The controversy surrounds their promotion of the Palestinian cause at the Coachella Festival; officially the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival held annually at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California in the Coachella Valley in the Colorado Desert. They projected an electronic banner onto the stage proclaiming “Fuck Israel! Free Palestine” and serenaded the “the US backed Israeli genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza.” This generated a predictable response from pro-Israel advocates with, in particular, the Grande Dame of the music industry, Sharon Osborne, calling for the revocation of their US work visas after that performance. Further opprobrium fell on their shoulders with the uncovering of footage of the band at gig in Kentish Town, North London shouting “Up Hamas! Up Hezbollah!” “The Only Good Tory is a Dead Tory” and appearing to encourage the crowd to “Kill Your MP. Calls for them to be banned from Glastonbury; questions were raised in the House of Commons; concerns were expressed by PM Sir Keir Starmer and Taoiseach Micheal Martin; the alleged incitement to kill MPs was condemned by the daughter of the murdered Tory MP David Amess and widower of the murdered Labour MP Jo Cox respectively, and an investigation begun by the Metropolitan Police (Hamas and Hezbollah are classified as terrorist organisations by the UK as well as the US and the EU).
The Kneecap controversy raises several questions at the interface of the performing arts, politics, and wider society. What are the boundaries of artistic freedom of expression? Is there a responsibility on behalf of artists to engage with political and social justice issues? Are artists to be judged by the quality of content alone? Should elected politicians and other societal guardians and gatekeepers have any role in determining the limits of artistic freedom? To what extent should musicians and other performing artists be held accountable for the possible consequences of their output?
I shall begin with a personal take. I hugely enjoyed the film Kneecap. I was enthralled by their scabrous take on the ills that still affect “post-conflict” Northern Ireland – prejudicial policing, sectarianism, the social deprivation that still blights the “left behind” areas like West Belfast including the drug taking subculture. Ditties like “Get Your Brits Out for the Lads” are certainly not for the easily offended but do tickle the metaphorical erogenous zones of others! Critics of the film fail to understand the nuances of what a fundamentally anti-authority and anarchic piece of cinema is. It takes swipes at the established nostrums of Republicanism and its new orthodoxies – a tribute act to Gerry and the Peacemakers, I think not. But it is not glorification of the armed struggle either in my view. I think that the name Kneecap represents irony as does the DJ Provai moniker. Others may think, I am cutting them too much slack and I appreciate that if I had been raised in a family and community plagued by drug addiction or had first-hand experience of kneecapping, I may well have a very different take on the film. But as I have not, I cannot claim a right to be offended.
Kneecap’s raison d’etre is to shock. That was also the mission of the Punk Rock movement in the mid-1970s. The Sex Pistols Silver Jubilee tribute song “God Save the Queen and her Fascist Regime” was written to attract the censors and to garner the royalties that would accrue from the inevitable ban. The swastika earrings worn by some punk devotees were designed to shock (that word again) the generation that had fought a war that had finished a bare three decades previous. That the swastika occupies the unique verboten status that it does is due to the efforts of the Rock Against Racism movement and Anti-Nazi League before it became a plaything for the SWP) that developed against the National Front at the end of the 1970s and the full awareness of the Holocaust since. But it was not then used by punks as an endorsement of full fat Nazism. Despite or maybe because it was the anthem of alienated youth, punk was essentially nihilistic and self-immolated in the thanatological, heroin addled wastage of Sid Vicious and Nancy Spurgeon. It never developed the social and political antennae of the New Wave pop groups that shortly anteceded them. A legacy of its essentially anti-political ethos was the support given by its High Priest Johnny Rotten aka John Lydon to Brexit and Trump four decades later. Though he deserves eternal credit for speaking out against Jimmy Savile when nobody in the reputation obsessed light entertainment and broadcasting industries would dare do so.
Nobody can accuse Kneecap of being non-political. But it is the performative nature of their agitprop that exposes them to criticism as much as their lyrics. As Mairia Cahill and others have pointed out, Greendog used the platform of Coachella to highlight Gaza; Nicholas Jar, lead singer of Darkside made a speech condemning the ongoing erasure of Gaza; Blonde Redhead played in Coachella draped in a Palestine flag; Saint Levant played last year and voiced support for Gaza, and this year Bernie Sanders appeared with Clairo to condemn the killing of Palestinian women and children. None of these artists have faced any calls to be sanctioned for their opposition to the ongoing Gazacide because they did not resort to the seemingly gratuitously provocative tactics of Kneecap.
When footage was uncovered of the Kentish Town gig was uncovered and of Balaclava Man buried in the study of the Thoughts of Chairman Nasrallah, the band members reacted with the weasel words typically associated with politicians and corporate CEOs caught lying or engaging in inappropriate conduct. Their apologies did not fully satisfy the bereaved relatives of Rt Hons Amess and Cox. Their protestations that they did not support Hamas and Hezbollah were formulaic statements crafted to avoid reputational and career damage and certainly did not impress their critics on their radical flanks who wanted them to front up and double down on what they had originally said. When social media posts emerged of their manager Daniel Lambert defending the atrocities of 7 October as “resistance” and supporting the deposed Assad regime in Syria, his responses were had the similar feel of casuistry. In each instance, the band’s default position was that comments were taken out of context in order to deflect attention from the ongoing slaughter in Gaza.
It is worth noting that previous generations of Republican orientated artistes like Christy Moore or even the Wolf Tones never incited violence or would have celebrated “Maggie” or “Lizzie” residing in their box although Christy’s H Block Album and the song “Back Home in Derry” were banned from the airwaves; the latter because it had originally been written by Bobby Sands. But Kneecap have yet to face anything as traumatising as the legal action taken by the Irish courts against Christy for his song “They Never Came Home” concerning the Stardust disco fire tragedy which took the lives of 48 young Dubliners in February 1981 which cost his band £100,000.
Nor have Kneecap yet to experience the real career lacerating opprobrium that another feisty Irish rebel singer, Sinead O’Connor, encountered when in 1992 at the age of 25 at the end of a performance of Bob Marley’s “War” she tore up an image of Pope John Paul II and glared down the camera exclaiming “Fight the Real Enemy.” For this act of speaking truth to power, this cri de resistance from an abused young woman towards one of the most important symbols of institutional patriarchy and misogyny earned her accusations of blasphemy, a life ban by the broadcaster NBC and Rushdie style destruction of her records at protests in Times Square. Her pathway towards world performing stardom was reversed in an instant. But she didn’t back down. Not for her the dismissal of her gesture as a big joke to save her career. Not for her the possession of a conscience that begins and ends with commercial viability. Is the one thing worse than saying terrible things is saying terrible things and not even meaning them in the first place? In the words of Finn McRedmond, this is nastiness without the saving grace of conviction.[1]
But to return to one of the questions posed at the start. Do legislators have any role in determining where controversial performing artistes can ply their trade? The answer is short and sweet – No. It is for the organisers of Glastonbury, Coachella or wherever to decide who performs at their venues not the would be, latter day Lord Chamberlains in Westminster or the permanently offended of Tunbridge Wells type lobby groups. Let the market not the state punish obnoxious content of performing artists. It is commercial not legal consequences that Kneecap or any other offending artists should face for dubious content. Artistic merit should always take precedence difficult though that it can be for some music lovers to separate, for example, Eric Clapton from his endorsement of Enoch Powell and Morrisey from his populist right wing views on British identity and immigration. If you don’t like a singer for their politics, you do not have to buy their records or CDs or download their songs or go to their concerts. It is not for the state or banning lobbies to make that decision for you.
The Kneecap controversy raises several questions at the interface of the performing arts, politics, and wider society. What are the boundaries of artistic freedom of expression? Is there a responsibility on behalf of artists to engage with political and social justice issues? Are artists to be judged by the quality of content alone? Should elected politicians and other societal guardians and gatekeepers have any role in determining the limits of artistic freedom? To what extent should musicians and other performing artists be held accountable for the possible consequences of their output?
I shall begin with a personal take. I hugely enjoyed the film Kneecap. I was enthralled by their scabrous take on the ills that still affect “post-conflict” Northern Ireland – prejudicial policing, sectarianism, the social deprivation that still blights the “left behind” areas like West Belfast including the drug taking subculture. Ditties like “Get Your Brits Out for the Lads” are certainly not for the easily offended but do tickle the metaphorical erogenous zones of others! Critics of the film fail to understand the nuances of what a fundamentally anti-authority and anarchic piece of cinema is. It takes swipes at the established nostrums of Republicanism and its new orthodoxies – a tribute act to Gerry and the Peacemakers, I think not. But it is not glorification of the armed struggle either in my view. I think that the name Kneecap represents irony as does the DJ Provai moniker. Others may think, I am cutting them too much slack and I appreciate that if I had been raised in a family and community plagued by drug addiction or had first-hand experience of kneecapping, I may well have a very different take on the film. But as I have not, I cannot claim a right to be offended.
Kneecap’s raison d’etre is to shock. That was also the mission of the Punk Rock movement in the mid-1970s. The Sex Pistols Silver Jubilee tribute song “God Save the Queen and her Fascist Regime” was written to attract the censors and to garner the royalties that would accrue from the inevitable ban. The swastika earrings worn by some punk devotees were designed to shock (that word again) the generation that had fought a war that had finished a bare three decades previous. That the swastika occupies the unique verboten status that it does is due to the efforts of the Rock Against Racism movement and Anti-Nazi League before it became a plaything for the SWP) that developed against the National Front at the end of the 1970s and the full awareness of the Holocaust since. But it was not then used by punks as an endorsement of full fat Nazism. Despite or maybe because it was the anthem of alienated youth, punk was essentially nihilistic and self-immolated in the thanatological, heroin addled wastage of Sid Vicious and Nancy Spurgeon. It never developed the social and political antennae of the New Wave pop groups that shortly anteceded them. A legacy of its essentially anti-political ethos was the support given by its High Priest Johnny Rotten aka John Lydon to Brexit and Trump four decades later. Though he deserves eternal credit for speaking out against Jimmy Savile when nobody in the reputation obsessed light entertainment and broadcasting industries would dare do so.
Nobody can accuse Kneecap of being non-political. But it is the performative nature of their agitprop that exposes them to criticism as much as their lyrics. As Mairia Cahill and others have pointed out, Greendog used the platform of Coachella to highlight Gaza; Nicholas Jar, lead singer of Darkside made a speech condemning the ongoing erasure of Gaza; Blonde Redhead played in Coachella draped in a Palestine flag; Saint Levant played last year and voiced support for Gaza, and this year Bernie Sanders appeared with Clairo to condemn the killing of Palestinian women and children. None of these artists have faced any calls to be sanctioned for their opposition to the ongoing Gazacide because they did not resort to the seemingly gratuitously provocative tactics of Kneecap.
When footage was uncovered of the Kentish Town gig was uncovered and of Balaclava Man buried in the study of the Thoughts of Chairman Nasrallah, the band members reacted with the weasel words typically associated with politicians and corporate CEOs caught lying or engaging in inappropriate conduct. Their apologies did not fully satisfy the bereaved relatives of Rt Hons Amess and Cox. Their protestations that they did not support Hamas and Hezbollah were formulaic statements crafted to avoid reputational and career damage and certainly did not impress their critics on their radical flanks who wanted them to front up and double down on what they had originally said. When social media posts emerged of their manager Daniel Lambert defending the atrocities of 7 October as “resistance” and supporting the deposed Assad regime in Syria, his responses were had the similar feel of casuistry. In each instance, the band’s default position was that comments were taken out of context in order to deflect attention from the ongoing slaughter in Gaza.
It is worth noting that previous generations of Republican orientated artistes like Christy Moore or even the Wolf Tones never incited violence or would have celebrated “Maggie” or “Lizzie” residing in their box although Christy’s H Block Album and the song “Back Home in Derry” were banned from the airwaves; the latter because it had originally been written by Bobby Sands. But Kneecap have yet to face anything as traumatising as the legal action taken by the Irish courts against Christy for his song “They Never Came Home” concerning the Stardust disco fire tragedy which took the lives of 48 young Dubliners in February 1981 which cost his band £100,000.
Nor have Kneecap yet to experience the real career lacerating opprobrium that another feisty Irish rebel singer, Sinead O’Connor, encountered when in 1992 at the age of 25 at the end of a performance of Bob Marley’s “War” she tore up an image of Pope John Paul II and glared down the camera exclaiming “Fight the Real Enemy.” For this act of speaking truth to power, this cri de resistance from an abused young woman towards one of the most important symbols of institutional patriarchy and misogyny earned her accusations of blasphemy, a life ban by the broadcaster NBC and Rushdie style destruction of her records at protests in Times Square. Her pathway towards world performing stardom was reversed in an instant. But she didn’t back down. Not for her the dismissal of her gesture as a big joke to save her career. Not for her the possession of a conscience that begins and ends with commercial viability. Is the one thing worse than saying terrible things is saying terrible things and not even meaning them in the first place? In the words of Finn McRedmond, this is nastiness without the saving grace of conviction.[1]
But to return to one of the questions posed at the start. Do legislators have any role in determining where controversial performing artistes can ply their trade? The answer is short and sweet – No. It is for the organisers of Glastonbury, Coachella or wherever to decide who performs at their venues not the would be, latter day Lord Chamberlains in Westminster or the permanently offended of Tunbridge Wells type lobby groups. Let the market not the state punish obnoxious content of performing artists. It is commercial not legal consequences that Kneecap or any other offending artists should face for dubious content. Artistic merit should always take precedence difficult though that it can be for some music lovers to separate, for example, Eric Clapton from his endorsement of Enoch Powell and Morrisey from his populist right wing views on British identity and immigration. If you don’t like a singer for their politics, you do not have to buy their records or CDs or download their songs or go to their concerts. It is not for the state or banning lobbies to make that decision for you.
References
[1] Finn McRedmond Out of the Ordinary. Kneecap have revealed the nastiness of their politics – and their lack of conviction. The New Statesman 2-8 May 2025 p.34
[1] Finn McRedmond Out of the Ordinary. Kneecap have revealed the nastiness of their politics – and their lack of conviction. The New Statesman 2-8 May 2025 p.34
⏩Barry Gilheany is a freelance writer, qualified counsellor and aspirant artist resident in Colchester where he took his PhD at the University of Essex. He is also a lifelong Leeds United supporter.
A very sober piece of writing which bypasses the noise this particular issue has amplified.
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