more impressive when you consider that much of their time in the limelight having been in the streaming era. But, where did the name Coldplay come from?

How did Coldplay become Coldplay?

The band started when singer Chris Martin and lead guitarist Jonny Buckland met at University College London in 1996. Bassist Guy Berryman joined in 1997 and by November of that year they were calling themselves Big Fat Noises, but were still lacking a drummer.

That drummer appeared in the form of Will Champion who joined in January 1998, and organised the band’s first gig, on January 16, at The Laurel Tree in Camden. At that point the band were’t wedded to the Big Fat Noises moniker but had yet to come up with anything better. As the band admitted they chose Starfish, “in a panic”.

Starfish becomes Coldplay

After that one gig they changed their name to Coldplay, recommended by a uni friend, Tim Crompton, who had considered it for his own band after seeing it in the title of a book of poems by Philip Horky, entitled ‘Child’s Reflections, Cold Play’, published in 1997.

Horky’s work is described as a “stark collection of poetry” that “escapes the stylistic and structural conformity to explore the psychological realms”, according to goodreads.

Sadly it seems pretty difficult to get your hands on the book at the moment, being out of print. We were unable to find any second hand copies available on line, or even digital versions of the poems to read.

Martin forgets name source on Carpool Karaoke

Singer Chris Martin discussed the name change from Starfish to Coldplay on James Corden’s Carpool Karaoke, but for some reason didn’t reference the original source of the name. See from 9:04.

Corden glowingly gives credit to the band for joining the words together, saying “the words cold and play have never been joined together, you joined them and it kind of works but for many reasons it probably, like, shouldn’t but it does.”

“I know,” replies Martin, “well, thanks” - omitting any reference to the work by Horky.

Coldplay as ‘The Coldplay’

Curiously in a flyer from a gig at Dublin Castle in February 1998 they were called ‘The Coldplay’, rather than just Coldplay. Thankfully the ‘The’ did not stick and they’ve been just Coldplay ever since.

Coldplay symbols

Coldplay have used a range of imagery and symbols throughout their career rather than there being any one fixed Coldplay symbol. The interlocking circles symbol used for the ‘A Head Full of Dreams’ era, representing unity, harmony and the interconnectedness of all live is one of the best known.

Since their 2021 Music of the Spheres album, they have brought in a cosmic look and feel to band items and photoshoots. This has continued with their tenth album, ‘Moon Music’, featuring as the album cover a photo of a moonbow, taken by Argentine photographer Matías Alonso Revelli.

He explained how he took the photo: “During the pandemic I was at home when my dad called to tell me I should go to the backyard and look to the sky, what I saw was this wonderful rainbow right above my head, I rushed to get my camera, took a couple of pictures, went inside to edit them as I usually do and that was it, now it’s the cover art for @coldplay Moon Music”

Along with the cover art, Coldplay have used a number of colourful, child-like, hand-drawn symbols to accompany the new album, including a heart, an infinity sign, a circle, a stylised rainbow and a flower that looks like the sister flower to the one used by fellow Brits, James.