Coldplay’s early studio tapes go up for auction

Coldplay’s early recording archives – studio tapes, alternative mixes and demos from the formative sessions that preceded and helped shape the band’s debut album Parachute – will be auctioned off through Wax Poetics this week, offering a rare glimpse into the band before they broke out around the world.

The bulk of the collection is by British producer, mixer and engineer Chris Allison and centers around Coldplay’s ‘Blue Room’ sessions at London’s Orinoco Studios, recorded shortly after the band signed to Parlophone.

The auction house describes this material as a window into the era that laid the foundations of the parachute. These include “High Speed,” which is the only track on the album not produced by Ken Nelson. Allison produced it by herself. The song was first performed on Coldplay’s first Parlophone release, the Blue Room EP, in October 1999, before being re-recorded for the album.

The lot also includes an original DAT mix, an unreleased alternate version, an unreleased take of “We Never Change,” and a nine-track cassette containing some of the band’s earliest known recordings, two of which were never released in any form.

Among the more unusual items, the auction house says the archive includes an acoustic demo recorded by Chris Martin as the pitch for the title song for the 1999 James Bond film The World Is Not Enough. The challenge was ultimately given to Garbage, whose official theme was “The World Is Not Enough.” According to Wax Poetics, Martin’s version has never been released or documented.

“This is a window into the writing, recording, production and promotion of a unique and celebrated music artist, and a piece of music history that deserves to be in the hands of fans rather than gathering dust in a vault,” Allison said in a statement.