Chris Martin has revealed Coldplay are inspired by the music of cavemen.

The 'Viva La Vida' hitmaker has opened up on his influences and insisted all modern day music can be traced back to the Stone Age.

He said: "What I love about music is that anyone who is great has been influenced or taught by someone else great.

"So music is this constant conversation that goes back to the beginning of time when humans were hitting bones on rocks and going, 'Oh, that sounds nice'. It's an evolving sort of time."

And the 44-year-old singer also played down the idea of competition in pop music and described the industry as a "shared experience".

He's quoted by the Daily Star newspaper's Wired column as saying: "I don't think there is one best act - it's all such a shared experience."

Meanwhile, the frontman recently admitted he would love to take his band into space to perform on the moon, although no-one would be able to hear it because space is a vacuum with no sound.

He revealed: “Not many people have done it, that’s true. But isn’t there an issue that if you play on the moon no one can actually hear? I am ­confused about the atmosphere.

“We would try anything twice. I don’t mind any ridicule as I just speak what feels true to me. That is what we all have to do.”

And Chris has said Coldplay’s upcoming album was inspired by ‘Star Wars’, after he sat down to watch the hit sci-fi movies and was left wondering what music on other planets sounds like.

He previously explained: “One time I was watching ‘Star Wars’ and they had the scene with the Cantina band right? And I was like: ‘I wonder what musicians are like across the universe?’ and that led to this whole thing and now here we are.”