Glastonbury 2025 has finished for another year, but vapour trails of outrage remain in the air. Sir Keir Starmer, our UK prime minister, is currently embroiled in a row about the broadcast of Bob Vylan, the punk duo and their chants of ” Death to the IDF”. Politically incendiary playlists? Not on his watch. As I type, a criminal investigation is being launched into both Bob Vylan and Kneecap.
Today, I stood in a shop debating this with a young, handsome hipster. I pointed out to him that I thought it was immensely hypocritical of Starmer, given The Prodigy performed ‘Smack My Bitch Up’ which is also an incitement to violence, albeit gendered violence. He smiled and simply minimised me by saying, “Music is just entertainment” . I countered him by saying, ” Have you ever heard ‘Strange Fruit ‘ by Billie Holiday? ” He hadn’t.
Music isn’t “just entertainment”. It brings people together. Families remember loved ones at funerals through song. Religious people worship through singing. Stories are shared, and history created. Consciousness can be raised, minds changed. Alzheimer’s patients repair broken pieces of themselves through much loved music. It shapes our lives. It saved mine. I wanted to quote the great Public Enemy, ” Beat is for Sonny Bono, beat is for Yoko Ono”.
Bob Vylan at Glastonbury this year.
I walked home in the sunshine pondering this stuff. I wonder if I was perhaps too gobby. I remember being told constantly to shut up, growing up. I was too opinionated, too loud, too rebellious. I remember feeling so small, which of course was the point. Squash yourself down.
I remembered Alison Goldfrapp saying something similar in an interview. Then I thought of Self Esteem and her powerful Glastonbury set. “Work on your own shit”, she sang of an ex, who expected her to sort out their problems like some kind of unpaid therapist. I pondered the amount of female artists performing at the festival this year, more than before thanks to Emily Eavis. I’m grateful they have a voice, even if I’m not into all of them. Taking up space is powerful.
Music is art, art is political. You can’t censor one artist and allow another. Glastonbury was formed by Michael Eavis in 1970 to promote ideals of peace, love and unity. I don’t agree with Bob Vylan, or Kneecap endorsing violence, but nor do I think The Prodigy track is cool. Freedom of speech is fine, until ethical lines are crossed.
But, hey, it’s only words, and words don’t carry any weight, significance or meaning. It’s all just fun and entertainment. Before I left the shop, I smiled and said, “There’s room for all of it”. Just smile, keep smiling.
Glastonbury is available on BBC I player.
Hit The North 
Applause!!!!!!
When anyone tries to tell me that music and politics shouldn’t mix, I just think of ‘Free Nelson Mandela’. A man whose name was barely known outside of the Anti-Apartheid movement, and indeed was thought of by many in the UK establishment as a terrorist.
One Jerry Dammers song later and there’s a worldwide movement to have him rightfully released.
Starmer has been very badly advised on the whole Kneecap situation by those close to him – he’s someone whose musical tastes were shaped by the protest songs of the 80s and he should have thought back to that period and how he felt then. Bob Vylan coming along has totally boxed him in a corner.
Lorelei…..please don’t ever stop being ‘gobby’.
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Thanks so much. That’s so kind. I totally agree with you, I thought of The Specials too, as I grew up loving them. I’m pro-Palestine, anti-racism too, but I agree, Starmer has missed the point here entirely..I don’t think they meant *literal* death, but anti-genocide, albeit expressed furiously in provocation… Punk, the best kind, is always well intended. 😀
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I have never gone to a music festival. it must be so exciting.
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It can be, but the toilets are horrible and the food and merch are overpriced. I’ve only watched Glastonbury on TV, but Latitude was fun..
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