He spent £400,000 on a piece of Banksy artwork at Sean Penn's charity event to raise money for Haiti earthquake victims.

He studied Latin and Greek at University College London, where he also met his Coldplay band mates to be.

He was inspired to write 'Speed of Sound' upon the birth of his daughter Apple, but still considers it to be one of his least favourite songs because the band "didn't get it right".

He almost died - when travelling to Ghana for charity work in 2005, his plane hit a violent dust storm. The pilot was unable to see the ground, causing him to lurch right and left. Martin didn't think he was going to make it but the pilot managed to land the plane safely. Talk about an 'adventure of a lifetime'.

Whilst at UCL, he formed Coldplay but under the name of Pectoralz, which then became Starfish. It was only until Tim Rice-Oxley, who would later form Keane, rejected the name Coldplay for being too "depressing", did Martin take the name for his own band.

He had to learn to sing ‘The Scientist’ backwards for its music video to create the illusion he was singing the words correctly.

He campaigned for Oxfam's Make Fair Trade Campaign and travelled to Ghana and Haiti to meet farmers to view the effects of unfair trade practices.

He was named the World's Sexiest Vegetarian in 2005 by PETA.

He isn't impressed by Karaoke books, "Whenever I open a karaoke book, there's always a million Beatles song, and like two Coldplay ones."

He doesn't want to collaborate with Rihanna again, "Rihanna was the only name on the list. It's the only duet we've done and the only one we wanted to do." In 2013 he travelled by tube with Jay-Z to Jay-Z's gig at O2 arena.

He doesn't like chardonnay - according to a 2003 Coldplay tour rider, the band insisted on just cold bottles of dry white wine, not chardonnay.

He wrote 'See It In a Boy's Eyes' for Jamelia and also co-wrote 'Beach Chair' with Jay-Z. Additionally, he also wrote Embrace's 'Gravity'.

He can speak Devonian, which he describes as "farm language".

The title of the song 'Yellow' came about after Martin spotted a Yellow Pages.

He often suffers from insomnia and has received subsequent sleep therapy. When he does manage to get some shuteye, he often has nightmares about his band's performances.

His favourite Coldplay song is 'Glass of Water'

He made a cameo appearance alongside band mate Johnny Buckland in the film Shaun of the Dead as a zombie. He also performed the Buzzcock's 'Everybody' Happy Nowadays' for the soundtrack.

He once DJ'd at an Arcade Fire show in London but wore a skeleton mask so none of the audience could recognise him.