Tom Chaplin and Tim Rice-Oxley have been friends from an early age, developing a
mutual interest in music as they attended Tonbridge School in Kent together.
Studying for a Classics degree at University College, London in 1995, Rice-Oxley
formed a band, Lotus Eaters, with Richard Hughes on drums and Dominic Scott on
guitar. Chris Martin invited Rice-Oxley to join the newly-formed Coldplay, but
he opted to stick with Lotus Eaters, a decision vindicated when his old friend
Tom Chaplin joined as singer - quitting a degree course at Edinburgh University
- and they transmuted into Che...