BBC reprimanded over Glastonbury ‘death to IDF’ chant

I was too tired at 1am this morning (BST) to post this, or something on this. But while my family and I were at the London Stadium in Stratford, rocking to the 50th Anniversary of what we consider the best metal band of all time, Iron Maiden, this was the filth being passed as ‘music’ at Glastonbury. From the Telegraph

The BBC has been reprimanded by the Government after it broadcast a rap group leading chants of “death to the IDF” on stage at Glastonbury on Saturday

Lisa Nandy, the Culture Secretary, phoned Tim Davie, the BBC director-general, demanding that he explain why the performance by Bob Vylan, a rap duo, was shown live.

A spokesman for Ms Nandy said: “We strongly condemn the threatening comments made by Bob Vylan at Glastonbury.

“The Culture Secretary has spoken to the BBC director-general to seek an urgent explanation about what due diligence it carried out ahead of the Bob Vylan performance, and welcomes the decision not to re-broadcast it on BBC iPlayer.”

Bob Vylan (whose real name is Pascal Robinson-Foster but I don’t yet know what his mate is called), who were performing ahead of an appearance by the pro-Palestinian Northern Irish rappers Kneecap, repeatedly shouted “death to the IDF” – a reference to the Israel Defense Forces. The chant was taken up by the crowd, many of whom were waving Palestinian flags.

The rapper also launched into a rant about a Jewish record company boss for whom he had worked, shouting: “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. So look, we have done it all, from working in bars to working for f—ing Zionists.”

Bob Vylan were followed by Kneecap, who led chants of “f— Keir Starmer” and pro-Palestinian slogans.

They also threatened to start a riot outside Westminster magistrates’ court, where band member Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh, known as Mo Chara, is due to appear in August on a terror charge for allegedly displaying a flag in support of Hezbollah at a concert.

Addressing the crowd, he said: “It’s not the first time there was a miscarriage of justice for an Irish person in the British justice system. So if anybody’s available on the August 20 at Westminster, we’ll start up a riot outside the courts.” He later added: “A disclaimer: no riots, just love and support, and support for Palestine.”

The Metropolitan Police has been approached for comment. Avon and Somerset Police said it was examining video footage of the comments made by Kneecap and Bob Vylan.

The scenes provoked outrage among viewers and supporters of Israel, who contrasted them with the massacre of Nova music festival goers by Hamas gunmen during the Oct 7 attacks, when more than 1,200 Jews were murdered across southern Israel and 251 hostages were seized.

Israel in the UK, the official account for the Israeli embassy in London, wrote in a statement on X that it was “deeply disturbed by the inflammatory and hateful rhetoric expressed on stage at the Glastonbury Festival”.

The BBC broadcast the Bob Vylan set without edits or bleeps to cover any chants or lyrics that might be deemed offensive. The corporation later cut the live feed for the Kneecap set on The Other Stage, saying an edited version would be made available on demand later.

Politicians and music industry officials had petitioned Glastonbury to drop Kneecap. But festival organiser Emily Eavis defended the decision to proceed, saying: “There have been a lot of really heated topics this year, but we remain a platform for many, many artists from all over the world and, you know, everyone is welcome here.”

Other Glastonbury acts have voiced their support for Palestine, with British singer Nilufer Yanya performing with the words “Free Free Palestine” shown on the screen behind her and a pro-Palestinian banner draped across the stage.

A spokesman for the Labour Friends of Israel told The Telegraph: “At the Nova musical festival on Oct 7, 378 young Israelis were brutally massacred by the genocidal terrorists of Hamas. To watch chants at Glastonbury less than two years later calling for incitement to murder is simply disgusting. It shows that, for extremists in the anti-Israel movement, the goal isn’t peace but death and destruction.”

Last week Michael Eavis, Glastonbury founder and owner of the farm on which it takes place said this

Asked by the Glastonbury Free Press, the event’s newspaper, if the festival still “stands for something,” the 89-year-old responded: “Oh, heavens above – yes, of course it does. And I think the people that come here are into all those things. People that don’t agree with the politics of the event can go somewhere else.”

Glastonbury cost nearly £400 a basic ticket this year (price for 2027 not known) and it generally sells out, on line, within minutes of the ticket going on sale, and before most of the acts are announced.  That may actually be good value for the amount of bands over different stages and three days, compared with single nights out at a local venue. But the cost of food and drink to a captive audience has also caused concern.

It has ceased to be an event for a music lover who wants to see particular bands, or a selection from a genre, and more a corporate event in the social calendar at which the nouveau bourgeoisie go to network, get wasted and be seen.  And it is noticable that security to prevent freeloaders breaking in at the back as was frequent in the old days is VERY tight. Open borders and ‘refugees’ welcome is fine for the country, but not for an event that the Eavis family want to be paid for, and for which the faux freedom fighter have paid through the nose for.   

 Iron Maiden have said if asked to play, they would refuse. Not their sort of thing – and they are the greatest rock act in the world in my biased opinion. And a top rock act in anyone’s more objective one. 

In what could be viewed as typical of the dismissive condescension that still attends heavy metal (and its fans) from many quarters of the music world, Iron Maiden have never been booked for Worthy Farm. Is it perhaps pointed that this weekend, while the world’s greatest music festival is afoot, they are playing what will undoubtedly be a triumphant, perhaps even two-fingered, homecoming show at the London Stadium that is home to Harris’s beloved West Ham?

Dickinson splutters at the very thought. “No! I always said I’d turn Glastonbury down if we were ever invited,” declares this rocker-of-the-people, firm in his ideas of what, and who, the festival represents.

“I don’t want to go play in front of Gwyneth Paltrow and a perfume-infested yurt.”

While Glastonbury paid a fortune to see this,

80,000 of us last night, as the ipaper reported, enjoyed

loud-and-proud metal anthems about the Battle of Britain, the Charge of the Light Brigade, Native American genocide, Egyptian pharaohs and Alexander the Great, played by a bunch of pensioner-age long-hairs, (except Alexander the Great wasn’t in last night’s set)

Photographs in London Stadium E Weatherwax