Coldplay Fan Invents New Dimension To Their Light Show

February 7, 2012 1:43 PM

(Photo: LEON NEAL/AFP/Getty Images)

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Coldplay fan Jason Regler left a concert from his favorite band literally inspired to invent a unique wristband that adds new excitement to the concert-going experience.

From an interview at Coldplay.com:

When did you have the idea?
In 2005, when Coldplay did the Glastonbury Festival. I remember I was going through a few down days and I saw them doing Fix You. And there was just such a feeling of it bringing everyone together, as well as the line “lights will guide you home”. That’s when the idea of a wristband came to mind.

So it was specifically invented with Coldplay in mind?
Absolutely. To this day, I still have my doubts that this would really work for anyone else. I feel Paradise, Charlie Brown and MX are almost too perfect for them, really. Like Chris said, it’s quite freaky how he wrote a lyric a long time ago about glowing in the dark and then all of a sudden it all comes together and we’ve got wristbands making people do exactly that.

Here’s how it works:

The bracelets are called “Xylobands”, after Coldplay’s new album Mylo Xyloto. They contains different color LED lights and an RF receiver. Regler’s crew controls the lights with a transmitter. They can control how and when they flash. The effect is that the audience becomes a part of the light show.

And the larger the crowd, the more stunning the effect. Check out this live performance from the British version of The X-Factor where Coldplay first showed the world their new toy (skip ahead to the 1:11 mark to see the start of their show).

The way this came to be is that Regler approached the band and once the decision was made to develop this new device they partnered together. Both Regler and Coldplay came to an agreement over the design trademark, patent protection and intellectual property rights. That means that they own the technology and no other band can have this same lighting effect. Regler does say that he believes the technology will be licensed for other kinds of events.

The band also features the wristbands in their latest music video “Charlie Brown”.