Latest / The Front / Brendan O’Neill on Kneecap’s Glastonbury performance, and ‘the cult of the Keffiyeh’

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Brendan O’Neill on Kneecap’s Glastonbury performance, and ‘the cult of the Keffiyeh’ · The Front

• 0:09
  Speaker 1: From The Australian. This is the weekend edition of The Front.
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: I'm Claire Harvey. The UK's biggest music festival, Glastonbury, is
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: on this weekend. If you jagged a ticket for three
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: hundred and eighty five pounds that's seven hundred and eighty
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: six Australian dollars, you'd have the chance to hear some
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: of the world's biggest acts, from Olivia Rodrigo to Neil Young.
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: You'd also have the chance to see Kefa Clad Northern
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: Irish punk hip hop trio Kneecap. Some Love Kneecaps blend
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: of pro Palestine social activism and their screw you attitude.
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: Somethink they should go back to being school teachers. One
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  Speaker 1: person in the latter camp is columnist Brendan O'Neil, with
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: a frank and very funny take on the boys from Belfast.
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  Speaker 1: Kneecap's Glastonbury performance hung in the balance this week as
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  Speaker 1: one of the group's members, Leah o'hanna, appeared in court
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  Speaker 1: on charges of terrorism. O'hannah, whose stage name is Mohara,
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  Speaker 1: was charged in May after being accused of displaying the
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  Speaker 1: flag of Hesbalah at a concert in London last year
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  Speaker 1: and shouting he's pleading not guilty. While the performance and
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: ensuing court case have sparked debate about freedom of speech
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  Speaker 1: and artistic censorship, prosecutor Michael Bisgrove said while o'hannah is
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: well within his rights to voice his opinions and his solidarity,
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  Speaker 1: displaying the flag of Hesbellah, a prescribed terrorist organization, is
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  Speaker 1: an offense in the UK. I hannah was granted unconditional bail,
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: clearing the group to perform at Glastonbury, with his next
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  Speaker 1: hearing set for August twenty so Brennan putting aside whether
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  Speaker 1: relatively old people like us think that they're cool, or
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  Speaker 1: that they're punk or whatever, is there a free speech
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  Speaker 1: argument here? You know? Should they have the right to
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  Speaker 1: perform at Glastonbury and to kind of say whatever they
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  Speaker 1: want without us trying to squash them?
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely? Yes, I am a free speech absolutist. I don't
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  Speaker 2: want them thrown off the ticket at Glastonbury. I don't
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  Speaker 2: want their gigs canceled. You know, we've got politicians here
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: in the Labor Party and the Conservative Party saying they
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: shouldn't be able to play at Glastonbury. You know, I
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  Speaker 2: might not be a fan of Kneecap. I might be
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  Speaker 2: too old to appreciate that kind of weird Irish language
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  Speaker 2: hip hop. But I don't want politicians setting the performance
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  Speaker 2: list for Glastonbury. That's not a world I want to
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  Speaker 2: live in. I don't want to see them canceled. But
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: I do want to talk a little bit about the
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: standards in relation to all of this. So, at the
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: exact same time as this is happening, Johnny Greenwood from
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: Radiohead has had a number of gigs canceled because he
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: was performing with a singer from Israel, And the exact
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: same people who are defending kneecaps right to go on
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: stage and say free Palestine f Israel agitated for the
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: cancelation of Johnny Greenwood's gigs because he was performing with
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  Speaker 2: an Israeli artist. So there's a double standard there, and
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: I think it's a racial double standard, because if you
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: support free speech for everyone except for Jews from Israel,
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: that to me is a bit of a racist double standard.
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: So my take is free speech for everyone, free speech
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  Speaker 2: for all people who want to express themselves, so long
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  Speaker 2: as they do so without breaking any laws.
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: I wonder about the idea of punk in twenty twenty
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  Speaker 1: five and if in any way it's compatible with featuring
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  Speaker 1: at Glastonbury, where the tickets are nearly eight hundred Austromian
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  Speaker 1: dollars a person. Now, what do you think can you
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: be a punk and be a headliner at Glastonbury.
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: Glastonbury has changed so much over the decades. I think
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  Speaker 2: the first ever Glastonbury was nineteen seventy and it was
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: basically the Kinks and Mark Bolen and women running around
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  Speaker 2: with no bras on and men with long hair and beards,
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: smoking weed having sex. It was a hippie fest, you know.
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: It was quite rebellious, It was quite countercultural. More recently,
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: the average age of people going to Glastonbreen is around fifty.
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  Speaker 2: They all tend to be upper middle class because you
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: have to be in order to afford a ticket. They
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  Speaker 2: have the most insane security you'll have ever seen. There
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: are huge barbed wire fences all around Glastonburyen now to
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: keep out people who haven't bought tickets. So it is
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  Speaker 2: completely anti punk. It is the most conformist festival that
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  Speaker 2: Britain holes. So the idea of kneecap going there and
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  Speaker 2: being welcomed as punks I think it rather gives the
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  Speaker 2: game away, which is that they are kind of phone
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  Speaker 2: ky punks. They might seem like punks to boring old
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  Speaker 2: farts who like going to music festivals, but to kids,
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  Speaker 2: most normal young people, I think they probably look a
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  Speaker 2: bit square.
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  Speaker 1: Does this tell us something about where music is now? Though?
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  Speaker 1: That you need kind of three guys, one of whom
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: wears an Irish flag bella clav to give you a
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  Speaker 1: sense of rebellion.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, the one who wears the Irish trickler balaclava, by
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  Speaker 2: the way, which I always think looks like a tea
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  Speaker 2: cozy rather than a balaclava. He is nearly forty years old.
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  Speaker 2: Let's just get this into perspective.
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  Speaker 1: He used to be a school teacher. I think didn't.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, he used to be a school teacher. He's nearly forty.
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  Speaker 2: He's far too old to be carrying on like this
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  Speaker 2: in my view. You know the truth about Kneecap is
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  Speaker 2: that they met at an Irish language center in Belfast.
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  Speaker 2: One of them is from Derry, two of them are
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  Speaker 2: from Belfast. They're basically a cultural studies outreach program. That's
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  Speaker 2: essentially what they are. You know, they are singing the
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  Speaker 2: praises of minority languages. They are talking about the trauma
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  Speaker 2: of history and the impact it has on young people's
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  Speaker 2: mental health. There is nothing you hear from Nikap that
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  Speaker 2: you wouldn't see in a Guardian editorial or in a
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  Speaker 2: United Nations statement about the importance of protecting minor languages
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  Speaker 2: or the importance of learning from history. They are they
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  Speaker 2: do push actually a very conformist, elitist view, but they
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  Speaker 2: have as you're suggesting there, they do look punkish. They
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  Speaker 2: kind of have the IRA fancy dress. You know, they
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  Speaker 2: dress up with a balaclava and they kind of steal
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  Speaker 2: valor from physical force republicanism of the nineteen seventies and eighties.
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  Speaker 2: They kind of get a bit of momentum and a
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  Speaker 2: bit of sex appeal from, you know, HARKing back to
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  Speaker 2: that era when the Provisional IRA was seen by some
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  Speaker 2: people in Northern Ireland as a adventurous, daring gorilla movement.
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  Speaker 2: Because they don't really have anything punkish to say in
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  Speaker 2: twenty twenty five, they kind of have to look back
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  Speaker 2: to the past for that sense of rebellion, so they
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  Speaker 2: look punkish. Occasionally they sound punk, but if you dig
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  Speaker 2: a little deeper, there's not much going on.
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  Speaker 1: The band members themselves might be old enough to remember
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: some of the troubles, but many of their fans wouldn't be.
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  Speaker 1: Is that part of the equation here? Do you think
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  Speaker 1: that it's kind of glamorizing something that for people who
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: live through it might not think it was kind of cool?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's an issue certainly, and that does make kneecap
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  Speaker 2: jar with a lot of people in Mainland Britain in particular,
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: where there's a very different view of the IRA than
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: there might be in parts of Northern Ireland. You know,
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  Speaker 2: the fact that neecap is called kneecap is in itself
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  Speaker 2: quite revealing, because of course that was a punishment meeted
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  Speaker 2: out by the IRA, primarily against Catholics, primarily against people
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  Speaker 2: who lived in Irish parts of Northern Ireland who were
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: seen to be dabbling in petty crime or might have
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: said something to the army that they shouldn't have said,
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  Speaker 2: whatever it might be. One of the punishments that they
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  Speaker 2: were given was a kneecapping, when they would be shot
• 7:54
  Speaker 2: in the kneecap. It was a horrendous punishment, mostly meted
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: out to the Catholic community itself, and often for drugs offenses.
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  Speaker 2: This is one of the great ironies ofp Neecap's lyrics.
• 8:05
  Speaker 2: I'm ninety percent about drugs, Anna.
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: Shan Pruce, Labola, Klava, Speder Schuel or julisne I can
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: be shear Tarta tankiraswara irv Bersua, ugging lavata, Cookes BDEs
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: August mol marijuana.
• 8:18
  Speaker 2: The great irony, which I think they probably know themselves,
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  Speaker 2: is that Kneecap would have been kneecapped by the IRA
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  Speaker 2: in the nineteen seventies because if you dealt in drugs
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  Speaker 2: in those communities, or even took drugs, you'd be in
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  Speaker 2: trouble with the IRA volunteers as they call themselves. You
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  Speaker 2: know that word in itself, kneecap and the imagery that
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: they promote, which is this kind of you know, the
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  Speaker 2: balaclavas and parking back to that physical force Irish nationalism
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  Speaker 2: that does turn off a lot of people in Britain.
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  Speaker 1: Coming up Brendan on the cult of the Kiffi I
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  Speaker 1: Kneecap seemed to be fans of her mass and what's
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: got their leading aer in trouble now is some chance
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: of up her mass, up his bla and allegedly displaying
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: a his Blah flag at a gig. Now he's pleaded
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: not guilty to that. He's also requested an Irish translator
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: at Westminster Court when he has his appearance. I thought
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  Speaker 1: that was a nice little touch.
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: I mean I did laugh when I saw that. I
• 9:43
  Speaker 2: must say, they're having a wind up there because they
• 9:45
  Speaker 2: all speak English, of course, but you know it's that
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  Speaker 2: kind of performative thing of saying we will only speak Irish. Yeah, whatever,
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  Speaker 2: that's fine. That if they want to speak Irish in
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: an English court, that's their business. I don't really have
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  Speaker 2: a problem with that. But this is what I find
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  Speaker 2: quite infuriating about out the love for them amongst so
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: called radicals and progressives, which is that the thing that
• 10:04
  Speaker 2: they're in trouble for that they are alleged to have done.
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  Speaker 2: We have to kind of use that language because the
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: court case is ongoing. They are alleged to have waived
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  Speaker 2: the flag of Hezbolla. They are alleged to have said
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: up her mass up Hezbolla. One of them, the guy
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: with the tricolor t cozy on his head, he posed
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  Speaker 2: with a copy of Hassan Nazrula's book Hassan Nasralla was
• 10:26
  Speaker 2: the former leader of Hesbola who was killed by Israel
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  Speaker 2: a few months ago. This is a book that refers
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: to Jews as the descendants of apes and picks. To
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: my mind, that's a pretty serious matter. And I'm not
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: sure that progressives and radicals would be rallying around a
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: hip hop group that had posed with a book that
• 10:44
  Speaker 2: referred to black people as monkeys. I'm not sure they'd
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  Speaker 2: be rallying around a hip hop group that had praised,
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: allegedly praised the KKK. And yet when it comes to
• 10:54
  Speaker 2: this group which is posed with Hassan Nasrela's book and
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  Speaker 2: which has allegedly praised those two anti Semitic armies, Hesbola
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  Speaker 2: and her Mass, they seem not to have a problem
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  Speaker 2: with it. So I think there's a serious element to
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  Speaker 2: this which is an extraordinary double standard. And there are
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  Speaker 2: a lot of Jewish people in the UK. I know
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  Speaker 2: this for a fact because I've met them, I've spoken
• 11:15
  Speaker 2: to them who are worried about this case. Because they
• 11:20
  Speaker 2: see the music industry, the popular music press, lots of
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: young people, Glastonbury itself. They see all of these institutions
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  Speaker 2: rallying around these three lads who have allegedly praised one
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  Speaker 2: of the armies that carried out the worst mass murder
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: of Jews since the Holocaust.
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: Of course they areupleating, not guilty, but they do wear
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: kefi is in public. They speak about the people of Palestine,
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: they refer to it as a genocide. They criticize Israel
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: by implication. They're certainly invoking something underneath young popular culture
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: that seems to be resonating all the way up to
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: the fifty year old rich people who go to Glastonbury.
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: Why is that so appealing? You know? Why is that punk? Now?
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: You know, I call it the cult of the Kaffir.
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  Speaker 2: It's so interesting to me that for years and years
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: we heard about the crime of cultural appropriation, which is
• 12:13
  Speaker 2: when you know, a white woman would have her hair
• 12:16
  Speaker 2: in cornrows, for example, that was seen as cultural appropriation.
• 12:19
  Speaker 2: You were stealing the culture of a minority group, and
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: apparently that was the worst thing you could ever do. Now,
• 12:25
  Speaker 2: you go to any campus in the West Anglo American
• 12:28
  Speaker 2: world and you will see rich white kids as far
• 12:30
  Speaker 2: as the eye can see in Arab headgear, in the kaffir,
• 12:34
  Speaker 2: you know, in this culturally appropriated garment. I think it's
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: become a signifier of virtue. It is a kind of
• 12:41
  Speaker 2: satorial way to show the world that you are a
• 12:44
  Speaker 2: good person. You're on the side of right, You're on
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: the side of Gaza and against evil Israel and the irony.
• 12:51
  Speaker 2: I think with a group like Kneecap is that the
• 12:54
  Speaker 2: truth of the matter is that their opinions are perfectly
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: acceptable in dinner party circles. I've never heard them say
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: anything that would be out of place as some soiree
• 13:06
  Speaker 2: at the National Gallery in London or somewhere else, you know,
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: especially on the Palestine question. Being anti Israel this is
• 13:13
  Speaker 2: no exaggeration. Being anti Israel is the moral glue of
• 13:16
  Speaker 2: the middle classes here in Britain. It is the thing
• 13:20
  Speaker 2: that binds together the bourgeoisie. If you go to any
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: swanky gathering you will see novelists, cultural figures, influencers slamming Israel.
• 13:30
  Speaker 2: I mean, it is now the most expected conformist position
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: you can hold, and the kafir has become the garment
• 13:37
  Speaker 2: of those classes. So when Kneecap wear that and make
• 13:41
  Speaker 2: those statements, I just think to myself, that's not as
• 13:44
  Speaker 2: radical as you think it is.
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: Brendon O'Neil is an author, pundit and regular contributor for
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: The Australian. You can read his work anytime the Australian
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: dot com dot you, and he's written about kneecap for
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: The Spectator. This episode of the Front was hosted by
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: me Claire Harvey and co produced with Jaska League, who
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: edited the episode and also wrote our theme. Thanks for
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: joining us on the Front this week. Our team also
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: includes Kristin Amiot, lea At, Samaglue, Tiffany Dimack, Joshua Burton
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: and Stephanie Coombs.