Amyl & The Sniffers didn’t pull any punches as they took the stage in Glastonbury this weekend, taking on the war in Palestine, colonisation, J.K. Rowling, and even artificial intelligence in a fiery set that keeps on giving.
The Melbourne band played to a massive crowd on Worthy Farm’s second stage on Saturday afternoon, where frontwoman Amy Taylor used the platform to speak her mind.
As reported by NME, it was just after “Chewing Gum” that she kicked things off.
“I want to take the time to say something political,” she said.
“It’s such a fucking crazy time to be alive right now, it’s so fucking weird. The left and the right politicians don’t believe in anything at all between the two of them, they believe in nothing.”
She took aim at the way the UK and Australian governments have responded to the war in Gaza, stating: “I’m thinking about the people in Palestine. We’re from Australia, we ain’t doing jack shit, I know yours aren’t doing jack shit. I think about schooling and I think about media, and I think we don’t learn nothing about colonisation or sexual education, we don’t learn any of the right things.
“They want us to shut the fuck up, because if we think about Palestine, then back home in Australia, we think about the Indigenous people there. And we think about the fact that us as whiteys, we’re the fucking colonisers, and that’s disgusting.”
She emphasised the importance of speaking out, telling the crowd: “That’s the truth and I thought I’d share that today. It was gonna be something way more poetic, but that’s just what I said and it’s not perfect, but I think it’s better to say anything than to say nothing at all right now.
“Shit’s going down the shitter fast, and mate, we’ve got AI on the way and that’s gonna be even crazier. So buckle up bitches, shit’s about to get weird.”
Later in the set, just before “Knifey”, Taylor also gave a shoutout to “all the ladies, all the T-girls, and my non-binary and trans friends” before adding: “Fuck J.K. Rowling.”
Naturally, it set off a firestorm of reactions online.
She wasn’t alone. All weekend, artists at Glastonbury used the stage to call out injustice, including Dublin band Inhalers’ Elijah Hewson, and Irish singer CMAT.
After the set, Taylor went on to call out the “frenzied” response to Irish band Kneecap and punk-rap duo Bob Vylan’s performances at Glastonbury, which are now being investigated by police.
During their performance, Bob Vylan chanted “Death to the IDF” in reference to the Israel Defence Forces, while Kneecap led chants of “Fuck Keir Starmer” — aka the British Prime Minister — when they took the West Holts stage on Saturday.
Starmer had previously described the band’s appearance as “not appropriate”, with Kneecap member Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh charged with a terrorism offence last month for allegedly displaying a flag of Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah at a concert.
Taking to Instagram on Sunday (local time), Taylor pointed the band wasn’t the only Glastonbury act who spoke up around these issues over the weekend.
“Trying to make it look like a couple of isolated incidents and a couple of ‘bad bands’ so that it appears the public isn’t as anti-genocide as it is, and trying to make it look like Bob and Kneecap are one offs, instead of that the status quo has shifted majorly and that people are concerned and desperate for our govs to listen,” she wrote.
Between Green Day’s Coachella shout-out and Amyl and the Sniffers’ latest gig, you bet punk’s staying political.
Lead image: BBC Music / YouTube
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