“Speed of Sound” was a huge moment for Coldplay, as it kicked off the X&Y Era and was the band’s first Top 10 single in the US. However, the band has had a controversial relationship with the song.
In a 2011 interview with Concrete, Chris Martin explained that Coldplay thought they “never got it right” when it comes to “speed of sound.” In a 2011 chat with Howard Stern, he explained that the band doesn’t play the song live because “an audience can pick up on it really quickly if you’re not convinced of something.”
Since the X&Y era, the band have performed the track live only rarely, and when they do, it’s usually acoustic of just a shortened version of the song. However, during a recent show in El Paso, Texas ( as NME notes ), they played a full band version of the song in full for the first time since 2016.
Before playing it, Martin told the audience, “Why don’t we try to get the song ‘Speed of Sound’ back? At some point, we’ll do a proper edit of the song and just do a remix. [laughs] We’ll try to play it anyway.”
Check out the video above.
