Week 1: The Overview
This is the first article in a 10-piece series. Coldplay in Technicolor is a data analysis of Coldplay's 20 years of live performances. Read more about it here.
Coldplay's first ever known performance took place 1997 in Convent Garden. And by "first ever known performance" I mean it was Chris and Will busking in the streets of London. Since then, they've played 1,178 gigs. In those 1,179 shows, they've played 303 unique songs in a total of 17,369 performances.
Most of those were Coldplay songs, of course. But some were covers. More specifically, 791 were cover performances of 90 different artists.
From Michael Stipe to Ariana Grande, Coldplay has performed with 31 other artists, a total of 70 times.
Those 1,179 shows span across almost 20 years, the most popular year being 2000. My guess will be that Chris, Will, Jonny, Guy and Phil kept themselves busy when their first album was getting traction and played anywhere and everywhere.
While Coldplay has visited 38 countries in all continents over those 20 years, a bulk of those concerts took place in the UK and the US, specially in the first years.
There is a lot of great and detailed data since Chris and Will went busking in London. My goal for the next few weeks is to get into bigger detail on those 1,179 shows, 303 songs, 791 covers and 70 collaborations, but I wanted to get started with a quick overview and 10,000 feet view of those 20 years.
Read here my plan for the next few analysis. Is there anything I'm missing that you'd like to see? Let me know in the comments.
Follow me on twitter and on medium and to get updates on new articles in this series.
