Latest news with #HelenWilson
The Guardian
06-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Woman who livestreamed Kneecap Glastonbury set targeted by online abuse
A woman who livestreamed Kneecap's Glastonbury festival set to 2 million people on TikTok has described the 'obscene' abuse she says has received in the aftermath, including people calling her a Nazi. Helen Wilson, a Swansea-based yoga teacher who also runs the Ground Plant Based Coffee cafe, said she had been sent a lot of personal insults, but that she had received 'hundreds and hundreds times more support than negativity'. It came after she held up her phone in the crowd to stream the set by the Irish rap trio last Saturday, which the BBC refused to show live, over what it said were efforts to ensure it 'meets our editorial guidelines'. The BBC later made an edited version available on iPlayer, though the broadcaster did not respond to the Guardian when asked what had been cut out. Wilson said: 'I just thought, I'm just going to livestream it because the BBC aren't showing it. And I really disagreed with that. I did not think for a moment that over 2 million people would see it.' It was only her second TikTok live stream on her handle HelenWilsonWales – her first, about her weight loss, had no viewers at all – and initially she had not realised how many people were watching because the sun was shining on her phone screen. 'But I could see that when you're doing a live stream, loads of messages pop up and people can talk to you. So the screen was going mental. People were just like ping, ping, ping, ping, ping, ping, ping, ping. 'And I was like: 'Oh, my god, something's happening here,' and so I just knew I had to carry on. People were saying to me: 'Please keep going, do what you can, please keep going.' And then that was it,' said Wilson, who grew up in Somerset and was working at the festival. The stream was spreading through word of mouth, as viewers sent it to their friends and family, and Wilson found out later that at one point it was playing on a big screen in a pub in the band's home town. She told the Guardian: 'I have had a lot of trolling. When you rang, I was just in the middle of deleting some obscene comments off my business Facebook page.' 'There was somebody on Instagram just saying he sent me a message saying: 'You're just a wrinkled old woman looking for attention.'' '[In a tabloid newspaper] I've been referred to as a middle-aged woman. Like, what has that got to do with anything?' said the 44-year-old. She said: 'This is about the genocide in Palestine, and this is about the failure of our government to act, to do anything about it.' Wilson added: 'More people need to know what is going on in Palestine. And we shouldn't be censoring bands under freedom of speech, full stop. We shouldn't be censoring anybody who is trying to raise awareness of the atrocities that are taking place.' Afterwards, Kneecap called her a 'legend' and offered her free tickets to any of their shows. On Saturday, while supporting Fontaines DC in Finsbury Park, the band once again led 45,000 people in chants of 'fuck Keir Starmer'. The band were far from alone in their sentiments at Glastonbury – dozens of acts and figures at the festival spoke out in support of Palestine, including CMAT, the Libertines, Gary Lineker, Joy Crookes, TV on the Radio, Sorry and Paloma Faith. Kneecap were also backed by Emily and Michael Eavis, the festival's organisers, with Emily telling the BBC that 'everyone is welcome', before their set.
Irish Times
02-07-2025
- Entertainment
- 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 Independent
01-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Independent
I quit the BBC over Gaza – Glastonbury proves it was the right thing to do
This weekend, if you wanted to watch Kneecap's Glastonbury performance live on the West Holts stage, you wouldn't have found it on the BBC. Instead, you'd have had to find Helen Wilson's TikTok account, where she burnt her fingers holding her phone up in 30-degree heat to livestream the entire set from her spot in the festival audience, knowing that our public broadcaster had decided not to. Thousands were watching. The band was expected to be one of the festival's most anticipated acts, with organisers warning prior that there would be a large crowd for their performance. The BBC announced it wouldn't be broadcasting the set live on TV, but that edited highlights would be offered later, on iPlayer. 'Whilst the BBC doesn't ban artists', it said in a statement, 'our plans ensure that our programming meets our editorial guidelines.' This comes after band member Mo Chara was charged with a terrorist offence, for allegedly displaying a flag in support of Hezbollah at a performance in 2024 – a charge that has now been dropped, and with a court hearing scheduled for August cancelled. On the day, the BBC tried to play it safe, choosing to edit Kneecap's performance for iPlayer. Surely this would shield it? During the set, Mo Chara commented on the sheer number of Palestinian flags at the festival, and led crowds in chants of 'Free Palestine'. Another band member wore a T-shirt reading 'We are all Palestine Action ', in reference to the soon-to-be proscribed direct action group. In the end, the BBC's editorial timidity didn't save it. Instead of livestreaming Kneecap's Palestine chants, it livestreamed rap duo Bob Vylan's, whose call-and-response about the Israeli military ('Death, death to the IDF') has resulted in significant criticism – even from the prime minister – and demands that the broadcaster be defunded or prosecuted. For bad-faith critics, censorship – the most extreme editorial choice – will never be enough. Refusing to air band sets at Glastonbury, or editorially sound documentaries like Gaza: Doctors Under Fire, will never be enough. Sacrificing the BBC's dearest editorial standards and values will never be enough. Because censorship is the call of those who don't want reality to be shown – and the reality is that there's growing public support for Palestine, and growing anger at Israel's actions in Gaza. This shows itself in the folk-hero status given to artists who speak up, in the hundreds of thousands who have protested down London streets across 20 months, in the sea of Palestine flags at Glastonbury. Public anger cannot be censored away, no matter how much anyone tries. If an artist shouts 'Free, free' on a Glastonbury stage, the audience will roar 'Palestine'. Showing the reality of this public sentiment should be a priority for our public broadcaster. I want a BBC free of influence, a BBC that is editorially brave in the face of pressure. It's crucial that our public broadcaster makes its editorial decisions freely, not based on the perceived anger of bad-faith critics, but based on accuracy, evidence, human rights, and core principles that must be upheld – principles such as free speech and public service. The BBC that refused to remove a documentary series on Indian prime minister Narendra Modi's role in the 2002 Gujarat riots, despite pressure from his government, is the BBC we need. It's the BBC we deserve. Not the one where a member of the public has to burn her fingers to air what it won't.
The Irish Sun
29-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Irish Sun
I've been hailed a ‘free speech legend' for live-streaming Kneecap's Glasto gig after BBC cut feed – I felt I had to
A WOMAN who live- streamed Kneecap's Glastonbury gig was hailed by the band as a 'legend' after her TikTok broadcast was seen by millions. Helen Wilson, from Advertisement 7 Kneecap performed at Glastonbury Festival on Saturday last Credit: Getty 7 Jamie Dornan joined Kneecap after their Glastonbury set Credit: Instagram 7 Helen filmed the set by the Belfast rappers on the West Holts Stage Credit: Tiktok/helensmashinglife She held up her phone for over an hour, even burning her finger on the overheating device, to bring the music to the masses. It came after But Advertisement READ MORE ON GLASTONBURY Thousands of people watched Helen's livestream of the set, while nearly two million interacted with the broadcast overall, with around 1.8million people 'liking' the stream on Helen describes herself as a vegan chef and yoga teacher on her In a video after the performance, she said she was 'so astounded by the response' to her stream. Helen said she went to the stage after taking part in a pro- Advertisement MOST READ ON THE IRISH SUN Breaking She told her followers: 'So I basically just got a couple of pints, got my big Palestine flag and then I thought 'Ah, I'm gonna go live'. Prime Minister Keir Starmer calls for Glastonbury to axe Kneecap from the line-up 'I could see that very quickly I had a thousand people watching, and then that just grew and grew and grew and grew. 'I then thought 'I can't stop filming now' and then people were saying 'Oh, we need to see more, we need to see more'.' Helen said she burned herself due to the phone overheating while she filmed. Advertisement She said: 'I'm pretty battered, to be honest, but it was a f***ing amazing set.' She added: 'Thank you so much for all your messages and encouragement and support. 7 Thousands of festival goers attended the trio's Saturday gig Credit: PA 7 Bob Vylan led crowds on the West Holts Stage in chants of 'Death, death to the IDF' Credit: Getty Advertisement 7 Kneecap praised Helen in a comment posted on her TikTok profile late on Saturday Credit: Tiktok/helensmashinglife 'IT WAS A MISSION' 'It's ridiculous 'cause all I did is hold a phone up — but it was a bit of a mission. 'The phone overheated, it started to run out of battery, so I plugged in my power bank. I abandoned two pints of cider and a Palestine flag. 'I did it because I knew it wasn't going to be on the Advertisement One person said: 'Helen Wilson will never have to buy a drink in the Falls Road again.' Another said: 'Give Helen from Wales an Irish passport.' Kneecap praised Helen in a comment posted on her TikTok profile late on Saturday - and offered her tickets to any gig she wanted. 'YOU'RE A LEGEND' They said: 'Helen you're a legend! Tickets to any show just giz a shout! Grma.' Advertisement Helen responded: 'Oh my god!! I cannot believe this. Thank you so much for everything you do and stand for.' Helen told The Irish Sun today that she works at the festival selling 'real ale' to the people who pick up the litter. She said: 'I was supposed to be doing that during the Kneecap set, but when we got here earlier in the week, my friend and I spoke to our boss and said 'we really want to go and see Kneecap'.' Helen said she was allowed to go and see the band but had to go back to work afterwards. Advertisement She added: 'Being part of that set really did feel very significant. It was amazing to be there, to share with people the strength of feeling.' Thousands of festival goers attended the trio's Saturday gig. And Belfast actor In the run-up to Glastonbury at Worthy Farm in Somerset, several politicians called for Kneecap to be removed from the line-up, while Advertisement 'FREE MAN' As they took to the stage, Liam Og O hAnnaidh exclaimed: 'Glastonbury, I'm a free man.' Then, in reference to his bandmate's forthcoming court date, Naoise O Caireallain, who performs under the name Moglai Bap, said they would 'start a riot outside the courts', before clarifying: 'No riots, just love and support, and support for Palestine.' During the performance, O Caireallain also said: 'The Prime Minister of your country, not mine, said he didn't want us to play, so f Keir Starmer.' He also said a 'big thank you to the Eavis family', who run the fest, and said 'they stood strong' amid calls for the organisers to drop them from the line-up. Advertisement O hAnnaidh's case is due to be heard again at Westminster Magistrates' Court on August 20. 'CROSSED A LINE' Glastonbury Festival another act on Saturday, punk duo Bob Vylan, 'crossed a line', as footage from their set is assessed by the police. Bobby Vylan led crowds on the West Holts Stage in chants of 'Death, death to the IDF'. A joint Instagram post from Glastonbury and Emily Eavis said: 'Their chants very much crossed a line and we are urgently reminding everyone involved in the production of the Festival that there is no place at Glastonbury for antisemitism, hate speech or incitement to violence.' Advertisement Cops said video would be assessed 'to determine whether any offences may have been committed that would require a criminal investigation'. Meanwhile, UK terror police said Kneecap won't be hauled to court over their 'kill your MP' remarks. Their probe began after a video from a November 2023 gig emerged last month. One band member could be heard in the footage saying: 'The only good Tory is a dead Tory. Kill your local MP.' The Met Police have said it will not proceed with the case because of the 'time elapsed' before the video was brought to their attention. Advertisement 7 Revellers hold up Palestinian flags on the day Kneecap performs at Glastonbury Festival Credit: Reuters
Metro
29-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Metro
I live-streamed Kneecap's Glastonbury set when the BBC wouldn't — here's why
To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Helen Wilson has been going to Glastonbury for 26 years, but she never thought she would go viral on social media for being at the festival. The music fan from Somerset has been hailed as a 'legend' not only online, but by Irish rap trio Kneecap, after live-streaming their West Holts stage performance on TikTok to two million viewers. In the scorching heat, Helen even burned her fingers after holding up her phone for an hour to show her support for the group, whose performance wasn't being shown by the BBC. Metro reporter Danni Scott walked the length of Worthy Farm to find Helen. She asked her about the decision to stream the performance, and the reaction since. Speaking exclusively to Metro, Helen said: 'I am a [Kneecap] fan, and so I've been aware of their plight. 'I'm also aware of what's happening in Palestine, and the controversy surrounding the band and the discussion from the BBC's point of view that they weren't going to air the set. 'So, that was something that a lot of people were talking about even before the festival started.' Helen, who is working at a bar at Glastonbury, wasn't supposed to be at the set, but was given an hour off to watch the performance. Speaking of her decision to go live to millions of viewers, she said: 'I'd thought about it before because I knew that the BBC had said that they weren't going to be showing the set, and I really believe in free speech.' 'I also think that as lovers of music, we have to do things to support the artists that we believe in, and when there's censorship coming from large media institutions such as the BBC I think it's up to people like me to step in. 'To do something that thousands of people across the UK and beyond can actually see what's happening, because if you watch over TikTok, you'll see the volume of love and support that was there, and actually that's what I wanted everyone outside these fields to see.' The BBC released a statement confirming it has put Kneecap's Glastonbury set on iPlayer, but with some edits. The corporation did not broadcast the set live. More Trending 'We have made an on-demand version of Kneecap's performance available on iPlayer, as part of our online collection of more than 90 other sets,' the BBC says in a new statement this morning. 'We have edited it to ensure the content falls within the limits of artistic expression in line with our editorial guidelines and reflects the performance from Glastonbury's West Holts stage. 'As with all content which includes strong language, this is signposted with appropriate warnings.' Helen added in a statement shared with Metro: 'Glastonbury stands for freedom. Streaming Kneecap's set was my way of honouring that legacy and sharing it far beyond the fields of Worthy Farm.' Got a story? If you've got a celebrity story, video or pictures get in touch with the entertainment team by emailing us celebtips@ calling 020 3615 2145 or by visiting our Submit Stuff page – we'd love to hear from you. MORE: What time is Sir Rod Stewart playing at Glastonbury today and who are his guests? MORE: Streeting tells Israel to 'get your own house in order' over Glastonbury criticism MORE: Inside Rod Stewart's 18th century Essex mansion with jaw-dropping football pitch
