Kneecap to headline festival despite counter-terror probe over ‘kill your MP' video
Kneecap will headline a music festival in London next week despite an ongoing counter-terror probe into footage from two of their concerts.
The Metropolitan Police are investigating footage that allegedly showed members of the Irish rap group saying: 'Up Hamas, up Hezbollah' and 'kill your local MP'.
The alleged remarks provoked condemnation from Downing Street and an outcry across the political spectrum, while Jewish groups have encouraged venues to cancel the band's gigs.
But the Wide Awake festival, which will take place in Brixton on May 23, said that Kneecap would headline the event as planned 'after positive discussions'.
The show marks the band's first live performance since the row over their alleged comments, which prompted calls for them to be removed from other festival line-ups, including Glastonbury.
In an email to ticket holders, Wide Awake said: 'After positive discussions with key stakeholders, Wide Awake Festival can confirm that, as planned, Kneecap will be performing at this year's festival on Fri May 23 at Brockwell Park.
'Wide Awake Festival has a proud history of supporting the alternative music scene, and we look forward to staging another unforgettable event showcasing the very best emerging and established talent.'
The alleged 'kill your local MP' comment led to a backlash from the families of Jo Cox and Sir David Amess, the Labour and Tory MPs murdered in 2016 and 2021, respectively.
Katie Amess, Sir David's daughter, said she was 'gobsmacked at the stupidity' of the reported remarks, while Brendan Cox, Jo's widower, claimed it amounted to 'very clear incitement to violence'.
This prompted Kneecap to issue a statement saying: 'To the Amess and Cox families, we send our heartfelt apologies, we never intended to cause you hurt.'
In the same statement, the band rejected 'any suggestion that we would seek to incite violence against any MP or individual' and said the alleged comments were taken out of context.
Kneecap formed in Belfast in the 2010s and the group are named after the notorious punishment used by paramilitaries during the Troubles.
The band have played at previous editions of Glastonbury and a film about their formation won a Bafta. However, they have been been involved in a series of controversies.
Band members were filmed leading chants of 'Brits out' at a gig in Belfast in 2019, while Kneecap used their Coachella set this year to project the slogan 'f— Israel, free Palestine'.
Glastonbury is yet to confirm whether Kneecap will still appear at Britain's biggest music festival as planned next month.
Dan Jarvis, the security minister, warned its organisers last month that they should 'think very carefully' about who performed there this summer amid calls for Kneecap to be removed.
Mr Jarvis described Kneecap's alleged comments as 'dangerous and irresponsible' in response to an urgent question in the Commons.
He went on to say he would not 'interfere with what is a live police investigation', but added: 'The safety and security of members of this House and all those who serve in elected office is an issue to which I attach the utmost seriousness.
'Elected representatives at all levels and across all parties must be able to perform their duties safely and without fear.'
Lisa Nandy, the Culture Secretary, recently announced plans to crack down on a music grants scheme that gave Kneecap thousands of pounds of taxpayer cash.
The previous Tory government blocked Kneecap from applying for arts funding, but Labour chose not to fight a legal battle started by the Belfast band – enabling a £14,250 payment.
Ms Nandy accused Kemi Badenoch, the then business secretary, of failing to take proper legal advice before blocking the payment.
She added: 'We are so deeply concerned about all of the things that have made up this case that we're now reviewing the whole scheme.'
Kneecap applied for cash from the music export growth scheme, intended to support UK acts in international markets, in 2023.
They subsequently brought a legal case for discrimination, which the Labour Government chose not to contest, claiming there was 'no public interest' in doing so.
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