Tech company boss quits after controversy over Coldplay concert video
'Astronomer is committed to the values and culture that have guided us since our founding.
'Our leaders are expected to set the standard in both conduct and accountability, and recently, that standard was not met,' the company said.
The move comes a day after the company said that Mr Byron had been placed on leave and the board of directors had launched a formal investigation into the incident, which went viral.
A short video clip from Coldplay's concert on Wednesday at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts, showed a man and a woman cuddling and smiling, his arms wrapped around her, as she leaned back into him.
When they saw themselves on the big screen, her jaw dropped, her hands flew to her face and she spun away from the camera. He ducked out of the frame, as did she.
Lead singer Chris Martin had asked the cameras to scan the crowd for his Jumbotron Song, when he sings a few lines about the people the camera lands on.
'Either they're having an affair or they're just very shy,' he joked.
Internet sleuths identified the man as the chief executive officer of a US-based company and the woman as its chief people officer.
Pete DeJoy, Astronomer's co-founder and chief product officer, has been tapped as interim CEO while the company conducts a search for Mr Byron's successor.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Record
41 minutes ago
- Daily Record
The Scheme's Marvin says it's a miracle he's alive - after hundreds of last chances
Marvin Baird has been through umpteen jail sentences probation and overdoses, all down to drugs. But he now vows to get drug free and qualify as an addiction counsellor The Scheme star Marvin Baird claims that his very survival is a miracle after 'hundreds of last chances'. The chaotic and drug-addled life has been documented in technicolour the 15 years since the Ayrshire-based documentary first aired in 2010. But despite suffering overdoses and enduring several prison terms for drugs offences, Marvin claims he is now on the brink of a drug free life. He has set himself four 'achievable' objectives that all lead to him gaining a qualification to be a drugs support worker. And Marvin is now offering support to members of the recovery community in Kilmarnock. He said: 'I am as straight as I've been for years and I have laid down four objectives that I really think are achievable. 'I want to pass my driving test, get my house done up, get clean of all drugs, including methadone, and get qualified to be a drugs counsellor. 'I'm now miles ahead of anywhere I've been in a long time and I'm determined to make it all come together. 'I know better than anyone that it's a miracle that I'm still alive after what I've been through and I've seen scores of people die in Kilmarnock from overdoses. 'I've had so many last chances - hundreds of them probably - but I'm going to take this one.' Marvin, 45, became a star after he and partner Dayna McLaughlin allowed a fly-on-the-wall film crew to record their lives as drug addicts in the tough Onthank scheme in Kilmarnock. Since then he has been preyed upon by gangsters and spent a large proportion of his life in jail or on probation for drugs offences. Marvin said he is aware that the hard drugs scene has changed dramatically in recent years - and is now more deadly than ever after a wave of new super-strong opiates hit the streets. The Daily Record has revealed this week how drug deaths are spiralling again due to the spread of these new Nitazene drugs. Marvin said: 'I'd be scared to touch heroin these days because every day it seems someone has had an overdose and so many people are dying. 'I know people who watched The Scheme or read the papers might think I'm a bit of a waster but I come from a good family and I had a good upbringing. I'm now determined to show them that I can turn my life around. 'I'm 46 in September and by the time I'm 50 I want to be drug free and working as a counsellor." Marvin said his communication skills and traumatic life make him a perfect ear to listen to. He said: 'I know that I'm a good communicator and I definitely know what I'm talking about when it comes to drug addiction because I've lived it. 'I think I can make a connection with people and help them turn their own lives around.' In March last year Marvin dodged prison for heroin possession after a sheriff heard his 'life is looking up.' Looking visibly healthier and sporting new implant teeth, Marvin admitted at Kilmarnock Sheriff Court to being caught with three wraps of the drug at his home in 2023. He escaped with a £600 fine after lawyer Callum Armour told the court: 'It's been a lifelong battle for him. He's had a long period of abstinence. 'It tells me that his life is looking up at the moment.' Those claims were quashed when Marvin was later caught smoking heroin, which led to a Drug Treatment and Testing Order being applied to him, which he claims has helped him stop taking heroin. Annie Brown, founder of the Patchwork Recovery Community in Kilmarnock, said Marvin has been an active participant in group discussions and has helped people with the benefit of his own experience. She said: 'Marvin is very well known in Kilmarnock and elsewhere but here he is just part of the group. 'It might surprise a few people to know that he is a very good communicator and he has a lot of empathy. 'We are wishing him all the best with his recovery.' Marvin's turnaround is in contrast to some other reality stars from The Scheme. Marvin, his partner Dayna and his dog Bullet became household names when the show became a surprise hit. The first episode of The Scheme attracted more than 300,000 viewers while more than 500,000 watched subsequent episodes. Marvin's 'Happy as Larry' catchphrase made him the biggest star in the show. But it was dropped after MSPs expressed concern about the BBC 'exploiting' poor people for entertainment. In 2011, ex-Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson branded The Scheme 'poverty pornography'. Join the Daily Record WhatsApp community! Get the latest news sent straight to your messages by joining our WhatsApp community today. You'll receive daily updates on breaking news as well as the top headlines across Scotland. No one will be able to see who is signed up and no one can send messages except the Daily Record team. All you have to do is click here if you're on mobile, select 'Join Community' and you're in! If you're on a desktop, simply scan the QR code above with your phone and click 'Join Community'. We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don't like our community, you can check out any time you like. To leave our community click on the name at the top of your screen and choose 'exit group'.
The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
The Wiggles' Tree of Wisdom: ‘When you're singing about hot potatoes, it's really hard to have a bad day'
The band has yet to come on, but the crowd is deafening. A lot of screaming, a few criers, a lot of punters standing on their seats. Within the sanctuary of the sound desk, one of the crew hands me some earplugs. 'Protect your ears – a lot of squealers in today,' he says, with a wink. The Wiggles' audiences are not known to hold back their enthusiasm, or ever put down the bubble guns, but there is a noticeably loud roar when a certain green man comes on stage: 31-year-old Dominic Field, AKA the Tree of Wisdom. After the show ends – their second of three that day alone, all sold out – Field shakes my hand as he's wiping himself off. 'I am a big sweater,' he says, affably. It is easy to see why. As the Tree of Wisdom, Field's wild dancing, with hip thrusts, mad shimmying and the occasional worm, has taken both the world's stages and TikTok by storm, inspiring thousands of copycats – from giggling parents to US college kids on a night out. On their recent tour of the US, Canada and the UK, Field spotted 'like 10 trees in every audience – that was when I was like, I've made it'. He has unexpected fans in Khloé Kardashian, Jessie J and Robert De Niro – an ardent Wiggles fan of many years, who recently hugged Field backstage at one of their New York City shows. 'He's very softly spoken,' Field recalls. 'He sat next to me and said in a very gentle tone, 'I really appreciate what you do'.' This article includes content provided by TikTok. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. To view this content, click 'Allow and continue'. Field is now so famous for his moves, he's sometimes recognised even without the big green wig and leafy costume. 'Usually playing the tree is a bad thing, you know what I mean?' he says. 'Standing at the back in the school play. This is the complete opposite.' Why the Wiggles have a tree in their lineup might be mystifying to some, until you remember that their entourage includes a pirate, a dinosaur, a dog and an octopus in a boater hat. How the tree became both wise and such a good dancer takes some explaining, but Field does his best: A couple years ago, the Wiggles were on tour in Newfoundland, Canada, an island with strong cultural ties to Ireland, Scotland and Celtic traditions. The locals seemed to love it when they played folk songs – the Wiggles are big on covers – so Anthony Field, the OG blue Wiggle and Field's uncle, suggested they perform Rattlin' Bog, an Irish song that speeds up with each verse and, most crucially for this story, is about a tree. The group's musicians were so intently focused on learning to play the notoriously difficult song that Anthony only gave his nephew brief instructions: you're the tree, dance onstage, do whatever you want. 'And I was like, 'Great,'' Field says, laughing. At first Field's moves were 'quite tame'. But as he got used to Rattlin' Bog's fast pace he began performing moves he had, in his words, perfected in Sydney's nightclubs. 'As I got comfortable with the song and started having more fun, the more phones I started to see come out,' he says. On YouTube alone, Rattlin' Bog has now been watched 9m times. So Field was now a tree and his uncle had big plans for him. 'Anthony called and said, 'We're going to expand the tree character!'' Field remembers. 'Who knows how his brain works, but he was like 'You're the Tree of Wisdom! You are this all-knowing tree! So that's how it started – then it just got bigger and bigger, and funnier and funnier.' Field has never had any professional dance training – which shows, but not in a negative way; I suspect it is his buzzed uncle vibe that people love so much. 'I'm always that guy at a wedding who needs to get the dancefloor started,' he says. I suspect you knew how to do the worm before you joined the Wiggles, I say. 'Oh, I was worming before I was walking,' he says. Field's career trajectory has inspired the birth of the term 'nepo tree', but the Wiggles is very much a family business, albeit one worth an estimated $50m. His father, Paul, was in rock band the Cockroaches with two of the four original Wiggles – his brother Anthony and Jeff Fatt. But in 1988, Paul's first child, Bernadette, died of SIDS at eight months, which devastated the group. Anthony left the band to study early education, then founded the Wiggles, bringing in Fatt, Murray Cook and Greg Page; their first album was dedicated to Bernadette. Paul became their manager in 1996. These days, Field's older brother, Luke, is the Wiggles' manager, while his cousin Lucia is a blue Wiggle like her father, Anthony, and his wife, Stephanie, is a Wiggles dancer who occasionally plays Dorothy the Dinosaur and Bubbles the Mermaid. Field himself made his first Wiggles appearance when he was just two, in the Wiggles video Wake Up Jeff!. The Wiggles have been part of his life for 30 years and counting. 'When I was a kid, I didn't see Anthony as a Wiggle. He was always just my uncle but everyone knew him, which was cool,' he recalls. Did he ever find the Wiggles uncool? 'No, I loved it. Actually, on my first day at high school, dad dropped me off while listening to a new album because it was his job. The Wiggles were pumping out the car and that was the only moment I've ever been like, 'Can you just turn that down a bit?'' At 19, Field began working as a stage technician for the Wiggles. Over the years, Anthony would encourage his nephew to sing and join them on stage; eventually he was stepping in for Anthony and Simon the red Wiggle at live shows or filling in as Captain Feathersword. And now he's beloved by children and parents around the world for playing a groovy tree – an unexpected, but welcome outcome. Can you ever have a bad day as a dancing, singing tree? 'Life happens, of course – but as soon as you get to work and you're singing about hot potatoes, it's really, really, really hard to have a bad day,' he says. In fact, the Tree of Wisdom is now so big that the Wiggles next arena tour is named for him, with an album to go with – and yes, it is all tree-related songs and yes, it includes a cover of Tina Turner's Nutbush City Limits. 'We're gonna make sure that every year nine dance in every world is doing the Nutbush,' Field says. 'We're trying to get some tree-nagers.' Is it strange getting so much attention now? 'No, I love it. I encourage it all. Honestly, people with little ones are probably watching the Wiggles 24 hours a day. When we met De Niro, his partner said, 'I feel like I know you guys, but I've never met you.'' And these days, he's loved for a character that has become entirely his own. 'I'm just being myself – dressed as a tree. And people seem to be connecting with it. I'm proud of that. It's been really cool to see it grow,' he pauses, then adds, cheekily: 'Pun intended.' The Wiggles' Tree of Wisdom Big Show Arena Spectacular! tour goes on sale to the general public on 1 August at 2pm.
Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
G Flip sends Americans wild over 'weird' Aussie tradition: 'It feels like winning the lottery'
Winning a meat tray in your local pub raffle is a beloved part of Australian culture - but it's a tradition that often leaves tourists scratching their heads. G Flip sparked an amusing discussion on social media after detailing the classic pub raffle prize that many Americans find 'weird'. The Aussie singer-songwriter, who goes by they/them pronouns, has been living in the US after marrying Selling Sunset star Chrishell Stause. And so they find it entertaining to see how Americans react to their story about how Aussies take home a tray of assorted raw meats, including steaks, chops and sausages, from the pub after having the winning raffle ticket. Participants typically buy a raffle ticket at a pub or sports club, which usually costs $2, and they go into the draw to win a butcher's meat tray. If the number on your raffle ticket is drawn, you get to go home with a variety of meats. 'I'm an Aussie who lives in America and I have an American wife... I think one of the funniest things to explain about Australian culture is that you can win a meat tray at the pub,' G Flip (born Georgia Flipo) said in the video. 'So you go to the pub and you can buy raffle tickets to win a meat tray - and you just win a tray of various uncooked meats like steaks, chops and sausages from the butcher, completely raw. You get to go home with a meat tray. 'And everyone I ever told that to who's American is like... "What the f***".' The singer reflected on the first time Chrishell was introduced to a meat tray. '(The) first time my wife came to Australia, I took her to a pub in Darwin, we didn't win the meat tray,' they said. 'Anywhere else in the world have this going on?' Their video has been viewed more than 400,000 times - with wife Chrishell chiming in, joking: 'Even though I know it will give me meat sweats and likely food poisoning, I still want to win one.' Many Aussies shared fond memories about winning a meat tray in the raffle, with one saying: 'And if you win the meat tray you act like you've won $3million dollars.' 'Even funnier when you have to carry it around for the rest of the night/pub crawl and get random photos taken with the meat tray being carried by different people all night,' one shared. 'My parents won three ham legs at the Christmas RSL raffle and were acting like they won the lotto - handing out ham to guests for weeks,' another revealed, laughing. 'As someone who won the meat tray last week, there is nothing quite like the euphoric feeling of winning it,' one added. 'The walk up to collect the meat tray like you've won a Grammy,' another joked. 'As an Aussie, I never realised this was weird,' one said, laughing. Surprisingly, many revealed meat tray raffles were popular in other countries, including the UK, Canada and some parts of the US. 'We have that in small northern Minnesota towns. Meat Raffles are for sure a thing,' one revealed. 'Meat raffle at the local Wisconsin pub. Used to be a Thursday after work happy hour with friends,' another shared. 'We have meat raffles in Pennsylvania,' one said. 'This happens here in Canada at our Legions and some pubs where you buy raffle tickets for cheap in hopes to win steaks, roasts and chicken... in these times why wouldn't you,' another added. Meanwhile, many shared amusing stories about the first time they discovered what a meat tray raffle was. 'I was a total tourist in a small town in NZ and we won the meat tray and I got such side-eye from the locals, I didn't even know what it was or what was going on. I definitely had them redraw, can't take meat on a great walk,' one shared. 'My American boyfriend seeing a meat tray for the first time had him absolutely shook,' another revealed. 'As a Texan... I'm shocked this isn't a thing here,' one shared, laughing. 'As an American, I am so confused by this,' another added.
