After Glastonbury, I promised myself that once I’d caught up on sleep I’d try and write some kind of analysis of the BBC’s piece about Kneecap’s set at that festival. Sleep’s been a little hard to come by, this being festival season, and me bouncing from one event to another, but seeing as I worked an event this weekend where Kneecap were on the bill – and that should tell you everything you need to know about the performative nature of the political outrage surrounding their Glasto appearance – it seemed only right and proper to give it a go.
Let’s start with a quick recap of how we got here. Kneecap (who’ve grown up in a community which knows a fair bit about military occupation) have had plenty to say about Palestine, and been consistent in their opposition to the genocide Israel is committing in Gaza (and when you put it like that, the real question is why more artists haven’t followed suit). In April, they played Coachella festival in the US, and finished their set by displaying three messages in support of Palestinians. Cue outrage from Sharon Osbourne et al (who’ve notably had little or nothing to say when it comes to condemning the last twenty months of industrialised slaughter, but that’s for them to live with). Shortly after that, footage appeared of Mo Chara of Kneecap waving a Hezbollah flag at a gig the band played in November 2024, he was charged with terror offences (since dropped) and the PM weighed in to say they should be removed from the Glastonbury line-up. They weren’t, and their appearance there became the focus of weeks of frenzied pearl-clutching by the nation’s media, all of whom have – for the most predictable of reasons – now decided to focus on Bob Vylan instead.
Jesus, and that’s just the preamble. We haven’t even got to the article yet. Catch your breath, and let’s dive in. It’s Saturday June 28th, Kneecap have played the West Holts stage at Glastonbury, the BBC have chosen not to livestream it (although Helen from Wales has stepped in where they feared to tread) and now – in order to give the impression that they’re not in the business of censoring artists who speak out about Palestine when they are in fact very much in the business of censoring artists who speak out about Palestine – the BBC are reviewing the show on their website.
The article – you can read it in full here – has to tread a line between talking about the Kneecap gig (because Auntie’s schtick is that it isn’t in the business of censorship) while making very sure not to suggest to the reader that Kneecap, and what Kneecap have to say, is something worth listening to. Let’s pick it apart, and see how it’s done.
Look for what isn’t said. Look for the slant that’s given to what is said. And look for the way in which events are represented. None of this is new – these techniques are as old as the hills – but they’re designed to slip by unnoticed and, in this case, play their part in setting the narrative when it comes to Kneecap, and Palestine.
The band, we’re told, gave a “highly-charged performance” where they “hit back” at the PM with “expletive-laden chants”. Sounds pretty violent already, doesn’t it? Hitting. Expletives. A personal grudge to what they’re doing. But then they “have been in the headlines” – note the passive voice, the way this is presented as an act of god, one of those things, something (you might surmise) that all bands are after, and nothing to do with active editorial choices made by a media which has been uniformly hostile to pro-Palestinian voices. The Glastonbury audience may have been there to show their support, but they could equally have been there just “to see what all the fuss was about”, with the implication that it’s about not very much at all, because that’s how we use that phrase in conversation. And what did they see, this Glasto audience? A “rabble-rousing” set. We’re just a few paragraphs in, and the connection’s been made between what Kneecap do and a rabble. Dangerous things, rabbles. Not the sort of thing we should be encouraging.
This is just a warm up. The next paragraph’s a belter. “The hedonism of the music, rooted in club and drug culture, was often at odds with the band’s pronouncements between songs.” Lordy. Hedonism, well we know that’s not a good thing, not a serious thing. And drug culture isn’t either. And for some reason – which remains entirely unspecified – enjoying yourself and being around drugs precludes you from expressing a point of view about the world around you. Who are these drug-swilling hedonists with their pronouncements, eh? Nothing you need to worry your little head about. I mean, they’ve been criticising Israel’s “military action”, the little scamps. Ye gods. We’re twenty months into what the UN and human rights groups have called a genocide, and Auntie is still calling it “military action”. Clean, antiseptic. Don’t let it concern you. Let’s move on.
No BBC article which touches upon the Israeli genocide would be complete without a reminder that “Israel has strongly denied allegations of genocide relating to the ongoing war in Gaza” and sure enough, here it is, presented without any attempt to assess the validity (or not) of that claim. It’s important enough to drop into an article about a band’s performance at a music festival, but nowhere near important enough to examine. This is narrative-shaping par excellence.
We’re told the band expressed support for Palestine Action (that’s the nasty people who’ve just been proscribed as terrorists, folks) who “spray-painted two military planes red”. A bad thing, natch. So bad that we don’t need to be told why they did this. Pure devilment all round, no doubt. Nothing more. Certainly not an attempt to draw attention to the RAF’s involvement in spy lfights over Gaza – and the UK’s complicity in the ongoing genocide – which doesn’t merit a mention.
Next, we’re reminded that Kneecap’s “vocal support for Palestinians put them under an intense media and political spotlight earlier this year, after an appearance at Coachella Festival in California”. Once more, this is presented as an act of god, not the result of a concerted campaign by an American Zionist lobby which stamps down on anyone showing support for Palestine. The fact that video footage subsequently emerged “of Mr Ó hAnnaidh allegedly holding a Hezbollah flag at a gig” is another incredible coincidence we don’t need to look into. How could this have happened? Don’t worry. Probably just one of those things. Move on.
No article about Kneecap’s appearance at Glastonbury would be complete without touching upon the BBC’s decision not to livestream Kneecap’s appearance at Glastonbury, and this BBC article provides us with a fine example of how Auntie investigates Auntie and finds Auntie’s actions to be benificent and good. Yes, Auntie had to wrestle with how to broadcast Kneecap’s set “while meeting its obligations to impartiality” but it was an honest, agonised wrestle, and impartiality’s a good thing, right? That’s why a weather forecast telling us it’ll rain tomorrow is immediately followed by one to remind us that’s just the Met Office’s opinion, and there’s every chance the sun will shine. Oh. Right.
Wrestling successfully complete, Auntie uploaded a “largely unedited” – which, for those of us in the know, means “edited” – version of the band’s set to iPlayer. You see, Auntie doesn’t ban artists (nothing that crude) but it does have to “ensure that our programming meets our editorial guideline”. Which all sounds very reassuring, and doesn’t in any way need further explanation. Thankfully, none is forthcoming. There’s just time to point out that Auntie “doesn’t always livestream every act” – sidestepping the question of how and why they make those choices – and the article draws to a close as it began, with Kneecap being portrayed as having a pop at the sensible grownups of the world, as Mo Chara jokes the BBC editor will “have some job” editing out all the Palestinian flags in the audience. Palestine, you see, it’s a joke. Even to the folk who claim to care about it. And that – according to the BBC – is that.
I’m back off into the hedonistic world of music now. Or I may just have a little lie-down. Who can say? Apologies for such a long and wordy article, but teasing apart the smooth, practised lies in this article took a bit of doing. It taught me a lot and I hope you’ve found it useful.
Oh, and Kneecap? They rock. They really rock.