Criminal investigations launched into Glastonbury performances by Kneecap and Bob Vylan
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Irish Times
9 hours ago
- Irish Times
Kneecap owe Keir Starmer, the BBC and Helen from Wales a thank you
Helen from Wales won Glastonbury . She didn't sing or dance or chant a death threat. She held up her phone and live-streamed the whole Kneecap show on TikTok, 'even burning her finger on the overheating device', reported the Sun admiringly, 'to bring the music to the masses'. Kneecap hailed her as a 'legend'. From which you might infer that earning legend status can be nice work. But Helen Wilson is a very modern kind of legend. She surprised herself by thrashing the crusty old BBC at its own game – though it's arguable if 1.7 million people actually watched or just liked her livestream as opposed to the 7,200 who definitely watched. It also left Keir Starmer looking like the infamous 1990s judge who inquired if Gazza (the world-famous footballer and also the plaintiff) might be an operetta called La Gazza Ladra. The BBC probably workshopped 10 impossible ways to livestream the Kneecap gig, ie to bleep out any recurrences of calls to kill your local Tory MP – for which the band subsequently apologised to the families of two murdered MPs – while weighing accusations of censorship alongside the terror-related charges against a band member (for allegedly displaying a flag in support of Hizbullah and saying 'up Hamas, up Hizbullah'). It eventually settled on releasing an edited form on iPlayer, saying it was due to fears it would breach 'editorial guidelines' on impartiality. The wonder is that the thousands of attendees fulminating about censorship didn't respond as Helen did with her TikTok stream, which is now being lionised as another near-lethal shot across the BBC/MSM's bows. Glastonbury forbids the unauthorised recording and disseminating of live performances but Helen isn't worried. Some things are too important not to be heard, she says. READ MORE If Kneecap's pro-Palestine stance is noisy and relentless (reflecting in principle the impotent fury of many people, young and old), it's right up there with the band's marketing nous. Among the many stunts designed to 'p**s off' just about everyone, they brought a PSNI Land Rover with them to the Sundance film festival last year (where their semi-autobiographical film with a Gerry Adams cameo won the audience award) and found a place called Provo to have their picture taken with it. 'It ended up that we were on the front of all the magazines, because of that jeep,' Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh (Mo Chara) told The Guardian. The alleged Hizbullah flag-waving incident was preceded by a social media image posted by the band of a member reading the Hizbullah leader's writings. Their official website leads with quotes from the Los Angeles Times – 'reminiscent of early Eminem' – saying the band has 'built up a notoriety for themselves which hasn't been seen in Irish music for many years'. So it's fair to say that they've leant into the notoriety – but not without a heap of marketing gifts from British officialdom along the way. The band won a legal action against the UK government when the latter overruled the awarding of a £14,250 grant to them under a scheme that supports UK-based music acts abroad. But there's nothing to beat the clamour around a prime minister's condemnation – until you compound it with the agonising decisions faced by a state-funded broadcaster. When asked if he thought Kneecap should perform in Glastonbury, Starmer could have refused to comment, on the grounds that there was an ongoing case. Instead he pronounced that the band's performance would not be 'appropriate …'. The rest was wildly predictable. No edgy band wants to be declared 'appropriate' by anyone, never mind a grey prime minister, in a world where the US president uses f**k for emphasis. So naturally the show became the most anticipated set of the weekend. The field around the stage was closed early to prevent a crush. Far from softening its cough, the band heightened the drama by showing a video montage of its enemies, including Sharon Osborne calling them a hate group, then kicked off a chant of 'F**k Keir Starmer' in a charged, triumphant gig . Hardly original as chants go – two songs with that title already exist – but it did the job. The sum total of Starmer's and the BBC's achievement was to ratchet up the protesting and ensure that any artist worth their inappropriate tag would shout 'Free Palestine' (at least) during a set, have a Palestinian flag on stage or be wearing a keffiyeh. And no one sussed that the act just before Kneecap, a self-described 'violent punk' London duo Bob Vylan, hitherto unknown to the masses – until the hapless BBC streamed them live and failed to pull the plug – would make the Irish band's act look almost puppyish. 'Sometimes we have to get our message across with violence', said frontman Bobby Vylan, who led a chant of 'death, death to the IDF'. British police are investigating both performances, though legal experts believe it's futile since the accused's intent at the time – what he intended to happen or believed might happen as a result of his words – decides the matter. So legal vindication once again most likely – although it's worth noting that Bob Vylan are paying the professional and financial price in terms of being dropped by their management, cancelled shows and revoked US tour visas. Long-time music critics writing about Kneecap blend admiration with caution. The Glastonbury lead-up was 'a perfect example of how quickly stories can become overheated in 2025″, writes The Guardian's Alexis Petridis . 'Vastly more people now have an opinion about Kneecap than have ever heard their music, which is, traditionally, a tricky and destructive position for a band to find themselves in.' [ Kneecap would not face prosecution under new Irish anti-terrorism laws, Minister insists Opens in new window ] But who loaded fuel on to the stories? Keir Starmer surprised us – again – by failing to consider his own contribution while delivering a petty told-you-so to the self-flagellating BBC: 'I said that Kneecap should not be given a platform and that goes for any other performers making threats or inciting violence ...' For Kneecap, the upshot of the weekend is a coveted invitation to take the main stage at Electric Picnic . 'This is going to be a special one,' said the festival about its sudden announcement. That's show business.
The Journal
20 hours ago
- The Journal
'An opportunity missed': RTÉ will again not be televising any of Electric Picnic this year
RTÉ WILL NOT be providing any TV coverage of this year's Electric Picnic, continuing a policy that has been in place for the last five stagings of the festival. The lack of coverage has been branded as an 'opportunity missed' by the Music and Entertainment Association of Ireland (MEAI), which says that Irish acts in particular would benefit hugely from the TV exposure. RTÉ provided live coverage and highlights from Ireland's largest music festival for a number of years about a decade ago, but last did so back in 2017. 2FM will be broadcasting live radio coverage of Electric Picnic, and three other music festivals this summer , but RTÉ has confirmed to The Journal that no TV coverage is planned. The BBC's coverage of the Glastonbury festival has been controversial this year following performances from Irish rap trip Kneecap and English punk rap duo Bob Vylan, but the annual coverage of the festival by the BBC has been extremely popular. In 2023, more than 23 million people watched Glastonbury on the BBC and this year the broadcaster was planning over 90 hours of performances across its live streams. The BBC chose not to broadcast Kneecap's performance at the festival this year but a live-stream of the gig by a woman on TikTok was viewed by over a million people . Yesterday, it was confirmed that Kneecap had been added to the bill at the upcoming Electric Picnic and The Journal confirmed with RTÉ that no TV coverage of the festival is planned. Asked why TV coverage of the festival hasn't been an annual commitment in light of the previous coverage, an RTÉ spokesperson said this was 'an editorial decision'. Advertisement Asked whether the decision was based on resources and whether TV coverage of the event could return in the future, the spokesperson said: RTÉ reviews all its coverage plans across all services on a regular basis. 'Missed opportunity' Jackie Conboy, a co-founder of the MEAI which lobbies for more airplay of Irish artists , says that broadcasting Electric Picnic would be a major benefit both for the artists themselves and for marketing Irish music abroad. 'It's a huge opportunity that's been missed and I do not understand why. TV is a major platform and even to have the footage for them to have on their website or their social, like that's a major thing,' he told The Journal . We're always on about festivals and about trying to get airplay. We've gone in front of various committees in relation to this and it seems to just fall on deaf ears. 'It's so obvious and it's common sense that if you're selling Ireland abroad this is one of the huge ways to do it, and a very simple way to do it and yet again we're being ignored.' Conboy also references the three-year €725 million funding package that RTÉ was awarded last year by government under a new 'multi-annual' funding model. 'When you look at the €720-odd million given to RTÉ, and yet they're pulling back on all this stuff now. They're talking about putting 25% of content out to independent producers but here was a great example of doing something positive for the music industry here and for new acts.' 'Whatever about the well-known international acts they don't need that kind of coverage but the likes of the new acts do,' he adds. Conboy acknowledges that the outside broadcast units that would be required to televise Electric Picnic would perhaps be expensive but there could be ways to fund that. 'You can get sponsorship and the fact that there seems to be so much money for other things but not when it comes to stuff like this,' he says. Readers like you are keeping these stories free for everyone... A mix of advertising and supporting contributions helps keep paywalls away from valuable information like this article. Over 5,000 readers like you have already stepped up and support us with a monthly payment or a once-off donation. Learn More Support The Journal
Irish Independent
21 hours ago
- Irish Independent
Galway pub to broadcast Kneecap's Glastonbury performance to raise money for Palestine
All funds raised will go to Palestine Children's Relief Fund A pub in Galway city is broadcasting Kneecap's full Glastonbury set in a bid to raise money for children in Palestine. The Irish rap trio drew headlines, ire and admiration from across the world off the back of their performance at Glastonbury on Saturday afternoon.
