Police, protests and Celtic tops - I watched Kneecap play Glasgow

The Herald Scotland

09-07-2025

Four stars
Teddy Jamieson
It can be easy amidst everything else - the court case, the cancellations (the bans, if you prefer), the politicians taking verbal pot shots, the social media furore, the police presence outside the 02 Academy last night - to forget that Kneecap, as well as being enemies of the state/speakers of the truth (delete as you feel appropriate), are a rap band.
In the furious noise surrounding their appearance at Glastonbury (and their upcoming non-appearance at TRNSMT), it seems almost perverse to come to their Glasgow gig and try to gauge their musical merits and award a star rating; to point out the obvious Beastie Boys influence, to suggest that their songs - all short, sharp shocks of things - are an amalgamation of basic, brutal beats and at times astutely comic lyrics (in both English and Irish).
No, as of now the takeaway is always going to be political. And if that is what you came for on Tuesday night, well, you could fill your boots.
Demonstrators outside the 02 Academy in Glasgow during the Kneecap concert (Image: PA)
A member of Kneecap arrives at the 02 Academy in Glasgow (Image: Andrew Milligan) In Kneecap's sights this evening were Keir Starmer ('you're just a s*** Jeremy Corbyn'), Kemi Badenoch, the First Minister John Swinney (one of those who had suggested Kneecap shouldn't play TRNSMT), the DUP and, most of all, Benjamin Netanyahu (though it's worth noting that it was the crowd, not the band, who instigated chants of 'Death to the IDF').
'Free Palestine' was the main message of the evening, flashed up on the screen in huge letters. Tonight, though, and perhaps inevitably, was also something of a Celtic FC love-in. Chants of 'Glasgow's Green and White' went around the venue at regular intervals and Henrik Larsson even got a mention from the stage.
(I think it's reasonable to assume that - lapsed or not - I was the only Ulster Protestant in the room.)
Fans outside the 02 Academy in Glasgow (Image: PA) A protester outside the 02 Academy in Glasgow (Image: PA) There was huge approval when the band announced that they remained unapologetically Republican and believers in a United Ireland, though their line that they had more in common with a poor Rangers fan than a rich Celtic fan didn't meet with universal approval in the corner of the room where I was standing.
None of which can come as a surprise. The trio Mo Chara, Moglai Bap and DJ Provai (wearing his ubiquitous green, white and gold balaclava) emerged from West Belfast and Derry (not Londonderry, never Londonderry) into a post-Troubles Northern Ireland still blighted by poverty and sectarianism, and that background is writ large in their songs and attitude.
Oh, yes, the music. It's all bowel-juddering bass and 60-mile-a-minute raps, which veer between the crowd-pleasing if banal (the line 'your sniffer dogs are s****' is mildly amusing; the repetition of it less so) and sly, amusing celebrations of their underdog/lowlife status (as on Sick in the Head and their best-known song Hood, both performed tonight with a mixture of impressive venom and glee). There is no question they put on a show.
People arrive at the 02 Academy in Glasgow for a Kneecap concert (Image: Andrew Milligan) A member of the band arrives (Image: PA)
But the bigger question for the trio now is where do they go from here? There's no doubt that their public recognition has been helped by the controversy (and there's still a court case hanging over Mo Chara's head, remember). But will that enable them or limit them?
Because despite the fact that they are able and potent performers the only thing that anyone will be talking about tonight is the politics. Is that a good thing for Kneecap? Time will tell.