Coldplay pay out millions as they settle dispute with ex-manager

Coldplay have paid out a seven-figure sum to their ex-manager Dave Holmes, who had sued them for £10million.

Holmes parted ways with the band in 2022 after managing them for 22 years and sued them in August 2023 over a contractual dispute.

He claimed he helped organise recording sessions, samples and string arrangements for the group’s as yet unreleased tenth and eleventh albums and the band refused to pay him. Holmes alleged he was owed £10million in unpaid commission.

Phil Sherrell, Holmes’s lawyer, told Variety: “Holmes successfully managed Coldplay for more than 22 years, steering them to be one of the most successful bands in history. Now Coldplay is refusing to pay him what he is owed.”

In October, Coldplay countersued Holmes, claiming that he owed them damages of over £14million and allege that he took out two loans from Live Nation that they had no knowledge of. The band denied Holmes’ claim “in its entirety” and their counterclaim says they did not extend his management agreement “following a period of increasing concern regarding Mr Holmes’ conduct”. It adds that negotiations over a contract for their forthcoming albums broke down.

Their suit also claimed that Holmes lost control of the budget for their ‘Music Of The Spheres’ world tour and overspent by £17.5million.

Now, per The Sun, paperwork filed at the High Court confirmed that in May, the band agreed an undisclosed seven-figure settlement to prevent private details being made public in court.

Coldplay are now managed by a team led by Phil Harvey.

Meanwhile, the Chris Martin-fronted band headlined Glastonbury Festival at the weekend, marking a record-breaking fifth occasion topping the Pyramid Stage.

During their encore – during which Coldplay typically freestyle verses about the fans who show up on the jumbotron – Chris Martin and co. celebrated two very special people: Glastonbury founder Michael Eavis, and legendary actor Michael J. Fox, who joined them to play guitar on ‘Humankind’ and ‘Fix You’.

They were also joined by numerous special guests starting with Victoria Canal who helped sing ‘Paradise’. Little Simz then came out to perform unreleased new song ‘We Pray’, which has a feature from Burna Boy (who is also a Glastonbury 2024 performer, but did not come out onstage).

22-year-old Palestinian-Chilean singer Elyanna helped with backing vocals on ‘We Pray’, and went on to help Coldplay perform ‘Arabesque’. Standing alongside Chris Martin and Femi Kuti – who’d performed on the Pyramid Stage earlier that day – they performed the cut off their 2019 album ‘Everyday Life’, while Laura Mvula came out to lead a choir in singing ‘Violet Hill’ later on.

In NME’s four-star review of their Glastonbury set, Andrew Trendell noted Martin’s words about the festival: “‘I look around and I see so many amazing wonderful people from all over the place, and that’s what makes Glastonbury the best city in the world in my opinion,’ he offers, honouring ‘the most peace-loving, love-making people’ that make up the Glasto populace. He admits that Coldplay have ‘stolen so much of the ethos of Glastonbury’s vision’, and as a result they become ‘a band of 100,004 people’.”

Less impressed fans, however, took to social media to comment on Martin’s apparent accent change during the performance.

“At what point did Chris Martin’s accent change into the voice of a crap 1970’s TV detective?” questioned @RobSummerfield1. One user compared his sudden accent switch to Alex Turner – “Chris Martin seems to have also gone to the Alex Turner school of what the fuck is that accent.” – while another was puzzled by Martin referring to Glastonbury as a “city”.