Kneecap’s manager has claimed that the outrage that followed the band’s performance at Coachella earlier this year was prompted by one pro-Israel organisation within the US entertainment industry called Creative Community For Peace.
Although the rap trio had courted controversy before, it was their outspoken support for Palestine and criticism of Israel on stage at Coachella that made them global headline news. That really put the band in the spotlight, boosting their profile and commercial success, but also galvanising critics to call for their shows to be cancelled and their visas to be revoked.
The band’s manager Daniel Lambert, who also works in the football business, has spoken about the Coachella set in an interview with the Irish Independent’s Indo Sport podcast. He insists the performance wasn’t seen as controversial at the festival itself, and that the media uproar that followed was driven by political groups beyond the event.
After their performance, he recalls, “we met other bands who were playing. The lads were really unbelievably well-received, by the festival organisers, other bands and the audience”. Subsequent reports that “Jewish people ran from the tent” during Kneecap’s set were “all lies”, he insists, adding “I was standing beside two Jewish booking agents who were trying to poach us – they loved it”.
But in response to the performance, he alleges, a group called Creative Community For Peace “sought to destroy Kneecap”. CCFP is an organisation within the US entertainment industry that says it works to “build bridges through the arts, to educate about rising antisemitism in the entertainment industry, and to galvanise support against the cultural boycott of Israel”.
Lambert says that CCFP “made a couple of assumptions: one, that the lads don’t have the level of intelligence that they do; number two, that we wouldn’t get the level of professional support we got, as in a legal team; and three, I suppose that we weren’t smart enough as a group – and I include all of the people who work with Kneecap in that. That we would fold, that we would just not be able to cope”.
Those assumptions, Lambert would argue, were all wrong. Of course, the media outrage that followed Coachella has certainly caused legal and logistical challenges for Kneecap, resulting in the cancellation of their North American tour as well as a number of gigs in Europe.
It also prompted UK newspapers to go through footage of past Kneecap gigs, including the London show where a Hezbollah flag was allegedly displayed, resulting in band member Mo Chara being charged for a terror offence. The criminal case against the rapper was dismissed in a London court last month, but prosecutors are now appealing that ruling.
However, at the same time, the media outrage has obviously also raised the profile of the band and in doing so expanded their audience, meaning their music – and their pro-Palestine statements – are now reaching many more people. So the outrage – however manufactured after the event it may or may not have been – has probably helped the band as much as it has hindered them, if not more so.
