Martin delivers this little homily with conviction, then shudders at the idea that it will reinforce notions of him as rock’s most starry-eyed idealist. He is a man given to making big statements, then immediately questioning them, prevaricating between self-belief and self-doubt. But for bassist Berryman, Martin’s emotional extremes are the essence of Coldplay. “If you know Chris, and spend every day with him, you realise that he’s genuinely bouncing off the walls with happiness, or almost inconsolable. So I feel that the music we’ve made is very true, it’s either up in the clouds or down in the dumps, and there’s not much in the middle.”

The key to the album may be a sample of Barack Obama singing Amazing Grace at a funeral after a mass shooting in South Carolina in June. “In a situation when he could have gone very revengeful and aggressive, he chose to do that, which was a powerful statement. That’s a good way of looking at life. Gracefully going through whatever you are going through.”

So how do you clear a sample of the American president? “I’m not sure he has a publishing company,” says Champion. “You have to call the White House. Or talk to Bono.” Martin is circumspect. “I asked a friend who was going to see him. And Obama said, 'I’m sure we can make that happen.’ ”