Coldplay’s first Wembley gigs were full of stand-out moments as they kicked off a string of 10-gigs, beating the consecutive record previously held by Taylor Swift.
The band hit the headlines on a global scale recently when one couple were caught out by the stadium kiss cam, appearing to expose an extra-marital affair during their July 16 concert in Boston.
While there was no such scandal during Friday night’s concert in London, the band’s lead singer Chris Martin did check with two concert-goers that they were definitely together before helping with their proposal in a cheeky swipe about the incident.
Chris, 48, sweetly helped out a man with a sign who said he wanted to propose to his partner during the gig – however Chris couldn’t help but joke about being burned before by interfering with couples in the audience.
As the camera panned in on him and the woman in the 80,000 strong crowd, Chris joked: ‘Now listen my brother I need you to nod as I do some very basic security checks ok? Is this person your partner, yes? Noone else’s partner?’
The joke was in reference to then CEO of New York tech firm Astronomer Andy Byron and his colleague Kristin Cabot, the company’s Chief People Officer, who were all over each other when the camera panned over before leaping apart.
Chris Martin did check with two concert-goers that they were definitely together before helping with their proposal in a cheeky swipe about the incident
Chris, 48, sweetly helped out a man with a sign who said he wanted to propose to his partner during the gig – however Chris couldn’t help but joke about being burned before by interfering with couples in the audience
Andrew Byron, the head of the AI startup Astronomer, was broadcast on the big screen at Boston’s Gillette Stadium with his arm around the company’s HR chief Kristin Cabot
At the time, Chris quipped: ‘Either they’re having an affair or they’re just really shy’, following the scandal both parties quit their jobs.
The same night, Chris helped a young DJ’s dreams come true by bringing him up on stage at the iconic venue.
Chris invited AJ Murphy, who has autism, to sit with him while he played Trouble from their 2000 debut album Parachutes, which he had requested.
AJ brought with him his sign, which read: ‘I am autistic, please pick me’ next to a rainbow-coloured jigsaw heart.
Chris told AJ: ‘This is a spectacular sign, my brother, thank you.’
The show includes an incredible light display as LED wristbands given out on arrival lit up the the stadium in different colours during the concert.
As well as playing some of their biggest chart toppers, they also played a pared-back versions Don’t Panic.
Before the song, Chris said: ‘This is how we used to play in (guitarist) Jonny’s bedroom in Camden around his s***** sofa and we would stop to watch Neighbours, and The Fast Show and things like that.’
The same night, Chris helped a young DJ’s dreams come true by bringing him up on stage at the iconic venue
Chris invited AJ Murphy, who has autism, to sit with him while he played Trouble from their 2000 debut album Parachutes, which he had requested
Last week, Chris revealed why his band are keeping the kiss cam at their stadium shows, after it caused the scandal last month
Last week, Chris revealed why his band are keeping the kiss cam at their stadium shows, after it caused the scandal last month.
Public records suggested both Andy, 50, and Kirstin, 56, were married but were living at different addresses from those of their spouses.
The awkward moment went instantly viral and both parties resigned from Astronomer, which then released an ad starring Chris’ ex-wife Gwyneth Paltrow.
Coldplay have retained their kiss cam in the wake of the furor, and now Martin has defended the decision to do so at a concert in his native England, via Hull Live.
Ahead of playing Sewell Group Craven Park in Hull, Chris explained that he had a longstanding habit of bantering with audiences.
Bringing up the Astronomer incident, he slyly observed that ‘it is only recently that it became a…yeah. So yeah, life throws you lemons and you’ve got to make lemonade.’
As a result, he has no plans to stop his interactions with the audience, proudly declaring that ‘we are going to keep doing it because we are going to meet some of you.’
He caught sight of a fan in the crowd with a sign that read: ‘three times in three months,’ and quipped: ‘You were at that Boston gig. Well, okay, thank you for coming again after that debacle.’
When the scandal first exploded across the internet, country star Morgan Wallen also made a cheeky onstage reference to it at a concert in Arizona.
‘Anybody in here with their side chick or whatever, I think you’re safe here,’ he said in fan footage posted to TikTok, before vamping: ‘I don’t condone cheating…anymore.’
Gwyneth then sent fans into a frenzy by joining Astronomer as a ‘temporary spokesperson’ and starring in a video for their LinkedIn.
‘Astronomer has got a lot of questions in the last few days, and they wanted me to answer the most common ones,’ she said, prompting some text to appear on the screen showing one such query that began: ‘OMG! What the actual f**k.’
The kiss cam moment went instantly viral and Byron and Cabot resigned from Astronomer, which then released an ad starring Martin’s ex-wife Gwyneth Paltrow
The text was then quickly cut off and Gwyneth reappeared onscreen, deadpanning: ‘Yes! Astronomer is the best place to run Apache Airflow. We’ve been thrilled to see so many people suddenly interested in data workflow automation.’
In late July, Kirstin was glimpsed for the first time since the controversy broke, watering the flowers and shrubs at her home in Rye, New Hampshire.
She was without her wedding ring at that stage, but the state of her marriage to her husband – Privateer Rum CEO Andrew Cabot, 60, who is an heir to the $15.4billion Cabot family fortune – remains unknown.
The same is true of Andy’s marriage to his wife Megan Kerrigan, who shut down her social media accounts when the kiss cam footage went viral.
