Coldplay performed their first concert last night (July 19) following the viral “kiss cam” incident that resulted in a tech CEO resigning.
Footage of the moment started going viral on Thursday (July 17) when the regular segment of the band’s ‘Music Of The Spheres’ show at the Gillette Stadium near Boston appeared to catch Astronomer boss Andy Byron with his arms around a woman.
When they saw themselves on the big screen, they appeared mortified and Byron immediately lunged out of the shot, while the woman held her head in her hands. Many reports speculated that the woman in question was Kristin Cabot, the HR chief of Astronomer.
Frontman Chris Martin said as the couple were shown on the screens: “Oh, look at these two. Come on, you’re OK. Oh what? Either they’re having an affair or they’re just very shy.”
More footage of the incident later emerged, with Martin adding: “Oh shit, I hope we didn’t do something bad.”
Yesterday (July 19) Byron tendered his resignation from Astronomer. He had served as CEO of the company since 2023, while Cabot allegedly joined as Chief People Officer nine months ago.
That same evening, Martin while not directly referring to the incident, did joke at the Camp Randall Stadium in Madison: “We’d like to say hello to some of you in the crowd and put some of you on the big screen. How we’re going to do that is we’re going to use our cameras and put some of you on the big screen.
He added: “Please, if you haven’t done your makeup, do your makeup now!”
The US leg of the tour comes just before Coldplay head over to the UK for a handful of shows, with £1 from every ticket sold being donated to support grassroots venues.
Ahead of the shows, it was announced that a shuttle bus named after Coldplay’s hit ‘Yellow’ will carry fans to two ‘Music Of The Spheres’ shows in Hull next month. The concerts also include multiple stops at Wembley Stadium from August 22 to September 8.
When chatting with NME last year ahead of the release of ‘Moon Music‘, Martin discussed the importance of live venues and how they helped shape the band. “Playing live is an important connection,” he said. “It doesn’t bother me that there might not be another Coldplay, but it does bother me that there might not be acts that are free to start on the bottom rung and work all the way up – so that by the time they get to stadiums, they are really good.”
