068/ A quick note on Bob Vylan and the BBC
I’m just waking up after Glasto and obviously have a big pile of stuff to reflect on and maybe write about, mostly nothing to do with politics.
But I want to add my 2p on Bob Vylan’s terrific, controversial set. Having read the BBC's (crushingly stupid) statement today on the 'scandal', I think the band (and fans) have a case that the BBC has defamed them.
The “death, death, death… death to the IDF!” chant (excellent scansion, I note) may have been aggressive and challenging, unsettling even, however it is objectively not "antisemitic". It simply does not fall into that category. Shouting against an oppressor's military force is in no way a statement on a wider religion or ethnicity, nor anything remotely connected to people around the world who share that faith or heritage.
It's as laughably stupid as if I shouted "death to the military junta in Myanmar!" and the BBC stated as fact that I was anti-Buddhist.
Even without the horrifying wider context of that military force's genocidal targeting of civilians, including the deliberate murder of many, many children, even without the starvation and terror, even if that military force was behaving in a 'legitimate' fashion, still shouting death to them would not be antisemitic.
In fact, it is the BBC statement, which generates and perpetuates a false connection between one oppressor's military and millions of people around the world who share a faith and ethnicity, that is itself deeply antisemitic.
I hugely enjoyed Bob Vylan’s set, the atmosphere at West Holts was joyful, not remotely tense. To my mind, their show is brimful of uplift, love and unity and Big Bob seems like a totally delightful man. The radicalism, while unflinching, is always shared in that spirit. Early in the set he even brought his young daughter onstage, they sang a track together, she was great, and there were loads of hugs, it was precisely one of those perfect ‘Glasto moments’ that we should be able to re-watch over and over again on telly.
And honestly, a bit of a protest chant that wishes death upon an overseas terrorist military group committing crimes against humanity, deliberately killing children every day, seems pretty reasonable to me.
In the end, I don’t give a sockful of poop what Starmer, Cooper, Lammy, the Daily Mail, the BBC, Emily Eavis or any other handwringing tit thinks about it. If he’d wished death upon Putin’s forces in Ukraine they’d be sucking his dick while trying to pin an OBE on him.
Until they stop arming and spying for the oppressor, and lying to us on the oppressor’s behalf, and inviting the oppressor to private dinners and public photo ops, their performative outrage is simply worthless.
I do think Emily Eavis’ statement is embarrassing and disappointing too, which is sad, since I just volunteered at her event and had an enriching experience there, and was hoping to write largely positive things about this enormous thing she oversees. In her politicking, performed outrage, Eavis too leans close to a false accusation of antisemitism, however her team’s wording is cleverer than the Beeb’s, leaving just enough generalisation in the text to protect her.
That language matters. The BBC has without question overstepped the line and must apologise to Bob Vylan, the crowd and Jewish people worldwide. I wrote a complaint this morning (this is becoming a habit) to suggest that apology.
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“A lifetime making art is in some ways about your tolerance for risk. Whether it’s money, or lifestyle, or your own heart. But it’s also about your ability to dream.”
— Maggie Rogers, NYU Tisch School commencement speech, 2025
mea culpa —
Yeah, of course, sorry, I do know that ‘Kick Out The Jams’ is MC5, not Dead Kennedys. ffs, Chris! A moment of brainfuzz, nothing more. Side-eye. Thanks to everyone who pointed it out, in a kind way.
icymi —
• Music Venue Trust’s Mark Davyd writes an overview of the live music industry’s collapsing infrastructure — built on deeply precarious, invisible and undervalued labour.
• Maggie Rogers (in dope specs) gives the sweetest commencement speech at NYU Tisch School of the Arts.
There are some magic new LPs to plug by people I love in real life, but I’ll save them for the next (non politicised) Double Chorus, since it will hopefully land fairly quickly.