UNTIL Saturday night, few people outside of their immediate friends and family, had heard of Bob Vylan.
Now there’s no getting away from this gruesome “grime rap punk” duo.
AlamyBob Vylan chanted ‘death to the IDF’ during a disgraceful performance at Glastonbury[/caption]
And that, of course, was the very point.
When one half of Bob Vylan, Bobby Vylan, gave his incendiary performance — leading antisemitic chants of “Death to the IDF” to the masses at Glastonbury — his antics didn’t, alas, “Free Palestine”.
Nor did they magically end the Israel-Hamas war, or bring peace to the long, long-fraught Middle East.
No. They got him thousands of new followers on Instagram, and a bolstered Wikipedia page.
The singer, if this is what we can call him, later stood by his actions, posting on social media: “I said what I said”, and calling for a “change in foreign policy”.
Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to the TikTokification of international relations.
At an ultra-woke festival eschewing capitalism — one where tickets cost £400 and champagne socialists call for open borders from the safety of the wire-rimmed perimeter of the Healing Field — Bob Vylan typifies the right-on music industry.
It’s not awareness; it’s a carefully curated aesthetic, one designed to sell records or boost PR.
And arguably the hordes of sheep who listen to this hate speech — quite possibly flying high on both life and ketamine — and chant it back are just as much to blame for disseminating hatred.
That people are behaving this way at a music festival . . . when this was the same setting at which innocent Jews were murdered, seems lost on everyone.
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is one of the most complex and emotionally fraught issues of our time; if you think you can boil it down to flag waving, you probably need to sit this one out.
The problem, of course, is that festival goers — who prior to October 7, 2023, probably hadn’t given much thought to Israel and her Arab neighbours — are now veritable armchair experts.
Their slow radicalisation online starts on X, TikTok and Instagram, and ends in self-entitled posts and the infantile belief that they are now Middle Eastern historical experts. They are not.
In other words, acts like Bob Vylan and Kneecap preach their propaganda to sheep in a field, one already overcrowded with noise.
“From the river to the sea” isn’t necessarily the call for peace that so many people seem to think is it; it calls for a world without Jews.
You can stand for Palestinian rights without denying Jewish ones.
As Rob Rinder said: “If your activism leaves no room for someone else’s safety, grief or history it’s not activism; it’s hate.”
PAThe singer later stood by his actions, posting on social media: ‘I said what I said’[/caption]
People mindlessly singing for a free Palestine are, after all, often from the omniverse of mindlessly good causes — ones that say things like biology isn’t real; that a man can be a woman.
Last week rapper Azealia Banks revealed she’d pulled out of two British festivals after organisers tried to make her declare “Free Palestine” mid set.
Empathy is a wonderful thing. Ditto social awareness, and hoping for world peace. But a TikTok tutorial won’t bring about world peace.
The horror and suffering in Gaza is real, undeniable, and demands international attention.
Nuance, though, doesn’t get “likes”.
Moderation doesn’t get Bob Vylan a headline slot on the 10 O’clock News. Divisive hatred does.
Glastonbury is supposed to be a festival about love, freedom and kindness.
Today it’s a sun-filled echo chamber of performative politics.
The tragedy is that genuine good-hearted activism, the kind that involves learning, listening, challenging one’s own world views, is being replaced by clicktivism.
This kind of sloganising helps no one, least of all those poor men, women and children suffering on the ground.
QUEEN OF MY HEART
LAST week our beloved family dog was put to sleep.
She was called Camilla Parker Bowles, and she was the kindest, gentlest soul on God’s planet.
Only if you are an animal person will you understand the heartache, the enormous, unimaginable void she has left in our lives.
But, and because sometimes laughter is the only way through, there is/was a moment of levity.
I received the news in a call from my heartbroken parents during a wedding reception – a reception that saw me seated opposite Tom Parker Bowles, my pal and (human) Camilla’s son.
After hanging up, I returned to dinner, mournfully telling my fellow wedding guests that Camilla Parker Bowles had passed away. I cried. I necked a glass of wine. I cried some more.
People around me looked shocked, some visibly upset. There was a stunned silence.
Honestly, I was taken aback and genuinely touched by the concern for our beautiful 13-year-old Shih Tzu.
Anyway, realisation finally dawned on me. Horrified, I dashed around clarifying that our wonderful Queen Consort, inset, was, in fact, alive and well.
Back to the perfect canine Camilla – as the original late Queen once said: “Grief is the price we pay for love”.
Sleep well, CPB – I love you. x
Blondes still having more fun, Rod?
GettyRod Stewart rocked up on stage with his full assortment of completely non-diverse backing singers[/caption]
IN a world of unmitigated woke, how great to see Rod Stewart being Rod Stewart.
The Hot Legs singer left the politics at home, and rocked up on stage with his full assortment of completely non-diverse backing singers.
Well, TBF, there was one brunette . . . on violin.
Anyway Rod, 80, drew in a record 4.2 million viewers on telly. Proof, were it needed, the oldies really are the goodies.
PINGDEMIC
STUDENTS will spend 25 years on their phones – rising to 43 years for those with a daily screen time of nine hours or more – a new study has shown.
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again.
And again. And again. And again.
Phone addiction will soon prove to be this country’s biggest health epidemic unless more is done to control usage, and stop big tech from finding ever more resourceful ways to keep us glued.
KATE’S VIBE SO WRONG
CosmossKate Moss’ wellness brand has gone bust[/caption]
SO Kate Moss’s wellness brand Cosmoss has gone bust, with debts of almost £3million.
Lots of feverish speculation as to how and why but everyone afraid to spell out the reality: That the supermodel is now well and truly off the wagon.
Flogging “Sacred Mist” and “Golden Nectar antioxidant oil” is all well and good when you’re doing as it says on the tin.
But getting papped puffing on a fag while holding a bottle of beer in the streets of London – as she was in March – just isn’t giving health and longevity.
GEN Z’S SORRY SAGA
LAST week a total stranger, a young guy in his twenties, messaged me with a story he wanted investigating.
After a bit of back and forth, he accidentally signed off one text with an “x”.
Seconds later I received the following WhatsApp: “I am so, so sorry if I made you feel awkward. Please accept my sincere apologies.”
How utterly exhausting it must be to be Gen Z.
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