Coldplay are four young men who formed at university in London in 1998. They consist of Chris Martin (vocals/guitar), Guy Berryman (bass), Jonny Buckland (guitar) and Will Champion (drums). In the space of five frantic years they have grown from a bunch of poorly-dressed students into one of the biggest guitar bands in the known world.

The ‘Brothers & Sisters’ EP takes us back to a time when Coldplay happily plied their trade on London’s notorious toilet gig circuit in front of dozens rather than thousands of punters. The fierce panda label stumbled across the band playing at the tiny Camden Falcon in December ’98 and were instantly smitten with the foursome’s blend of disarming showmanship and impeccable tunes. So much so that, like many bands before and many groups since, fierce panda offered to release Coldplay’s debut single.

There followed a splendid five month-long relationship between band and label as the ‘Brothers & Sisters’ EP utterly transformed Coldplay’s career: the likes of Radio One and NME swiftly came on board at the start of the following year and by the time the EP was actually released in the UK on March 29th 1999 the media, radio and major label A&R interest had become, frankly, hysterical. The toilet gig circuit was about to become history.

Coldplay eventually signed to Parlophone / Capitol and the rest is some kind of glorious history. So cherish the ‘Brothers & Sisters’ EP for what it is: a snapshot of a band on the brink of global greatness, recorded for the princely sum of A3400 in North London, and featuring three exclusive tracks never released anywhere else. While the band went on to release the ‘Parachutes’ and ‘A Rush Of Blood To The Head’ albums to astounding critical and commercial success, the ‘Brothers & Sisters’ EP has been quietly ticking over on the fierce panda catalogue in the UK. This is the first time the EP has been made commercially available in the US and constitutes the first release of the brand new fierce panda partnership with Brash Records.