Let those extramarital “Sparks” fly elsewhere: Coldplay does not intend to retire jumbotrons at concerts following the viral ouster of a CEO’s alleged affair.
Coldplay frontman Chris Martin addressed the “debacle” during a tour stop at Kingston upon Hull, England, on Monday evening, confirming that the band still intends to feature the jumbotron bit in the wake of accidentally exposing Astronomer CEO Andy Byron and HR executive Kristin Cabot attending a show together last month.
Martin touched on the debacle after reading a fan’s sign that stated they had attended three concerts so far, including the infamous stop in the greater Boston area with Byron and Cabot.
“You were at that Boston gig,” Martin said (via local outlet Hull Live). “Well, okay, thank you for coming again after that debacle.”
Coldplay frontman Chris Martin performs in Nashville on July 22, 2025.
Tibrina Hobson/Getty
“We’ve been doing this a long time,” Martin explained of the jumbotron segment, adding, “And it is only recently that it became a… yeah. Life throws you lemons and you’ve got to make lemonade. So, we are going to keep doing it because we are going to meet some of you.”
Coldplay employs an interactive camera for a “Jumbotron Song” segment during shows, in which Martin spotlights unassuming concertgoers and improvises short songs about them. The segment went awry last month after Byron and Cabot were captured canoodling. Like deer caught in a headlight, Byron promptly ducked out of frame, while Cabot covered her face and turned her back on the camera.
“Uh oh, what?” Martin said at the time. “Either they’re having an affair or they’re just very shy.”
The moment went viral online. Both Byron and Cabot left Astronomer, a tech company, following an internal investigation. After the debacle, Martin implemented a tongue-in-cheek warning at a show in Wisconsin.
“We’re going to use our cameras and put some of you on the big screen,” Martin cautioned. “So, please, if you haven’t done your makeup, do your makeup now.”
But it was Astronomer to get the last laugh, enlisting actress Gwyneth Paltrow — notably, Martin’s ex-wife — as a temporary spokesperson. “Astronomer has gotten a lot of questions over the last few days, and they wanted me to answer the most common ones,” Paltrow said. In response to one question (“OMG What the actual F?”), she said, “Yes. Astronomer is the best place to run Apache Airflow, unifying the experience of running data ML and AI pipelines at scale.”
