Why have Bob Vylan been dropped from their set at Radar Festival?

We had a look the reasons behind punk duo Bob Vylan’s removal from the lineup at this weekend’s Radar festival/

Transcript

00:00Hello and welcome to Manchester World. My name's Theo Hewson-Betz, and it's the end of a lovely week here in Greater Manchester,

00:05so it seems only fair that we talk about a topic that's been at the centre of much controversy and ruin the weekend a little bit.

00:10We're going to start with the big news, and then we'll get into the background of it.

00:13Punk band Bob Villain have been dropped from this weekend's Radar Festival at Victoria Warehouse.

00:18Now, to explain why, let's jump back to another festival, Glastonbury last weekend.

00:22Now, in the build-up to the festival, there was much focus on the set of Irish band Kneecap,

00:25who've been criticised for some controversial statements about the actions of the Israeli nation

00:29after the killing of over 57,000 Palestinians over the course of the last few years,

00:34with one of the members of the group even being charged with a terror offence after holding up a Hezbollah flag at a gig.

00:39All the focus was on Kneecap and how far they'd go at the country's biggest music festival.

00:43The BBC opted not to stream their gig at all, and the issues seemed to be over there.

00:46That is, until Bob Villain, a punk duo from Ipswich, took to the stage for their set,

00:50leading chants calling for the death of the IDF, the Israeli Defence Force,

00:54whom many who are shocked by the sheer scale of the deaths in Palestine over the last year

00:58blame for the quantity of killings that have occurred since the dreadful Hamas attack on Israel back in October 2023.

01:04The BBC did stream their gig, clearly not aware of the possibility that the group would act in such a manner,

01:08and have been heavily criticised since for failing to stop the stream mid-set.

01:12The band themselves have been accused of anti-Semitism,

01:13despite the fact that they've stated that there was no comment on the Jewish people at all,

01:17and that they're not for the death of Jews, rather the dismantling of, in their words, a violent military machine.

01:22Despite this, the band have been stripped of their slot at this weekend's Radar Festival in Manchester,

01:27having been intended to headline the Saturday show at the Victoria Warehouse.

01:30Now, this is obviously going to run on for a while, but let us know what you think.

01:33Is it fair to label the chants as anti-Semitic, and is it right for the band to lose future sets and gigs because of it,

01:38should they face criminal charges?

01:40Let us know, and follow Manchester World for more.