Lead singer Chris Martin told Entertainment Weekly that this was Coldplay's first attempt at a protest song. He added that the song is a nod to The Beatles, and Violet Hill is a street near Abbey Road.
After this song was offered as a free download for a week on coldplay.com in April, such was the demand that the site crashed. The week after this song was made available free for download, it still sold sufficient copies for it to debut at #8 on the UK chart and #40 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Drummer Will Champion told Q magazine about this song's bluesy Lennonesque sound: "We really tried to make it sound like this great big machine that was slightly knackered. Something that's slow and grinding. I'm sure people won't get that! A psychedelic title? Violet Hill is a road in St John's Wood (North-west London)."
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