Johnny Marr helps Kneecap taking part in Glastonbury
Johnny Marr has expressed his help for Kneecap taking part in Glastonbury 2025, condemning calls for his or her efficiency on the pageant to be censored.
The statements come amid controversy surrounding the Irish rap trio – each for his or her Coachella set in April which left pageant organisers “blindsided”, and for resurfaced footage of 2024 concert events, which allegedly noticed them show a flag in help of the proscribed terrorist organisation Hezbollah.
The latter noticed Kneecap member Mo Chara charged by the Metropolitan Police with a terror offence, and quite a few dwell reveals cancelled. He's set to seem in court docket on Wednesday (June 18).
Kneecap have persistently denied supporting both Hamas or Hezbollah, including that they don't incite or condone violence. They've additionally argued that the footage on the UK reveals had been taken out of context, and described the authorized motion as a “carnival of distraction”.
The band used their headline set at London’s Huge Awake pageant final additional to additional echo their help for Palestine, and converse out towards efforts to close the band down forward of their Glastonbury look.
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZLsId29Ba8[/embed]
On Jun 12, marketing campaign Love Music Hate Racism expressed their help for the group, saying by way of social media assertion: “Anybody making an attempt to silence them, or get them pulled from reveals, is on the flawed aspect of historical past”. They continued: “We name on all to face with Kneecap and defend Mo Chara on 18 June outdoors Westminster Magistrates Court docket in London”.
As we speak (June 16), The Smiths legend Marr took to his X (previously Twitter) account to submit his help for the group. “After studying that calls have been made for Kneecap to be censored throughout their Glastonbury set, I believe it’s essential that I make my very own place clear” he wrote. “I’ve performed Glastonbury many instances and the pageant has all the time had a political side”.
“It was based as a spot of free expression and political activism and it’s a indisputable fact that I agreed to play there with The Smiths in 1984 purely as a result of to take action on the time was a political act. We live by very troubling instances, however for anybody who’s been fascinated by me or my music over the past 40 years, I really feel like my political stance has all the time been very clear”.
— Johnny Marr (@Johnny_Marr) June 16, 2025
Johnny Marr concluded: “Oppression fears inventive expression. I respect all musicians who use their platform to talk out towards injustice, who promote compassion and equality and provides voice to the unvoiced. I stand with my viewers and fellow musicians who name for a direct finish to the atrocities and a free Palestine”.
The musician joins Fontaines D.C.’s Grian Chatten, who just lately claimed that the fear cost introduced towards Mo Chara was “a witch hunt”.
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