Bob Vylan halts Glastonbury set by leading crowd in 'death to IDF' chants on BBC livestream
A controversial punk rock band has
sparked fury
by getting a crowd singing "death to the IDF" live on the BBC in the UK.
Music duo Bob Vylan, from London, stunned viewers of the
Glastonbury Festival
, by launching into a tirade against the war in Gaza and
the actions of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).
Before leading their audience into a chant during their set on Saturday, the punk duo, performing live on BBC, shocked viewers when their screen switched to
flash a message that read, "Free Palestine
United Nations have called it a genocide. The BBC calls it a 'conflict.'"
Read More
Related Articles
Ivanka Trump flaunts figure in form-fitting pink gown at Jeff Bezos' wedding
Read More
Related Articles
Jeff Bezos gives 'appalling' take on waving fans to Lauren Sanchez, says lip reader
Right after, they directed their fans to repeat after them, stating "Death to the IDF" and "Free Palestine."
Bob Vylan performs at the Glastonbury festival
Singer Bobby Vylan concluded his chant, "From the river to the sea Palestine must be, will be, free."
The performance came as a response to BBC preventing the following act from making a controversial move on live television.
The hip hop group
Kneecap
's set was denied streaming by BBC, due to their recent antics regarding the Gaza war.
The company found potential issues with the trio being broadcasted as their previous performances have included controversial incidents, with one ending in a band member being charged with a terror offense.
The bandmates have not backed down and previously said they are happy to be "on the right side of history."
Bob Vylan opened up his set by vocalizing his support for his fellow musicians, saying "Recently a list was released of people trying to stop our mates Kneecap from performing here today. And who do I see on that f---ing list, but that bald-headed c--- I used to f---ing work for," he said on stage, referencing to a former colleague at a record company.
Bob Vylan's chant at Glastonbury divides fans
"So look, we have done it all, from working in bars to working for f---ing Zionists. So if we can do this, you can do absolutely anything that you put your mind to I'm telling you this.
The singer continued, "We're seeing some f---ed up things in the world. We're seeing the UK and the US be complicit in war crimes and genocide happening over there to the Palestinian people.
"And I know we're on the BBC, we're not going to say anything crazy. Leave that for them lads, you know what I mean.
"But unfortunately we have seen a strange reaction to people that come out and voice support for Palestine. Even though anybody with any moral compass can surely see that what is happening over there in
Gaza
is a tragedy."
Bob concluded, "We are not pacifist punks here over at Bob Vylan Enterprises. We are the violent punks, because sometimes, you have to get your message across with violence because that is the only language some people speak."
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Journal
an hour ago
- The Journal
Kneecap among artists' whose Glastonbury gigs are under review by UK police
BRITISH POLICE ARE assessing videos of comments made by acts Kneecap and Bob Vylan at the Glastonbury music festival yesterday to decide whether any offences may have been committed. The BBC cut its coverage from the West Holts stage briefly before Kneecap was set to perform to 'ensure that our programming meets our editorial guidelines' – later confirming that the gig would be shown on the iPlayer. Kneecap, an outspoken rap group from Belfast who have been criticised for their views on Israel's war in Gaza, was the only day-time act not broadcast live yesterday. Performing before them was rap punk band Bob Vylan. Frontman Bobby Vylan led chants of 'Free, Free Palestine' and 'Death, Death to the IDF'. A BBC spokesperson has since said that some of the set was 'deeply offensive'. Kneecap then followed, opening their set with a film reel of news clips featuring politicians and TV personality Sharon Osbourne calling for the group's gig to be cancelled by the festival . The band has been in the headlines after its member Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh, whose stage name is Mo Chara, appeared before Westminster Magistrates Court this month. Advertisement He is charged with allegedly displaying a flag of the proscribed terrorist group Hezbollah while saying 'up Hamas, up Hezbollah' at a concert in November. Ó hAnnaidh was released on unconditional bail to appear before a judge again in August . In reference to his bandmate's upcoming court date, Naoise Ó Cairealláin, who performs under the name Móglaí Bap, said they would 'start a riot outside the courts', before clarifying: 'No riots just love and support, and support for Palestine.' In a post on social media , Avon and Somerset Police said: 'We are aware of the comments made by acts on the West Holts Stage at Glastonbury Festival this afternoon. 'Video evidence will be assessed by officers to determine whether any offences may have been committed that would require a criminal investigation.' Britain's Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy also spoke to BBC's director general about Bob Vylan's performance. A spokesperson later issued a condemnation of the performance. Kneecap packed out the West Holts stage at the Glastonbury Festival, leading to event organisers telling festival-goers to avoid the area. In a brief post to social media, the music festival said: 'No access to West Holts. Please head to another area of the site – thank you.' Ó hAnnaidh wore a keffiyeh during the set, while member JJ Ó Dochartaigh, who performs under the name DJ Próvaí, wore his signature tri-coloured balaclava. 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 Times
4 hours ago
- Irish Times
The days of families huddling around the Late Late Show or Glenroe are gone - and that's no bad thing
By the end of the latest season of Doctor Who , it was clear the BBC 's once high-flying franchise was on life support. Ratings had collapsed. Lead actor Ncuti Gatwa was keen to move on to Hollywood. Whatever the television equivalent of urgent medical attention is, the Doctor needed lots of it. The real surprise, though, was that the decline of the Doctor went largely unnoticed. There had been widespread speculation among hard-core Whovians that the BBC and its international partners in the franchise, Disney +, were considering pulling the plug on the Tardis (the eventual twist was far more shocking, with former Doctor's assistant Billie Piper revealed is to be the new custodian of the venerable blue police call box). What was most telling, however, was that, amid all the online chatter, nobody in the real world much cared. The entire saga of the Doctor's rumoured demise and the character's bombshell resurrection in the guise of the former Because We Want To chart-topper passed without comment – in contrast to the widespread anguish that had attended the cancelling of the series for the first time in 1989. Billie Piper in the final episode of Doctor Who. Photograph: James Pardon/Bad Wolf/BBC Studios Such has been the pattern in recent decades – and not just in the context of time-travelling British eccentrics. Contrast the present-day television landscape with that distant time when The Late Late Show on RTÉ ranked as unmissable viewing. Or what about Montrose's perpetually okay-ish soap opera Fair City, which once held the entire nation in its thrall - including when it aired Ireland's first on-screen kiss between two men in 1996. Or in November 2001, when 800,000 viewers tuned in to the soap to see abusive sociopath Billy Meehan beaten to death by the son of his partner, Carol. People were talking about it at the bus stop and in the pub (back when the pub was a place we frequented in numbers). Even if you wanted to, you couldn't get away from bad Billy and his bloody exit. READ MORE Those days are clearly long over. According to RTÉ, some 280,000 people watch Fair City each week (with more tuning in on RTÉ Player). But when last did you hear someone discuss a Fair City plotline – or even acknowledge its existence? It's still out there, and fans still enjoy it, but to the rest of us, it's gone with Billy in the grave. The fracturing of television audiences has long been a source of dismay to those who care about such matters. In 2019, Time Magazine fretted that the end of Game of Thrones would be 'the last water cooler TV show'. That same year, author Simon Reynolds despaired of the great geyser of streaming TV and how it had deprived us of unifying cultural milestones. With so much entertainment jetting into our eyeballs, how is it possible for any of us to hold dear any particular film or show? 'There is,' he wrote in the Guardian, 'always something new to watch… an endless, relentless wave of pleasures lined up in the infinite Netflix queue.' More recently, Stephen Bush wrote in the Financial Times that 'everywhere in the rich world, the era of truly 'popular culture' is over'. This, he posited, 'is bad news for modern states, which are held together to some extent by the sense that we are all part of a collective endeavour ... the decline of shared viewing is eroding shared cultural reference points'. The death of monoculture is generally presented as a negative. Weren't we all better off in the old days, when Biddy and Miley's first kiss in Glenroe held the nation transfixed, and the big reveal as to who shot JR was a global news event that pushed trivialities such as the Cold War off the front pages? But is that such a loss? It's easy to look back with nostalgia, but the age of the monoculture was the era of having everyone else's tastes forced on you. Consider the great cultural tragedy that was Britpop, where lumbering, flag-waving Beatles cover acts became the dominant force in music. Liam Gallagher (left) and Noel Gallagher of Oasis. Photograph: Simon Emmett/Fear PR/PA Those bands never really went away, and some of them are back in force this summer – asking you to pay an arm-and-a-leg for the privilege of a ringside seat (or, indeed, a seat miles away). The difference is that today, you have the option of not participating. Instead of going to Oasis in Croke Park, I'll be in London watching the K-pop band Blackpink. Thanks to streaming and the general fracturing of popular culture, I can, moreover, essentially put my fingers in my ears and pretend Oasis doesn't exist. Thirty years ago, that option was not available. They were everywhere – in the summer of 1996, it felt as if Wonderwall was stalking us. But because mass entertainment has splintered, you no longer have to feel as if you are being followed around by Liam Gallagher every time you leave the house. It is also important to remember that the monoculture is still occasionally capable of making its presence felt. Let's go back to The Late Late Show, which, according to the latest statistics, is watched by about 400,000 people. That may be a long way off the annual Toy Show spectacular, which in 2024 drew 1.6 million viewers, but it remains a national talking point – every bit as much as Billy Meehan getting his just deserts. Adolescence. (L to R) Stephen Graham as Eddie Miller, Owen Cooper as Jamie Miller, in Adolescence. Photograph: Netflix © 2024 The same effect can be seen in streaming. Granted, the extraordinary response to the Stephen Graham drama Adolescence , which streamed on Netflix earlier this year, was in some ways a product of a moral panic more than an epoch-defining cultural moment. But while the show had some astute points about misogyny in our schools, its depiction of what it's like to be a 13-year-old boy was painfully wide of the mark. Still, it did capture the public imagination. And maybe there will be a similar response to series three of Squid Game, which was released on Netflix this weekend. So it isn't as if we aren't capable of bonding over our favourite TV shows any more. It's just that such instances are far rarer than they used to be. But is that a bad thing? Nowadays, we are free to follow our own interests, rather than having someone else's forced on us. And when we do come together, that moment of shared excitement feels all the more precious. The water cooler is dead; long live the water cooler.
Irish Daily Mirror
6 hours ago
- Irish Daily Mirror
Tony Blair believes Bob Geldof and Bono saved millions of lives
40 years on from Live Aid, Tony Blair believes Bob Geldof and Bono have saved millions of lives. Over the years, the outspoken rock stars have often been labelled as western do-gooders or as celebrities with white saviour complexes, but a new BBC series sets out their extraordinary behind-the-scenes influence over global leaders since the landmark concert on July 13, 1985. Blair puts it very plainly. 'What Bob and Bono and others have done over the years has resulted in, I don't know, probably millions of people living who otherwise would have died. I don't think there's any type of remote ideological argument that should stand in the way of that.' The final episode of a three-part series gives a glimpse into the machinations of how the Dubliners wangled their way into the Oval Office, had a direct line to Downing Street and got invited to a G8 summit alongside Vladimir Putin. Blair fully credits Geldof with getting him to champion African debt relief, while George W Bush recounts how Bono persuaded him to pledge $15 billion to fight AIDS in Africa following a gift of an Irish bible and an exchange on sins of omission. In the series, Live Aid at 40: When Rock N Roll Took On The World, Bush recalls his 2005 meeting with Bono and Geldof ahead of the G8 summit in Gleneagles, Scotland. "I didn't have a clue who Geldof was. He and Bono came in, and Bono, was at least somewhat presentable, Geldof looked like he crawled out from underneath the ground', he says with a chuckle before adding, 'But he was a good guy. He cared deeply." Blair's former advisor, Justin Forsyth, explains their contrasting styles. 'Bob was effing this and effing that, even with presidents and prime ministers and Bono had this kind of deep empathy with people and knew how to kind of appeal to their inner souls.' Bob puts it in typically blunt fashion: 'He wants to give the world a great big hug, and I want to punch its lights out.' At the beginning of the series, Geldof speaks about the kitchen table conversation with his late wife, Paula Yates, which began Live Aid, recording the Band Aid single, and explaining who Status Quo were to a bemused Prince Charles during the concert. He also admits he was mistaken about not wanting Queen to play at the global concerts, regarding them as an 'overblown operatic' act. 'Subsequently, of course, we all have to admit that we thought the songs were great, so with age, we're allowed to admit it.' Meanwhile, Lionel Richie said he wasn't sure why US superstars like Michael Jackson and Stevie Wonder didn't perform. For his own part, he said: 'I made a conscious decision at the very last minute to get on the plane and go because I just felt it was necessary to do it.' In the final episode of the series, Geldof reflects on his subsequent campaign to get debt relief in Africa began when he returned to an orphanage in Ethiopia in 2003, nearly two decades after Band Aid. 'I see these children whose parents have died because of no food. It annoys me to tears of frustration. I go ballistic at this point, as ever, and 'Get me Downing Street' Blair, at a G8 summit in Évian-les-Bains at the G8 summit, took the urgent call from an aide. 'I remember shouting, 'it's happening again'', said Geldof. In a subsequent meeting, the British prime minster agreed to head a Commission for Africa after Geldof set out the case for the world's poorest countries had to be freed from crippling debt. 'I wouldn't have reacted that way at anyone, but it was him with his track record, his commitment, his knowledge, his dedication. And therefore, it made sense', said Blair. Blair's aide, Kate Garvey, recalls: 'He was driving the agenda inside government, which was incredible.' When Blair decided to raise debt relief at the G8 summit in Gleneagles, he knew it was critical to persuade Bush. 'The relationship was a very close relationship. We were in constant conversation with each other, and I thought there was a chance, because we had formed this commission that Bob (Geldof)had asked us to do.' They also had the backing of Bono, who had already formed an unlikely alliance with the Bush administration when he got access to Condoleezza Rice, National Security Advisor, who was a 'huge fan' of U2, soon after his election. Although she says in the documentary that Bush's tastes went 'toward country music'. As he's been briefed by his Deputy White House Chief of Staff, Joshua Bolten, Bush smiles as he recalls his aide asking him, 'You do know who Bono is, don't you?' He replied: 'Yeah, he married Cher'. But Bono found common ground when he brought along an 'ancient Irish bible' as a gift to the White House, as he knew Bush was a 'man of faith' 'He surprised me by giving me a Bible. I don't think this was a way to make me like him. I think is the way he really wanted to share with me a part of his being", Bush said. During their religious discussion at the start of the meeting, Bono asked him if there was a hierarchy to sin. 'He gave me the best answer anyone ever gave. He said, 'the sin of omission'', recalled Bono. This was taken as meaning it was wrong not to do anything. Bono wanted the US administration to take action on the AIDS pandemic, which was seeing 6000 Africans a day die of a preventable, treatable HIV disease. 'I'm being informed that there's a pandemic destroying an entire generation of people on the continent of Africa at the time that I'm the president, which I consider the most generous nation in the world, and we're doing nothing about it. It struck my heart', said Bush. Around a year later, in his State of the Union address, Bush pledged an incredible $15 billion over the following five years to 'turn the tide against AIDS in the most afflicted nations of Africa and the Caribbean.' 'Bono got George Bush to give $15 billion to black people who don't vote, who have AIDS', said Bobby Shriver, co-founder of DATA, Debt, AIDS, Trade in Africa, along with Bono. Bono said PEPFAR, the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, is the largest health intervention in the history of health interventions. 'It has saved 26 million lives'. In the programme, the lack of diversity of the rock acts in the charity concerts is debated with Harvey Goldsmith, the concert promoter behind Live Aid and Live8 concerts: 'There's always a criticism about not being enough black acts. I didn't care whether they were black, brown, green or yellow, if they were a big act and they were great and they wanted to play great', he says. But Bono does think it could have been more inclusive of the African continent. 'We did our best to make it more involving of African acts and failed, we f**ked up', he said, referring to the Live8 gigs. He later says, "Getting this stuff right is really hard because you are essentially raising an alarm." At the start of the G8 summit, a few days after the Live 8 concerts, aides recall how Blair rushed back to London from Scotland when he was told of the July 7th bombings in London. When the exhausted British leader arrived back towards the end of the summit, Blair's advisor, Justin Forsyth, says he had little patience with German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, who was holding up agreement on Africa. 'He went down into the bar with all the leaders there, and their wives. I remember him, not to exaggerate, but he had Schroeder up against the wall, saying, you know, 'we've got to do this deal, aren't we, (Gerhard)?' And at that moment, I think Schroeder gave in, and we got across the line with the Germans.' The G8 leaders agreed to immediately cancel $40 billion of debt owed by 18 of the world's poorest countries, and promised to increase aid to developing nations by $50 billion a year by 2010. Blair remembers it as the 'most extraordinary weekend' during his time as prime minister. 'To be frank, even President Putin played his part in that', he says, adding, 'It was probably one of the last moments of truly global solidarity that I can remember.' He remembers being fed up with criticism from NGOs that it hadn't gone far enough. 'They ask you to do something, you do it, and they still criticise, and Bob and Bono just weren't like that at all.' Kumi Naidoo, one of the critics, had mixed feelings. 'I think there were very many good people with good intentions that were involved both with Live Aid and Live8. 'I think that there was not enough sensitivity to understanding that it's not right for a bunch of predominantly white male folks to get together and say, 'we got to frame a continent like this'.' At the end of the documentary, the U2 frontman fears the 40th anniversary of Live Aid will have a very different resonance for global aid. 'The 20th anniversary was just a convergence of good fortune and good actors on the world stage. But what's happening now in politics means this anniversary could be a funeral for the last 40 years.' Live Aid at 40: When Rock N Roll Took On The World will be shown on Sunday, July 6th, with the first episode starting at 21.00 on BBC Two, and it will also be on BBC iPlayer. The Irish Mirror's Crime Writers Michael O'Toole and Paul Healy are writing a new weekly newsletter called Crime Ireland. Click here to sign up and get it delivered to your inbox every week
