Guy Berryman

Lore & Background

Berryman joined Coldplay with Chris Martin, Jonny Buckland and Will Champion at University College London, where he enrolled in a mechanical engineering degree but later dropped out. The band signed with Parlophone in 1999, finding global fame after the release of Parachutes (2000) and subsequent records. He has won seven Grammy Awards and nine Brit Awards as part of Coldplay. Coldplay's record sales are commonly cited as over 100 million worldwide, and while they are one of the most successful acts of the 21st century, the claim of being the 'most successful' is subjective or disputed.

Reader's Guide

Guy Rupert Berryman was born on 12 April 1978 in Kirkcaldy, Fife, Scotland. He is the youngest son of engineer Rupert Berryman and his wife Elizabeth. Raised close to the Beveridge Park area, he developed a passion for watches as a child. Listening to Stevie Wonder's 'My Cherie Amour' (1969) was a pivotal moment that led him to become a bass player.

His family moved to Kent when he was around 12, the same period he began to play bass. During his time at Edinburgh Academy, he played drums and trumpet for the school band, and later founded a group named Time Out. He continued his education at Kent College, then enrolled in mechanical engineering at University College London, where he met Chris Martin, Jonny Buckland and Will Champion, ultimately forming Coldplay. Berryman was the third member to join the band in 1997.

They practised along with Buckland and eventually recorded a demo despite not having a drummer, calling themselves Big Fat Noises by November of that year. Champion completed the performing line-up in 1998. Berryman later dropped out of engineering and enrolled in a seven-year architecture programme at the Bartlett, which he subsequently abandoned to focus on his music career. He worked as a bartender to pay rent.

In the Head Full of Dreams (2018) documentary, he mentioned that recording X&Y (2005) was a tumultuous period with frequent arguments, particularly between him and Martin, and that he had a drinking problem. Berryman tends to be more critical of Martin's ideas, but has been responsible for starting tracks such as 'Magic' on his own. He formed Apparatjik in 2008 with Magne Furuholmen, Jonas Bjerre and Martin Terefe. Their debut single 'Ferreting' was the musical theme of BBC Two's Amazon.

They released We Are Here (2010) and later Square Peg in a Round Hole (2012). In 2020, 'Julia' was published on the group's YouTube channel. In 2019, he founded quarterly magazine The Road Rat. In 2020, he launched Applied Art Forms, a fashion brand.

He also assisted the launch of plant-based protein food start-up Bodyhero in 2020. In 2022, a garment collection from his personal archive was donated to Marrkt, with earnings going to Save the Children. In 2023, Applied Art Forms switched to unisex and he released an exclusive jewellery line with Hannah Martin. In 2026, he stepped down from his role as creative director of the brand.