Coldplay poster article
Click here to find Coldplay posters and other rock posters.
Coldplay – on tour
By JP Webber, Music on Posters editor.
In this poster the band find themselves on a roof somewhere in France where they happen to encounter a photographer who catches them in a handy pose. Publicity shots like this must be embarrassing unless you’re a natural exhibitionist – some bands are notoriously edgy when doing these sessions.
The self-consciousness of this type of poster relates to the fact that other than when they’re on stage Coldplay don’t have – and don’t want to have – much else to offer. They’re not pin-ups, you can’t do the glam thing with them; they’re not bad boys, so there’s no point in trying to develop their persona; they don’t fit into any particular sub-category of rock that you can pin on them. They just are what they are which, other than musicians, is normal, white, middle-class men.
The one thing that has been done here, and quite strongly, is to centralise and foreground the band’s front man, Chris Martin. Two of the others are partially chopped off at the edges and the third slightly obscured by Martin’s arm. This is not surprising, but has been known to cause problems with bands before, depending on their attitude to publicity and each other. Let’s hope the others are happy to let Martin take the limelight and they don’t end up throwing each other, or the photographer, off the roof.
Here is today's featured article