Kneecap announce ‘biggest headline show outside of Ireland' at London arena
The concert comes after the group remained on the line-up for Glastonbury Festival, when it was confirmed on Tuesday, despite calls from Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch and a number of other politicians to remove them.
Kneecap were taken out of the line-up at Scotland's TRNSMT festival last week after safety concerns were raised by police, while last month the group played to thousands at London's Wide Awake festival in Brockwell Park.
The Belfast trio have scheduled a replacement gig for the cancelled festival show at Glasgow's O2 Academy in July.
The group's London concert will take place on September 18, with tickets going on pre-sale on the group's WhatsApp channel at 10am, before a general sale on Friday.
In a post announcing the gig, Kneecap said: 'The belly of the beast – let's go.'
It comes after Kneecap member Liam Og O hAnnaidh, who performs under the stage name Mo Chara, was charged under the name Liam O'Hanna by the Metropolitan Police with a terror offence last month over the alleged display of a Hezbollah flag at a gig in November last year.
Counter-terrorism police previously investigated Kneecap after videos emerged allegedly showing the band calling for the deaths of MPs and shouting 'up Hamas, up Hezbollah'.
The group apologised to the families of murdered MPs but said footage of the incident had been 'exploited and weaponised', and also said they have 'never supported' Hamas or Hezbollah, which are banned in the UK.
In response to the charge, the group said in a social media statement: '14,000 babies are about to die of starvation in Gaza, with food sent by the world sitting on the other side of a wall, and once again the British establishment is focused on us.
'We deny this 'offence' and will vehemently defend ourselves, this is political policing, this is a carnival of distraction.
'We are not the story, genocide is, as they profit from genocide, they use an 'anti-terror law' against us for displaying a flag thrown on stage. A charge not serious enough to even warrant their crown court, instead a court that doesn't have a jury. What's the objective?
'To restrict our ability to travel. To prevent us speaking to young people across the world. To silence voices of compassion. To prosecute artists who dare speak out.
'Instead of defending innocent people, or the principles of international law they claim to uphold, the powerful in Britain have abetted slaughter and famine in Gaza, just as they did in Ireland for centuries. Then, like now, they claim justification.
'The IDF units they arm and fly spy plane missions for are the real terrorists, the whole world can see it.'
Kneecap member Liam Og O hAnnaidh outside the 100 Club in Oxford Street (PA)
Ahead of their Wide Awake set, Kneecap released their latest song The Recap, which opens with a sample of a news report about the counter-terrorism police investigation into the group, and mocks Ms Badenoch's attempts to block arts funding they were awarded, and the Conservative Party's election loss.
In 2024, the band released an eponymous film starring Oscar-nominated actor Michael Fassbender which is a fictionalised retelling of how the band came together and follows the Belfast group on their mission to save their mother tongue through music.
Formed in 2017, the group, made up of O hAnnaidh, Naoise O Caireallain and JJ O Dochartaigh, are known for their provocative lyrics and merchandise as well as their championing of the Irish language, and their best-known tracks include Get Your Brits Out, Better Way To Live and 3Cag.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Herald Scotland
an hour ago
- The Herald Scotland
Are you ‘upset'? The dangers of flags in Scottish schools
Ms McDonald also said in the letter that she'd spoken to her pupils and explained the symbolism and association of flags and symbols to different groups of people, and how using the pictures was contrary to the school values of respect and kindness. 'I hope this helps everyone understand where mistakes have been made,' she said, 'and we can move on enjoying the rest of the end-of-term celebrations.' The language, the tone, the phrasing – 'inclusion', 'acceptance', 'offensive', 'upset', 'I hope this helps' – is a good example of the way some people in the public sector have learned to talk, indeed feel they must talk: plaintive, patronising, passive aggressive. I also dread to think what Ms McDonald said to the pupils when she 'explained the symbolism and association of flags'; if her letter's anything to go by, she's the last person who should be explaining it. But as I say, the headteacher has now said sorry through her council, East Renfrewshire. A council statement said she'd never meant to suggest the union flag was sectarian and 'apologised for any offence and upset that has been caused' (more upset and offence you'll notice). The council issued its statement after the local MSP, Tory Jackson Carlaw, said he was angry about the head's letter and that equating the Union flag with sectarianism was deeply offensive (I think we may need to ban the o-word). We also need to put all the apparent offence and upset in perspective. It would seem that someone saw the pictures of the event, noticed the Union flags, and contacted the school to say they were upset. The headteacher then reacted in the way she did, writing her letter, which upset other people, meaning the headteacher then had to apologise to them as well and suddenly we're in a spiral of offence and apology. The problem is that, in a hyper-sensitive culture, we assume someone being 'upset' requires some kind of reaction: a there-there, a soothing letter or placating policy announcement. Consult your granny: it does not. Read more These are the latest plans at the Glasgow School of Art. Really? No more Edinburgh Book Festival for me – where did it all go wrong? A Scottish legend says cancel culture is over. Yeah right The fact that someone was upset by the pictures of the event at Arthurlie Primary is also an indication of how flags work. Stick a flag up a pole – any flag, any pole – and you'll immediately please some people and upset others. The Union flag makes a particular type of Scottish nationalist puce with fury – God forbid any Scottish supermarket that puts it on British sausages – and increasingly the same applies to the saltire and a particular type of Unionist. The situation also got a lot worse after 2014, but we are where we are. What it means a decade on, in 2025, is that putting up a Union flag, or a saltire for that matter, in a school, or anywhere, is not a neutral act. Maybe there was a time, before the Scottish referendum, when flags went up without much comment; I also used to think, with some satisfaction, that a lot of Scots find naked patriotism and flags a wee bit embarrassing. But the referendum changed things, flags led to more flags (flagflation) and now there's anger because the flag you see isn't the 'right' one. Hence someone looking at a picture of an event at Arthurlie Primary and getting upset. There-there. The position the school takes now is that it was not their intention to imply the Union flag is sectarian but beyond that, it's unclear what their policy is. The council statement says the school should be 'focused on a diverse British society' and 'foster an ethos of respect for diverse perspectives and national identity'. So does that mean it's OK to put up Union flags to reflect one of the diverse national identities? Or does it mean it's not OK to put up Union flags because it only reflects one of the diverse national identities? They may have withdrawn the 'sectarian' accusation but where they actually stand on flags is uncertain. Jackson Carlaw (Image: PA) Perhaps if Ms McDonald had chosen her words more carefully, we wouldn't be in this position. The use of 'sectarian' was certainly ill-advised given its connection to the Troubles and traditional religious tensions which still bubble in parts of Scotland. She also failed to take into account that many Scots, including some of the parents of kids at her school, will feel positively about the Union flag and so ended up committing that most heinous of modern crimes: offending someone, while trying to avoid offending someone. She also appeared to be handing a kind of veto to people who get upset by the Union flag but get over-excited by saltires. You know the type. And why is it always me who ends up sitting next to them at parties? Anyway, expressed in a different way that didn't appear to single out the Union flag, perhaps the headteacher could have explained that there are dangers in all flags in schools. There will be some who argue that the Union flag is different and that it's the national flag of the UK and therefore represents everyone, but I'm afraid – given everything we've been through in the last ten years – that would be naïve at best or evasive at worst. Best, perhaps, for schools to just try to be neutral and, crucially, consistent: no Union flags, no saltires, no flags at all, not mine, not yours. The risk you run otherwise is that you start to introduce the kind of stuff that comes with flags. You may remember a few years ago Michael Gove suggesting 'British values' should be taught in English classrooms, no doubt draped with union flags. Some Scottish nationalists also talk about 'Scottish values' and maybe one day they'd like to teach them in schools plastered with saltires. But in this country, we're rather sceptical about all of that or used to be – it's something the Americans do, not us. And maybe that's something we should try to keep hold of. And maybe the best place to do it is in a classroom free of flags.
Glasgow Times
an hour ago
- Glasgow Times
Pub Quiz June 21: How smart are you? Take this pub quiz
Perfect if you're taking a trip to the pub this weekend, this quiz will let you brush up on some of that unusual but essential knowledge for the occasion. With 10 fun questions, the pub quiz will get your brain cogs working and put your general knowledge skills to the test. Take last week's quiz now: Pub Quiz June 14: How smart are you? Take this pub quiz From where the 2024 Olympics were held to who won 2024 I'm a Celebrity, see how many questions you can guess correctly. So, if you think you have what it takes to be the pub quiz master, find out now and take our quiz. If you liked that quiz, you can see how British you are with the UK's citizenship test. You can even test your Barbie knowledge with our Barbie quiz and find out if you're a Barbie or just Ken. Now that you've put your brain to the test, you'll want to start revising hard in preparation for the next pub quiz. Did you get 10/10, or was it a tough round for you? Keep an eye on the news and get ready for next week's pub quiz. How well did you do? Let us know in the comments below. What is the history of the pub quiz? The pub quiz is believed to have originated from a company called Burns and Porter, which would share their quizzes in the 1970s in order to encourage more regular visitors. The regular pub quizzes saw pub numbers rise from 30 teams a week to a peak of 10,000 teams. Burns and Porter went on to publish their own line of pub quiz books and would continue to host weekly quizzes.
Daily Mirror
an hour ago
- Daily Mirror
EastEnders' Ali Osman star is unrecognisable after co-star's tragic death
Ali Osman was a firm favourite in Walford when he was part of the original cast of EastEnders, with his character being involved in a number of gripping storylines Die-hard EastEnders fans will never forget Ali Osman. Nejdet Adamson, a member of the original cast of the much-loved British soap, played the character and became a household name in Walford some 40 years ago before he jetted off to chase his Hollywood dreams. During his time on Albert Square, Ali was embroiled in intense storylines involving marital breakdowns, the grief of losing a child, and a troubling gambling addiction. He also ran the café, then-known as Al's Café, alongside his wife Sue, played by actress Sandy Ratcliff - and later started a taxi firm, OzCabs, alongside his brother Mehmet, running it from a corner table in the café. Sadly, Sandy – who was also an original cast member – died alone in sheltered housing from an accidental overdose, back in 2019. She was 70 years old. After leaving EastEnders, 66 year old Nejdet made a dramatic career switch from Walford to Hollywood, landing a role as a short sailor in the blockbuster hits Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl and its sequel Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006). Pirates of the Carribean: The Curse of the Black Pearl pulled in a whopping 654.3 million USD, while its sequel, Dead Man's Chest, amassed a global total of $1.066 billion. Post-EastEnders, he bagged a role in Carry On Columbus as Fayid, sharing the spotlight with comedy icon Rik Mayall. But he hasn't been shy about discussing his professional struggles, confessing on the soap's 25th anniversary in 2010: "I have had to live with Ali for 25 years. I'm just trying to get on with my life." Maintaining a low profile, he added: "I don't give interviews. I am still acting but it is hard when everyone I'm still Ali from the café," reports OK!. Nej also popped up in two episodes of TV comedy drama Auf Wiedersehen Pet, and has had parts in Doctor Who and Wall of Silence (2004). While juggling the life of a small-time actor, Nejdet even briefly moved to Hollywood in 1990. However, Tinseltown wasn't all it was cracked up to be for the actor. His marriage to drama school love, Susan Stevens, ended in 1990, just a year after they tied the knot. Before his marriage to Stevens, Nejdet had a fleeting romance with his EastEnders co-star Linda Davidson, who played Mary Smith. He remains active in showbiz, having starred in crime drama Sleep Warm a few years ago, and recently featuring in horror flick Heckle. The actor boasts an estimated personal net worth between £1 million to £5 million. Originally known as Nej Salih, he adopted the name Nej Adamson after his stint on EastEnders ended in 1989. He continues to call London home.
