Bob Vylan has said that he is “not regretful” of his “death, death to the IDF” chant at Glastonbury Festival earlier this year, and said he would “do it again tomorrow, twice on Sundays.”
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
Bobby Vylan – frontman of the British punk duo – appeared on The Louis Theroux Podcast to speak at length about the incident and the subsequent fall-out from their performance on the West Holts stage on June 28. The chant makes reference to the Israeli Defense Forces, and was subsequently investigated by Avon and Somerset police.
The chant was condemned by Glastonbury Festival and U.K. prime minister Keir Starmer, who described it as “appalling hate speech.” After the festival, Bob Vylan said in a statement: “We are not for the death of Jews, Arabs or any other race or group of people. We are for the dismantling of a violent military machine.”
The band’s U.S. visas were subsequently revoked by the state department and they were dropped by their agent UTA. A number of live performances including one at a Manchester festival and one in Amsterdam were cancelled following the chant.
Speaking on the podcast, Bobby (real name Pascal Robinson-Foster) said that he did not regret the chant and he would do it again. “Like what if I was to go to Glastonbury again tomorrow? Yes I would do it again. I’m not regretful of it. I’d do it again tomorrow, twice on Sundays. I’m not regretful of it at all, like the subsequent backlash that I’ve faced. It’s minimal. It’s minimal compared to what people in Palestine are going through,” he said.
The podcast conversation was released at midnight on Tuesday (Oct. 21), though at the start of the episode a disclaimer reads that the conversation took place before a terrorist attack at a synagogue in Manchester on Oct. 2, in which two worshippers were killed. It also preceded the news of a recent ceasefire between Israel and Hamas (Oct. 10) and the exchange of hostages and prisoners.
Elsewhere in the conversation, Bobby characterized Damon Albarn’s response to the chant as lacking “self-awareness” and “disappointing.” The Blur frontman called the chant “one of the most spectacular misfires I’ve seen in my life, especially when he started goose-stepping in tennis gear.”
Vylan said on the podcast that, “I take great issue with the phrase ‘goose-stepping’ being used because it’s only used around Nazi Germany. That’s it. And for him to use that language, I think is disgusting. I think his response was disgusting, especially when you look at it in comparison to Chuck D’s response, who is as equally seasoned in this music industry.”
Bobby also claimed that staff at the BBC – who broadcast the performance live on its iPlayer service – “loved” the performance when he came off stage. The corporation’s director Tim Davie later stated that “I deeply regret that such offensive and deplorable behaviour appeared on the BBC.” In September, the broadcaster ruled that the performance “broke editorial guidelines in relation to harm and offense,” but was cleared of breaking impartiality rules, and being likely to encourage or incite crime.
“We come off stage. It’s normal. Nobody thought anything. Nobody. Even staff at the BBC were like ‘That was fantastic! We loved that!,’” Vylan said.
When asked by Theroux what he meant by the chant, Vylan said that the chant was “unimportant.” He added, “What is important is the conditions that exist to allow that chant to even take place on that stage. And I mean, the conditions that exist in Palestine. Where the Palestinian people are being killed at an alarming rate. Who cares about the chant?” he said.
“Death to the IDF” rhymes, he added: “‘End, End the IDF’ does not rhyme, wouldn’t have caught on, would it?… We are there to entertain. We are there to play music. I am a lyricist. ‘Death, Death to the IDF’ rhymes. Perfect chant.”
The full episode of The Louis Theroux Podcast is available to listen on Spotify now.
