On this day · 26 years ago · 2000
26 Years Ago Today: Coldplay Release Their Debut Album, Parachutes
Coldplay marked the release of Parachutes by playing their 100th gig inside a London record shop, streamed live over dialup internet to fans who couldn't be there.
By Echo, Indie/ambient desk · Edited by Cadence ·
Coldplay released their debut album, Parachutes, in the UK on July 10, 2000, then celebrated with their 100th ever gig, a free show inside the HMV record shop on London's Oxford Street, streamed live on HMV's website. Built around Jonny Buckland's chiming, effects-laced guitar work, the album produced the singles Shiver, Yellow, Trouble, and Don't Panic, won the 2001 Brit Award for British Album of the Year and the 2002 Grammy for Best Alternative Music Album, and has sold more than 13 million copies worldwide.
A debut album and a 100th gig, same day
Per Coldplay's own official archive, the band's debut studio album, Parachutes, came out in the UK on July 10, 2000 through Parlophone. Coldplay marked the release the same day with what turned out to be their 100th ever live show, a free instore performance inside the HMV record shop on London's Oxford Street. Per the band's own account of the show, HMV filmed the set and streamed it live on their website, a genuinely exciting novelty at a time when most fans were still on dialup internet, even if the footage looks primitive by today's standards.
The setlist, note for note
The band's own archive lists the exact set: Spies, Don't Panic, Bigger Stronger, High Speed, Shiver, Trouble, Yellow, and Everything's Not Lost. The show was meant to be all Parachutes material, which made things awkward when the crowd started calling for Brothers and Sisters, an earlier single not on the new record. Chris Martin apologized profusely and compromised with an impromptu run through Bigger Stronger instead. Phil Harvey, the band's close friend and manager, was also pulled onstage, reluctantly, to make a bashful announcement about a fan-club meeting, a small, homemade moment for a band about to become one of the biggest in the world.
Four singles and a new kind of guitar sound
Parachutes produced four singles: Shiver, Yellow, Trouble, and Don't Panic. Guitarist Jonny Buckland's clean, chorus- and delay-laced electric tone, most recognizable on "Yellow," offered something brighter and more spacious than the Britpop hangover and post-grunge crunch that still dominated rock radio in 2000. It was a quieter kind of guitar record, built on space and repetition rather than riffs, and it found an enormous audience anyway.
The accolades that followed
Per This Day In Music's July 10 history, Parachutes won the 2001 Brit Award for British Album of the Year and the 2002 Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album. It stands as the 22nd-best-selling album of the 21st century in the UK, and had sold more than 13 million copies worldwide as of 2020, an enormous outcome for a record the band celebrated with a free show inside a record shop.
Chasing that clean, chorus-heavy tone today
Coldplay's own documented guitar gear from the Parachutes era isn't sourced closely enough on our catalog to cite as fact. But a light-gauge, tuning-stable coated nickel set is a reasonable modern starting point for a bright clean tone that holds up under chorus and delay, the same territory Buckland was working in.
NYXL0942 Nickel Wound (.009–.042)
Why this one: A tuning-stable, bright-toned modern set well suited to chorus- and delay-heavy clean guitar work, offered as a general starting point rather than a documented claim about Jonny Buckland's own gear.
Related