“Best DJ of all time” Chris Martin calls Jo Whiley in Radio 2 Piano Room

On Vernon Kay’s BBC Radio 2 show this morning, Coldplay kicked off Radio 2’s Piano Room month, performing at the BBC Maida Vale studios.
The last time the band performed for Radio 2 for In Concert, was in 2021 and this time, the Piano Room session was pre-recorded, so was presented by Jo Whiley.
Vernon explained: “Coldplay are the biggest band in the world so we had to pre-record this Piano Room to fit it into their schedule and, unfortunately, I wasn’t able to be there, so the one and only Jo Whiley is hosting it.”
They performed a previous hit – Viva La Vida, a new song – All My Love, and a classic cover – Sunshine On Leith by The Proclaimers. They also chatted about their upcoming tour and the new song, returning to Glastonbury in the future and Jo Whiley giving Chris Martin butterflies!
Chris opened the interview asking Jo: “Can we call you the best DJ of all time?”
She said that they can but wondered if they meant it – they all responded: “Absolutely!”
During their chat, Jo played Chris a clip from the first time she interviewed him on the phone many years ago where he said he’d been writing thank you letters for his Christmas presents and was outside his parent’s house on his first mobile phone.
“I remember, I was so nervous to talk to you,” he recalled. “I got told Jo Whiley’s going to call and it still gives me butterflies and I think I still have that with you more than any other interviewer… it’s like when you bump into a teacher, you still think of them as your teacher. Whenever you’re interviewing us, I sort of close down a bit,” he added, laughing.
“Like I’m your teacher?,” Jo responded and Chris clarified: “No, but I think it’s because at that time there was such a disparity between you and us. You know, we were not famous, we were nothing!”
On playing Glastonbury again, Jo asked if the band would be doing it again, to which Chris answered that it probably wouldn’t be for a long time. Jo wondered if it might be for the Legends slot and he said maybe and added: “But we might go back with an ice-cream van for a few years!”
BBC Radio 2’s Piano Room month – Coldplay’s performance is available now on BBC Sounds and later today iPlayer, with an extended set on Jo Whiley’s Radio 2 show tonight (7-9pm) and on BBC ONE on Wednesday 5 February at 10.40pm.