Chris Martin uncovered

Perceived as earnest but dull, Chris Martin and his band Coldplay have still managed to become pretenders to the Biggest Band In The World throne. Miranda Sawyer meets the misunderstood superstar.

If a celebrity magazine is in an airport lounge, I'll have a look,' admits Chris Martin. 'I like gossip as much as the next man. But then, I'll bump into someone I've read about and I'll say, "Oh, I read so-and-so" and I curse myself, because I hate people coming up to me and going, "Chris, I read that you're macrobiotic, is that true?" And I say, "Well, no, not really."' But you and Gwyneth do eat all your meals naked in front of a mirror, to keep you from over-eating, right? 'No. Sorry. But when I talk about the tariff barriers on Ghanian rice I always do that with no clothes on.'

Meet Chris Martin, 28, lead singer of Coldplay, one of Britain's biggest-selling, bestknown bands, supporter of Fair Trade, husband of Gwyneth Paltrow. Although you wouldn't know he was any of these from his demeanour. Tall, sparkly-eyed, slightly nerdy, when you first meet Chris, his primary motivation is to make you laugh. 'I'm a pun machine,' he says, and he is. 'Does "hirsute" come from "hair-suit", when you're so hairy it looks like you're wearing fur? Why did I get involved in Oxfam's Make Trade Fair campaign? Well, it was either Pepsi or Fair Trade, and Oxfam offered £12 million'.

The cartoon version of Coldplay paints them as four earnest, dreary young men. The cartoon version of Chris is the same, but more irritating, because of his supposedly perfect, yet insipid relationship with his wife ('The dullest couple in the West', sneered The Observer in 2003). But Chris and Coldplay don't conform to the cliche. I've met up with the band on seven occasions, in recording studios, photographers' studios, hotels, in London and New York. And while they're not chemical-fuelled rock pigs, neither are they the mummy's boys of repute. Chris, in particular, is a revelation - an intense, artistic individual, with switchback moods and a quicksilver mind.

'I think it's strange when we're called bland,' he says, 'because everything in my life is in extreme colour: it's either amazing, or it's shit. On a family level, yes, I'm married and I have a baby (Apple, born May 2004) and it's amazing, but I don't think when you get married you just sit back and relax. I'm obsessed with things, with writing the greatest song ever, or trying to make my relationship better, or why my friend's mum just died. I've got an awful lot of questions, and I live in the same world as everyone else.'

Plus, of course, he has three other people who keep him down-to-earth. Although you wouldn't know it, there are actually four members of Coldplay. There's Chris, who sings, plays piano and guitar; Jonny Buckland, 26, the guitarist, Guy Berryman, 27, who plays bass and 27-year-old drummer Will Champion. They're close, having formed the band when they were at University College London together, share writing credits and royalties equally and insist if one left, they'd all leave. But they're welcoming to outsiders, too - unless they're snapping paps.

From the end of 2003, when Chris and Gwyneth announced her pregnancy and got married, through to Apple's birth in May last year, the pair were besieged whenever they stepped outdoors. For a while, every picture of Chris showed him angry and shouting.

'Well, the paparazzi make your life horrible on a day-to-day basis,' he tells me. 'Not being able to walk around, having some guy running after you and abusing you, chasing your friends. I've been involved in more car chases than I thought I ever would be, I've got so many hooded tops I don't really see what's going on anymore. I just find it unfair that in my line of work, you can't physically fight with anyone.' Have you ever hit any of them?

'I've never hit anyone, I've shouted at them and I've tripped someone up. He was chasing after somebody, we were running along together and he fell over. I got into trouble about that.

I wasn't put in a cell, but I was fingerprinted. Police stations are terrifying.'

Recently, Chris has taken to walking around London late at night, with his hood up. 'It's just a way to keep normal.' Though, in actual fact, he doesn't get much hassle from the public - he's perfectly able to travel on the Tube and he moves with grace between the worlds of fame and everyday life. 'It's where and how you walk,' he reveals. 'You can go to an awards show and have 500 cameras go off, and then if you walk out of the same door, but with your hood up and a different attitude, no one pays any interest.'