Certainly the UK indie equivalent of a Rolling Stone cover, this would have been a milestone moment for the band. And what company they kept! Blur and Radiohead – hugely influential on the young Coldplay, both get mentions. So too do Travis – in the form of singer Fran Healy at the bottom of the page and in the “Next men who…” headline – a play on the title of Travis’s second album.

It’s worth mentioning the importance of Travis at this point. Firstly, Fran Healy was a big supporter of the band. The story goes that on Travis’s first major promo tour of the US, Fran would take copies of the Yellow single to radio stations when he went to do interviews – almost like an advance party for the cause. Travis were also known for their “nice guys don’t always finish last” vibe. In the cocky and swaggering world that Britpop often was at the time, this must have been a huge affirmation for Coldplay that being themselves was completely acceptable.

Having (by his own admission) fallen off the toilet the first time the word Coldplay appeared in the NME, one has to wonder quite how Chris reacted to this….

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