Watch a young Coldplay perform on the day "Yellow" was released in this exclusive clip
This show from June 2000 was one of the first times the band had performed outside the UK, on the cusp of its massive success
Whether you’re a fan of Coldplay circa 2021 or not, one thing seems incontrovertible: 20-plus years after the release of the band’s debut album, Parachutes, Coldplay’s introduction to the world maintains massive staying power. Singles like “Yellow,” “Trouble,” and “Shiver” became inescapable hits and launched the group into the globally famous rock act it has been ever since. And now, for the first time, you can see a live recording of the band from way back when they were just about to break, thanks to a just-released performance from the summer of 2000.
This new and intimate footage comes courtesy of The Coda Collection, the music-centric streaming service available via Amazon that specializes in an extensive catalogue of documentaries and concert films (and that also recently put out the Dave Grohl-directed documentary What Drives Us) who is making this complete performance available outside The Netherlands for the first time. As part of the release, The A.V. Club has an exclusive clip of the band performing “Shiver,” complete with a nervous, fresh-faced Chris Martin (then just barely old enough to drink in the U.S.) confessing, “This is the first time we’ve ever played our music outside of England.” Watch it below.
Taped the exact same day that “Yellow” was first released as a single (talk about a harbinger of big things to come), the full concert—all shot with this close up, right-there-on-stage intimacy—features the band running through a lot of its early hits, and some endearingly nerdy banter from its not-yet-superstar frontman. You can watch the full trailer for the performance here, and stream Coldplay’s “Amsterdam Sessions” on The Coda Collection now here. And while it’s arguable that, had these songs never come into the world, we might never have had to learn the term “conscious uncoupling,” watching this performance of “Shiver” is a good reminder that, damn, those young British guys could write a killer bridge.