"I'm a free man!" Mo Chara (Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh) declared as he swaggered onto the Glastonbury stage.
He was greeted by raucous cheers. After weeks of uncertainty, legal drama and interjections from Keir Starmer, Irish rap trio Kneecap finally took to the West Holts Stage on Saturday afternoon for a set that seemed specifically designed as a victory lap over the people that tried to pull the plug on them.
After one terror charge and a whole media storm, infamy doesn’t seem to have dulled the band’s spark, or their popularity; in fact, West Holts stage was rammed past capacity, with 30,000 people crammed ear to ear for a chance to catch the festival’s most-talked-about act in the flesh. Palestinian flags abounded, as did pro-Palestinian chants; “the BBC editor is going to have some job,” Moglai Bap remarked wryly.
Kneecap wasted no time in pumping the energy levels up to maximum, despite the relatively early 4pm kickoff. Things started off with the dreamy, folk-music tinged 3CAG (an ode to MDMA, in case you were wondering), before segueing straight into Better Way to Live, their collaboration with Fontaines DC’s Grian Chatten.
Never shy of publicity – or making a statement – this was quickly followed by the reliable crowd-pleaser, Your Sniffer Dogs Are Shite. Yelled out at a festival like Glastonbury, it was delivered with particular relish. And that was before they led the crowd in chants of “f*** Keir Starmer.” Several times, in fact.
In addition to the inflammatory content, there were all the hits, too. In quick succession, we got Sick in the Head, the magnificently insouciant Guilty Conscience and Fine Art, delivered with basslines so huge they could probably be seen from outer space. It was giddy stuff, even if the West Holts stage was obviously the wrong place for them: the sound barely reached to the back of the crowd.
Though the band were quick to make light of Ó hAnnaidh’s upcoming sentencing, they also took the opportunity to clap back on their own terms: almost every single interlude between songs came with an impassioned speech.
“I know what happens when you speak out,” Mo Chara said at one point, referencing his upcoming court date at Westminster Crown Court in August. “I spoke out at Coachella and every single person in that tent agreed with me.” They also thanked the Eavis family: “the pressure they’ve been under and they stood strong. Fair play to them.”
As the set wound to a close, Kneecap finished off with a double whammy. Get Your Brits Out, sung in the full glare of the Somerset sun, felt especially subversive, but then came H.O.O.D., which got the crowd bouncing. They closed out with The Recap – their clap-back at the haters.
It felt like an oddly poignant moment – despite everything, the band are still here and still making music. Making it to Glastonbury, mere weeks after being photographed in the courts, must have felt like validation; who could blame them for basking in their moment of triumph?
