Today marks a major milestone in the illustrious career of one of the world’s most beloved rock bands – the 25th anniversary of Coldplay‘s debut release, the ‘Brothers & Sisters’ EP. To celebrate the occasion, an anniversary edition is now available to pre-order, as a gatefold double BioVinyl 7″ via Fierce Panda.
Originally released on April 26, 1997 via the aforementioned iconic British independent label Fierce Panda, this two-track 7″ vinyl (‘Brothers & Sisters’ and ‘Easy To Please’) and three track CD single, with ‘Only Superstition’ as the third song, was Coldplay’s first step on the path to global superstardom. The EP captured the band in their formative years, honing their sound in London’s gritty rock clubs like the Camden Falcon and Kentish Town’s Bull & Gate.
Recorded on a shoestring budget of just £450, ‘Brothers & Sisters’ roared to number 92 on the UK charts, earning Coldplay their first national radio play and press coverage.
Now, 25 years later to the day, Fierce Panda is celebrating with a deluxe reissue of the EP as a gatefold double 7″ vinyl, adding the song ‘Only Superstition’ from the original CD single release plus a spoken word excerpt lifted from the audiobook of ‘Pandamonium! How Not To Run A Record Label’ by Fierce Panda founder Simon Williams chronicling the EP’s creation. In ‘Knee-Trembler’ (Chapter 17, pages 159-168) he describes in raffishly intimate detail the how’s, why’s and wherefores of Coldplay’s early days shaking the timbers of the Camden Falcon, the Kentish Town Bull & Gate and Station Studios in Southgate, as well as being championed by Radio One’s Evening Session and getting their first reviews in the NME newspaper on their way to ‘Brothers & Sisters’, their debut release.
Not only that, but Fierce Panda is also celebrating its 30th anniversary, which, if you do the math means that they discovered Coldplay when they were not even 5 years old, first encountering the band at the Camden Falcon in November 1998.
With Coldplay now among the biggest bands on the planet, the ‘Brothers & Sisters’ reissue is a fitting commemoration of the special spark they displayed from the very start.
You can pre-order the ‘Brothers & Sisters’ 25th anniversary edition here and listent to the track on YouTube below.
