David Bowie’s list of collaborators reads like a cavalcade of pop-culture power brokers: Brian Eno, Lou Reed, Iggy Pop, John Lennon and Queen. He also recorded with Arcade Fire, TV on the Radio and LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy.

Missing from that list? Fellow British act Coldplay, who once contacted Bowie in the hope of collaborating, only to be turned down by the music giant.



The band’s drummer, Will Champion, told NME they had invited Bowie to record vocals on one of their songs. Bowie replied, “It’s not a very good song, is it?” (Or as the singer, Chris Martin, once told the story: “He called me and said, ‘It’s not one of your best.’”)

The band appear to hold no grudges. Champion said: “He was very discerning – he wouldn’t just put his name to anything. I’ll give him credit for that!”

He also said that for anyone involved in music, Bowie was “one of the points of reference for absolutely everything” and his death was “quite disorientating”. The guitarist, Jonny Buckland said: “We’ve all loved his music for as long as we’ve known about music.”

Musicians have been paying tribute to Bowie at concerts around the world since his 10 January death. In New Orleans on Monday an event called Pretty Things: A Memorial Parade for Bowie was co-hosted by the Canadian band Arcade Fire. Bowie provided guest vocals to the band’s 2013 song Reflektor.

A tribute show will be held at Carnegie Hall in New York on 31 March, with performances by Cyndi Lauper, the Roots and Bowie’s long-term producer Tony Visconti.

During her Rebel Heart tour Madonna performed Bowie’s Rebel Rebel in Houston, Texas, and told the audience she was paying tribute to the man who had inspired her career.