Jon Buckland

Jonathan Mark Buckland (born 11 September 1977) is an English-born Welsh musician and songwriter best known as the lead guitarist and co-founder of the rock band Coldplay.

Raised in Pantymwyn, he began to play guitar from an early age, being influenced by acts such as My Bloody Valentine, the Stone Roses and U2.

Noted for sparse and delicate arrangements, he uses slide bars and delay pedals with a stylistic timbre that has led to comparisons to the Edge.

Buckland has a 2:1 degree in astronomy and mathematics from University College London, where he formed Coldplay along with Chris Martin, Guy Berryman and Will Champion.

Jonathan Mark Buckland was born on 11 September 1977 in Islington, London, England.

He is the second child of John Buckland, a former teacher at Holywell High School, and his wife Joy.

The family moved to Pantymwyn, Flintshire, Wales when he was four years old.

He attended primary school at Ysgol y Waun and learned his first guitar notes and chords there.

His secondary education was then held at Alun School, where he took A-level music lessons.

Teacher Margaret Parr said it was a "pleasure teaching him", since he was "always extremely interested" on the subject.

She also commented Buckland had particular strength for composition.

During his youth, the guitarist listened to many Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton records owned by his parents.

He was then encouraged to attain further experience on the guitar by his brother Tim, who introduced him acts like George Harrison, My Bloody Valentine, Ride, Sonic Youth, the Stone Roses and U2.

Buckland was responsible for co-founding the band along with Martin; they met each other during UCL's orientation week in 1996.

Both resided at the university's Ramsay Hall, where Champion mentioned there were "a lot of musicians and a lot of show-offs", but "Jonny was not one of those show-offs", he further added that "the bloke who turned out to be the best guitarist out of all of us was the bloke who had his guitar hidden in his cupboard and who never got it out or was pushy about his guitaring".

Martin stated meeting Buckland was "like falling in love".

They began to practise and write songs together in early 1997.

Berryman had already joined them by November of that year, with the trio being called Big Fat Noises.

Champion then completed the performing line-up in 1998.

The previous group name was dropped when Champion scheduled their debut live performance at The Laurel Tree only a few days after he became part of the band, with Starfish being chosen "in a panic".

In Coldplay, Buckland is usually regarded as quiet, friendly, unassuming and "the wise owl" of the group.

During an interview, Martin commented spending his "entire life trying to drag him out of the shadows, because I know that he is a guitar hero – to me anyway".

The band used his bedroom for rehearsals in their early years, being near the neighbors who "were able to tolerate the noise".

The band signed with Parlophone in 1999, finding global fame after release of Parachutes (2000) and following records.

He has won seven Grammy Awards and nine Brit Awards as part of Coldplay.

Having sold more than 100 million albums worldwide as of 2021, they are the most successful group of the 21st century.

Despite not being the group's most prominent backing vocalist, he can be heard in many songs and provided lead vocals in "Don't Panic", the opening track of Parachutes (2000).

Buckland guest starred on Ian McCulloch's third album, Slideling (2003), by playing guitar in the songs "Sliding" and "Arthur".

In the following year, he made a cameo appearance on the comedy horror film Shaun of the Dead (2004) along with Martin.

They later recorded "Beach Chair" for Jay-Z's ninth album, Kingdom Come (2006), and were featured in Slashed (2010), an independent horror film directed by Northern Irish band Ash.

He is also known to support food and wine magazine Noble Rot and became an investor in their namesake restaurants.

Buckland then joined the Scouts when he was 11 years old and mentioned still liking the uniform in 2008.

Moreover, the guitarist stated that in one night when his friends were playing on a field, they had an encounter with an angry sheep and he was attacked multiple times.

The experience caused him to not wear any wool or eat lamb since then.

Following the former's reunion in 2011, Buckland declared at a press conference it was "fair to say that their first album was the reason I started playing a guitar".

He used to have piano lessons when he was seven years old, but did not enjoy them.

At 10 years old, the guitarist was part of a rap group and experimented with computer music by using beats consisted of dog barks.

In 2019, he remembered taking a holiday job at Daily Post, placing photos of houses for sale in the pressings.

His education was continued at University College London, where he attained a 2:1 degree in astronomy and mathematics and formed Coldplay with Chris Martin, Guy Berryman and Will Champion.

They stated in 2019 that Buckland is usually the first to either disapprove or give his input on Martin's initial song ideas, although he was responsible for starting tracks like "Adventure of a Lifetime" on his own, which was released as the lead single for their seventh album A Head Full of Dreams (2015).