The Observer from London, Greater London, England • 125

water into his jacket pocket and standing up from the table. 'It's about not knowing anything and the freedom that gives you to try anything. And girls. It's about girls, too. Isn't At which point he decides we should step out into the Sunday afternoon sun and head over to St James's Park to ponder these important matters some more.

Pausing to buy some nuts from a vendor on the bridge, Martin considers his remarkable good fortune. 'Dreams come he laughs, passing a bag of nuts over. 'They really do! I grew up watching Neighbours and I was totally fixated by this one character, Beth. I really fell in love with her. Years later I'm in a band and who do I meet? Beth, Natalie Im-bruglia, and she's a fan.

Of me, well, our music. He gazes out over the Thames, shaking his head and rubbing his dome frantically. 'That's amazing. She's a mate of mine. She's my friend.

It's too strange. Tremendous, Whether he's told her that he fell in love with her as a teenager must remain a moot point. 'You don't really think I can talk about that with you, do he Sitting on a park bench with his bag of nuts, however, he does take a moment to consider his love life. It's not shaping up too well. he decides, 'I'm a complete cunt please note: this is the first recorded instance of Chris Martin swearing in the public domain.

The previous night he'd apologised to his father in the audience when he took the Lord's name in vain on stage. Absolutely. I'm a complete loser and failure in all things The reason for this is the obstacle hogging his one-track mind: Coldplay. He's obsessed with the band, and for a hopeless romantic, that's pretty hard to balance. He says it marks him out as a very, very bad date.

'I mean, I don't want to put anybody off. I don't want Rachel Weisz to read this and be deterred, because I really fancy her. Actually, put that in. She probably reads The Observer. I've just seen The Mummy and she's beautiful in that.

in the end. So come on. Let's do something What we're going to do now is walk back to Martin's hotel through the park so he can meet his parents for lunch. Martin actually lives in north London but he always stays in a hotel when Coldplay play in London, as they did last night. He likes to feel as if he's on tour before a show even if he's not.

He loves that sense of adventure, that sensation of heading off to make camp with your friends, that companionship with band and crew. But the band and crew aren't here. They're staying in their homes around London. So he's heading off on his own adventure, making camp alone in a hotel room a few miles from his Primrose Hill home. Isn't this all a bit odd, Chris? 'Well, I am odd, I suppose.

You know, I'm in a rock'n'roll band and people think it's weird because I don't do anything remotely rock'n'roll apart from playing it. People think it's weird I don't take drugs or drink. But for me, rock'n'roll is all about doing whatever you want. It's about defying convention and being who you are. And that's me.

'I'd have a hard time convincing you Coldplay are the direct descendants of The Sex Pistols, but I watched The Filth and the Fury and I felt a lot of empathy. People say they were yobs or whatever, but Johnny Rotten had so much compassion. He said that he didn't do the things he did because he hated the British people but because he loved them and thought they were being sold short. That's exactly why we do what we do! We want to make music with heart and soul because culturally people are sold short in this country. We just want to prove that you can be a massive group and have some meaning, some feeling.

I don't want to be We walk on. Martin talks about all the brilliant people he's met in the past couple of years. He explains how sweet Kylie is, how encouraging PJ Harvey was and how Liam Gallagher came back stage at one gig and told him 'Yellow' had inspired him to write 'Songbird' and had then leant into Chris and sung it in his ear. It was a big step towards believing Coldplay belonged in the same club as the Gallaghers. But there's one more person he'd like to meet.

He'd love to meet Alan McGee. He'd love to ask him what all that was across the room, plucking up the courage to go and speak to her. It really was intense. Eventually, I'm ready. I go over, introduce myself and start talking.

After about two minutes I started to think: Right, well, I'd better go ring my dad because some kind of arrangement needs to be made." Then I she had a wedding ring He crumples back against the bench. 'I've got to seize the moment quicker. You can't go through life just floating. I'm only but I don't want to miss the If the hopeless romantic in Chris Martin can be heard burning through big torch songs like 'The Scientist' and 'Green Eyes' on the new album, the desperation in his last statement drives the rest of the vehicle. You can hear his hunger for the immediate on songs like the opening 'Politik' where, over a blast of discordant keyboards and guitars that power forward like a warming jet, Chris demands that he be given 'life over death'; or on 'Clocks', where he details missed opportunities flashing by through a piano's frantic whirl; or on the album's mournful title track, a song that catalogues life's fragility, its unbearable lightness.

The music is big, bold, moving, cinematic. And the lyrics reveal a seriously neurotic urgency in their author. he shouts approvingly. 'I am. That's me.

Urgent, urgency. It's the word that sums me up. All this is fun, but it's nonsense. So is our music. When human life ends, what will it all mean? Who'll listen to all the great records, who'll read the great books, watch the great movies? Nobody.

So do it now. Do it He grabs my sleeve and stares deeply into my eyes for a moment. It's weird. 'Now, now, he implores. 'Don't put anything Drummer Will Champion has an insight into his singer's lust for life.

'When you start anything new, the first year or so is always weird and disorientating. Be it your first year at secondary school, your first year at Uni, your first year in London. I think we all found that first year in Coldplay, with all the success and acclaim and criticism, bewildering. We didn't lose it, but we lost our bearings, probably Chris most of all. Now we've got a handle on it all mean? Who'll listen to all the great records, read the great books, watch the great movies? Nobody.

So do it now. Do it 'But the problem with me and romance is that I've watched too many films too many Woody Allen films, specifically. There's always the big buildup to people getting together, then they get together and you never see what happens next. I'm obsessed with that build-up, with the moment when the violins are playing and it's soft focus and unusual. I'm ashamed to say that after that I lose interest.

I'm no good at the bit when it all becomes For that reason, Martin says he develops crushes all too easily. He's only fallen truly in love three times, however. His first love was Beth from Neighbours, when he was 16. His second love was around the time of the Parachutes release and 'it felt like being hit by a ton of bricks', although they've subsequently parted. And the third time was last week, in the restaurant of the St Martins Lane Hotel.

'I spent three hours watching this amazing girl and we're confident about who we are. We all feel very excited about what we can do. There are limitless Chris agrees. Although he says that death is a theme on the album, he thinks it's a positive theme. He hadn't realised that we die until recently, or if he had, he hoped it was an option that he might not have to pick.

Now he knows that's not true. It's not a problem any more. 'I don't want to get morbid on you, but people keep dying. So do things while you can. Up until 23, the concept of death hadn't occurred to me, then someone asked me if I'd heard about Jonty, this friend from school.

I said, "No, what?" "He's dead." I used to play football with him. That's amazing, isn't it? Life is right now. It's not a morbid realisation, it's exciting. I find that feeling of time constraint very liberating. Nobody has an answer.

We all die about and tell him how helpful the flak was, personally ('It stopped us from making our very own Attack of the Clones'). He'd also explain that we all die, so let's make the most of living and not get so angry with those really trying their best. At the traffic lights, Chris says cheerio. He's got to meet his folks, hasn't seen them all day. Aren't families great, he asks.

He loves his mum and dad and his five siblings, and one day he'd like a big family of his own. He'd love that to happen. But there's so much to do in the meantime. Then he's gone, bobbing through the traffic with a big, wild smile; his eyes fixed on the skies, looking for life and love on his way back to Westminster Bridge. Worried, too, about what might happen should he find either.

OM Coldplay's new single 'In My Place' is released on 5 August, their album A Rush of Blood to the Head on 26 August.