The punk duo Bob Vylan have had a gig cancelled after their frontman Bobby Vylan called the far right commentator Charlie Kirk, who was fatally shot last week in Utah, “an absolute piece of shit of a human being” while performing in Amsterdam.
The Tilburg venue 013 has cancelled the Ipswich band’s 16 September show as a result, saying that the band went “too far” at the Paradiso venue in the Dutch capital.
Bobby Vylan, who does not use his real name, added on stage: “The pronouns was/were. Cause if you chat shit you will get banged. Rest in peace Charlie Kirk, you piece of shit.”
He also said: “Fuck the fascists, fuck the Zionists, get out there and fight there, get out there and meet them in the streets, get out there and let them know that you do not fucking stand by them, you understand me?”
He joined in chanting “death, death to the IDF” with the audience – the same chant he led at Glastonbury this summer that prompted an ongoing criminal investigation by Avon and Somerset police. As a result the band also had their US visas revoked, scuppering an autumn tour.
In a statement, 013 said: “While we understand that these statements were made in the context of punk and activism, and that the reporting on them is sometimes less nuanced than what actually happened, we still believe these new statements go too far. They no longer fall within the scope of what we can offer a platform.”
The venue said it had initially decided to let the duo perform “despite the controversy that arose after their Glastonbury performance” after the band clarified that the chant was “not an antisemitic slogan, but rather criticism of the Israeli army”.
The UK branch of Turning Point, the right-wing youth group that Kirk founded, claimed that in footage of the Paradiso show, Bobby Vylan “mocks and glorifies the brutal murder” of Kirk.
In response to the show’s cancellation and allegations that the band celebrated Kirk’s death, Bobby Vylan said in a video: “At no point during yesterday’s show was Charlie Kirk’s death celebrated. At no point whatsoever did we celebrate Charlie Kirk’s death. I did call him a piece of shit. That much is true. But at no point was his death celebrated. If it was, go find me a quote, go find me something that proves that we were celebrating his death. You’re not gonna find it, because it didn’t happen.
“What did happen is one reporter that bought their ticket online came with the sole purpose of finding something to report and after I called [Kirk] a piece of shit and we played a song, they have written that up as a celebration. It’s not a celebration … Calm down.”
The band subsequently tweeted: “They want us down so bad but we just played a sold-out Paradiso. It’s always love in Amsterdam.”
Onstage at the Paradiso, the frontman said that certain figures had “tried to characterise us as hateful people. They tried to characterise us as antisemitic. But we are not hateful. We are not antisemitic. We are anti-Zionists. We are anti-oppression and we are anti-fascist. And we should be out there fighting and protesting and marching against these motherfuckers because it is a sweeping trend happening all around the world.”
While the Tilburg show was cancelled, the band’s performance in Nijmegen on 15 September went ahead. Bobby Vylan dedicated their song I Heard You Want Your Country Back to “all those far-right fuckers” in reference to the far-right street protest organised by the activist Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, known as Tommy Robinson, which drew 110,000 marchers in London this weekend.
Prior to the Amsterdam show, the band called BBC director general Tim Davie “a spineless puppet” on X in relation to the controversy around why the live feed of the band’s Glastonbury performance was not cut after he made his comments. “There was nothing antisemitic or criminal about anything I said at Glastonbury. Why do you think @metpoliceuk @ASPolice are taking so long?”
The Newquay festival Boardmasters potentially stands to lose its licence this week after it allowed the band play the festival in August, in the wake of the Glastonbury controversy.
In July, a Reform community organiser applied to Cornwall Council to review the event’s licence, saying that the band’s appearance “undermines the licensing objectives”. A Boardmasters spokesperson said the festival did not “tolerate hate speech” or “incitement to violence”. Devon and Cornwall police said they were happy with the measures put in place at the festival.
Legal timeframes meant the hearing could not happen until after the festival. The council also heard from locals who supported Bob Vylan’s appearance on the lineup.
There was ultimately no unrest or disorder during the band’s performance. Singer Bobby Vylan told the crowd: “It was a little bit of a battle to get here.”
