Kneecap: Prevail
It's safe to say, that Kneecap's Glastonbury set has been one of the most discussed performances at the festival ever. It's just a year since their last performances, first at Woodsies on Saturday lunchtime, and then a second show at 1:30 am which featured Grian Chatten and was attended by Noel Gallagher. Two sets that garnered the band widespread acclaim from fans and critics alike.
Despite the circumstances surrounding the event. West Holts is so full, that the festival has to close the area in order to prevent a crush.
Leaning into the controversy the band opened with a video showcasing news footage proclaiming them as pathetic, anti-Semitic, and terrorist sympathisers. The clip ending, showing Sharon Osbourne telling Piers Morgan that Glastonbury “has been destroyed by one pathetic band”.
12 months on, and the circumstances surrounding the show are vastly different. After the band had proclaimed support for Palestine at Coachella, a witch hunt started. The band simply played in front of screens reading “F*** Israel” and “Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinian people”
Old footage was found and resurfaced online, and the group became wrapped up in a legal case, with band member Mo Chara – real name Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh – being charged with a terror offence.
The prime minister and leader of the opposition have both stated that they don't believe that Kneecap should be playing at the festival. Glasto co-organiser Emily Eavis responded by saying “Everyone is welcome”, and her father, festival founder Michael Eavis added: “People that don’t agree with the politics of the event can go somewhere else!”
Despite the outcry, many have stepped in to defend the band. In May, over 100 artists signed an open letter in support of the trio, accusing the British government of “openly engaging in a campaign to remove Kneecap from the public eye,” while Massive Attack dedicated their statement to the trio, insisting: “Kneecap are not the story, genocide is.”
On the day of the show, to add to the circumstances, the BBC announced that they would not be broadcasting the show live. It would be made available to fans after the set had finished. After hearing this news, a fan named Helen Wilson took matters into her own hands. She streamed the show in its entirety live on Tik Tok.
Walking on stage to a montage of newsreaders, politicans and talk show hosts condemming them, and then musicians praising them. This isn't addressing the elephant in the room, this is riding the elephant into battle. That battle being your biggest show to date, at the biggest festival in the world.
The crowd are on their side from the get-go, and Kneecap just let them do what they do, chanting back the band’s calls for a free Palestine, booing the British justice system, booing the British, American and Israeli governments, booing the prime minister.
The band thanked the Eavises for keeping them on the bill despite “enormous pressure” not to.
In terms of the music, it's a typical Kneecap set, the build-up to the event doesn't take away from just how good Kneecap are at what they do. Mo Chara and Móglaí Bap are impressive rappers – raw-throated but dextrous, far funnier than the mass media would have you believe. Opening the show with 'Better Way to Live' with Grian Chatten's vocals played over the PA. However, you can barely hear them because the 30,000-strong crowd are drowning it out.
'Your Sniffer Dogs are Shite' sees the band encourage the crowd to open up the pits for the first time of many in the hour-long show, and the crowd obliged. The energy within the crowd was impossible to suppress. The band used the energy of those in attendance to their advantage, mosh pits opened, flares were lit, and the lyrics both in English and Irish were chanted back to the three on stage like a tidal wave.
'Fine Art' receives a rapturous response, and 'Rhino Ket' is still one of their funniest songs, a band who have been targetted as public enemy number one by the British Government singing about ketamine strong enough to send a rhino to sleep, is very funny.
By the time 'Get Your Brit's Out', 'H.O.O.D' and the latest single 'The Recap' are played this is no longer a festival show, it's a victory lap, a clap back at the doubters, the haters and three absolute bangers for the 30,000 faithful in attendance.
The band are extremely confident, in fine voice and understands the power of the show. Kneecap has become one of the most talked about groups in recent months, for what they have described as a "trumped up terror charge.". What we really should be talking about, is their stance on what is going on in Palestine, what good they are doing for the Palestinian people, their brilliant semi-autobiographical film, and their music.
Kneecap drew their biggest crowd ever at Glastonbury, and one of the biggest crowds West Holts has ever seen.
Hip-hop has always been a genre that's forceful, and urgent and was often seen as a symbol of the counterculture, in the same way punk was. This performance will be remembered for a very very long time.