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The Northern Irish rap trio Kneecap have claimed a campaign is being mounted to prevent their performance at Glastonbury this summer, at a surprise gig staged a day after one of its members was charged with a terror offence.
The group told the crowd at the 100 Club in central London on Thursday night that they were being used as a “scapegoat” because they “spoke about the genocide [in Gaza]” at Coachella in April.
On Wednesday Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh, 27, who performs under the stage name Mo Chara, was charged with a terrorism offence for allegedly displaying a flag in support of Hezbollah at a gig in London last November.
The rap trio called the charge “political policing” which it said was intended to stifle criticism of Israel’s actions in Gaza.
Hours after the charge, they announced an impromptu gig. They said the event sold out in 90 seconds, with 2,000 people on the waiting list.
Ó hAnnaidh arrived on stage at 9pm with tape over his mouth.
He said: “There’s a reason where what’s happened to me, happened before Glastonbury. There’s a reason they’re trying to fucking stop me speaking at Glastonbury in front of the UK.”
Naoise Ó Cairealláin, 30, who performs under the name Móglaí Bap, said: “This is our first gig back after [Coachella]. They want to stop what we’re doing, because they want us to stop protesting.”
“There’s 60,000 plus dead in Gaza right now. That’s the real story, it’s not about us,” he added.
During their Coachella set on 18 April, the band led the crowd in chants of “free, free Palestine” and displayed various messages on the stage’s screens including: “Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinian people.”
Ó hAnnaidh said on Thursday: “The reason that we are being witch-hunted here is because we at Coachella spoke about this about the genocide.
“We’re not the fucking story here, they’re using us as a scapegoat not to talk about the real fucking issue.”
The poster for Thursday’s surprise concert featured a recent quote from the former Sex Pistols frontman John Lydon, who said the trio “need a bloody good knecapping” in response to the controversy around them.
Last month, counter-terrorism police assessed footage of the band from November 2023 which appeared to show one person of them saying: “The only good Tory is a dead Tory. Kill your local MP.”
Brendan Cox, the husband of MP Jo Cox, and Katie Amess, the daughter of MP David Amess, who were both murdered, criticised the trio’s comments.
In a statement, the band said: “To the Amess and Cox families, we send our heartfelt apologies, we never intended to cause you hurt,” adding that the clip had been taking out of context.
The band has been removed from several festival lineups, including scheduled German appearances at Hurricane festival and Southside festival.
They were also axed from the Eden Project in Cornwall and Plymouth Pavilions.
MPs have continued to call for them to be removed from the line-ups of TRNSMT, Glastonbury and other upcoming events. However, there were no announcements of further cancellations after the news of Ó hAnnaidh being charged.
The group from Belfast, who rap in the Irish language, have a headline slot at Wide Awake Festival in Brockwell Park, south London, on Friday night.
The band said they would vehemently contest what they called a politically motivated charge in a statement before the concert.
“A charge not serious enough to even warrant their crown court, instead a court that doesn’t have a jury. What’s the objective? To restrict our ability to travel. To prevent us speaking to young people across the world. To silence voices of compassion. To prosecute artists who dare speak out.”
