A lost 27-year-old demo recording that Chris Martin and Coldplay reportedly intended for a James Bond theme — and later admitted wasn’t good enough — is going up for auction.
According to the lot details by Wax Poetics, the recording of “The World is Not Enough” was “written for but understood never to have been submitted” for the 1999 Bond film of the same name starring Pierce Brosnan, and is sung by Martin with an acoustic backing. “Unheard and unreleased,” it’s being sold as a single recording on a cassette tape.
Martin has previously claimed that Coldplay — self-described 007 fans — made a number of unsuccessful attempts at writing a theme for the spy franchise.
“We kept trying to write one for 20 years, but never submitted them,” Martin told NME in 2021. “We have Bond themes for about five movies, but they’re not very good, to be honest.”
Martin added: “Also I don’t know if we’re spiritually on the same trip as James. As much as I like the films, I don’t know if us singing would do it for him. He’d be like, ‘That’s not what I’m into at all, fellas. I like guns and shit. All this hippie stuff just isn’t going to work’.”
