Xylobands uitvinder Jason Regler is de man achter de armbandjes met LED verlichting die Coldplay tijdens hun concerten gebruikt.

Xylobands armbandjes

Afgelopen december waren mijn vrouw en ik getuigen van een waanzinnig optreden van Coldplay in Ahoy, Rotterdam. Bij de entree van Ahoy kregen we een armbandje uitgereikt waar op het eerste gezicht weinig aan te zien was buiten de felle kleuren.
Maar tijdens het eerste nummer werd al snel duidelijk dat die armbandje meer waren dan een leuk kleurtje met het Mylo Xyloto logo.

Xylobands uitvinder Jason Regler

Het verhaal achter Xylobands en de uitvinder Jason Regler is te lezen op de site van Coldplay, maar Jason ging als fan naar een optreden van de band en eindigde al de uitvinder van armbandjes de voor een geweldig gezicht zorgen tijdens de concerten van Coldplay en niet alleen voor het publiek maar zeker ook voor de band.

Hi Jason, how are you?
I’m good, thanks. Just getting my head around what’s coming next with the Xylobands.

Let’s start at the beginning. How did you meet Coldplay?
The original connection came via buying tickets to go to the Crisis gig in Newcastle, because my son had always wanted to go and see them. There was an auction where you could bid for meet and greet tickets, and we had some of those. But we didn’t get there because of the snow.

Oh no!
Yeah, my son was absolutely devastated, so I got in touch with Crisis and asked if there was anything else we could go along to. And lo and behold I had an email from Phil Harvey and he asked if we wanted to come up and watch the band rehearse. So we did that and I decided I’d be brave and tell him about an idea I’d had a long time ago for Coldplay. Which was the wristband. And it all just went from there.

When did you have the idea?

What’s your background then? Have you always been an inventor?
Well, when I left school I went to work for the family vehicle repair business, but after 17 years I realised it wasn’t me, and that I liked making things, fixing things and creating things. So that’s when I ventured out on my own. And I managed to prove that I could have an idea and take it from my head to being successful. I’ve ended up working with people like Disney, Jim Henson, Sesame Street and Sony.

So, when you met Phil, was he immediately receptive to the idea of the wristbands?
Definitely. He’s someone who needs to be as praised in this story as anyone. He’s the one that saw the potential and took the chance. We were just talking and I was saying that I’d had a bit of a tough year and I could do with a break. But at that time the band were finishing the album and the priority was obviously to get on with that. And then all of a sudden one day I had an email from Phil saying he’d been chatting to Chris and that he had that break for me. He wanted to know when we could start looking at making the wristbands.

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.

De rest van het interview hier te lezen.