Kneecap used their Main Stage appearance at Reading Festival to denounce the recent anti-immigrant riots in the UK.
Taking to the main stage for an early afternoon set, the Belfast rap trio also slammed the British Government for “enabling a genocide in Gaza”, as a message on one of their video screens put it.
Rapper Móglaí Bap wore a shirt that declared “Refugees welcome” for the performance and gave a speech to the crowd that alluded to recent events in the UK. “The Irish have emigrated all over the world and have been welcome,” he said, explaining that everyone should be similarly welcome in the UK. “Fuck that far-right shite,” he added before referring explicitly to the aforementioned riots.
The set was politicised throughout, with Bap describing Belfast as being “still under British occupation”. “But there’s another occupation happening right now,” he continued. “I don’t know if the BBC’s gonna show this, but there’s a worse occupation happening right now in Palestine. They’re bombing Palestinians from the sky; they’re bombing refugee camps; they’re bombing hospitals.”
The group then led a crowd chant of “Free! Free! Palestine!” before playing their 2019 single ‘Get Your Brits Out’.
Although this was a highly charged afternoon show – as indicated by a fan’s Palestinian flag in a prominent place near the front – the overall atmosphere was upbeat, with balaclava-clad DJ Próvaí appearing onstage first to whip up enthusiasm from the crowd.
The band opened with ‘IT’S BEEN AGES’, their assault on the tabloids, which sees them mix English and Irish to rap: “Oh it’s been ages since we made the front pages / Sin deireadh linn ar hiatus / Back to annoy ’em cunts that hate us.” The lyrics were bolstered by video screens that depicted them plastered across newsprint.
At one point, Bap asked, “Have we any Irish in?” which drew an enormous response. When his same question about British fans was met with a muted reaction and even boos, he insisted: “Don’t boo… It’s not the English people we hate – it’s the English Government we hate.”
That crowd included fans who wore neon-green balaclavas, whom the trio referred to as “bally boys” and put in charge of leading a massive moshpit. ‘Better Way to Live’, Kneecap’s collaboration with Fontaines D.C. frontman Grian Chatten, saw the band experience technical difficulties as the singer’s pre-recorded vocal got stuck at the end of the song. “That was the remix,” laughed Mo Chara.
Próvaí appeared in the pit during the band’s final song, the anthemic ‘H.O.O.D.’, summing up the celebratory mood. “This is the biggest stage we have ever played on,” Chara pointed out. But it was Bap who had the final word: “Free Palestine!”
Kneecap made no reference to their self-titled biopic, which stars Michael Fassbender and was released today (August 23). In a five-star review, NME declared the film “one of the best music biopics ever made”, concluding: “Unapologetically ballsy and brave, Kneecap has no business being as good as it is… Holy shit, fuck me, what a film.”
In an interview on-site at Reading Festival 2024, Móglaí Bap reflected on Ireland’s current domination of the music landscape – seen in the rise of Fontaines D.C., The Mary Wallopers, Lankum and many more.
“For a long time, Ireland has looked elsewhere for inspiration for art and creating music,” he said, “and now I think we’re looking inwards and actually giving recognition to the standard of artists that we have.”
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