U.K. punk-rap provocateurs Bob Vylan have had their upcoming concert in Tilburg, Netherlands, canceled over comments made at a recent show that the venue said “clearly cross a line.”
During the duo’s recent show at Club Paradiso in Amsterdam, frontman Bobby Vylan repeated the “Death, death to the IDF” chant that turned the band into a flashpoint at Glastonbury earlier this summer. According to a report in De Telegraf, a conservative-leaning Dutch newspaper, Vylan also said, “Fuck the fascists, fuck the Zionists. Go find them in the streets.”
Along with these remarks, video also showed Vylan commenting on the assassination of Charlie Kirk, who was shot and killed while speaking at an event at Utah Valley University last week. “I want to dedicate this next one to an absolute piece of shit of a human being,” Vylan said. “The pronouns: was/were. Cause if you chat shit, you will get banged. Rest in peace Charlie Kirk, you piece of shit.”
In response, the Tilburg club Poppodium 013 decided to cancel Bob Vylan’s show, which was scheduled to take place Tuesday, Sept. 16. It appears the decision was based largely on Vylan’s “go find them in the streets” comment, though it’s possible his statement on Kirk’s killing played some role, too.
“We believe the statements Bob Vylan made last night at Paradiso clearly cross a line,” Poppodium 013 wrote in a statement (via Google Translate). “We strongly reject the trivialization of political murder and the call to ‘go look for people in the streets.’”
They continued: “While we understand that the 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 nevertheless believe that these new statements go too far. They no longer fall within the boundaries of what we can offer a stage.”
In explaining their decision, Poppodium 013 did note the reason they went ahead with the concert in the first place, despite calls to cancel it following Bob Vylan’s controversial Glastonbury set.
“The venue expressed its understanding for the artist’s anger regarding the genocidal violence perpetrated by the State of Israel in Gaza, a situation that deserves our full attention, even though his words were not our own,” they said. “We still share that shock and outrage. Moreover, Bob Vylan clarified in his own statement that his earlier statement ‘death to the IDF’ was not an antisemitic slogan, but rather criticism of the Israeli army. 013 wanted to send a message that Gaza deserves full attention and that outrage about it deserves a place on stage. We still stand by that.”
Vylan partially addressed this latest controversy on Instagram, specifically rejecting media reports that characterized his comments about Kirk’s death as celebratory. “At no point during yesterday’s show was Charlie Kirk’s death celebrated,” he said. “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.”
He added: “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 him a piece of shit and played a song, they have written that up as a celebration. Not a celebration. Isn’t a celebration. Wasn’t a celebration. Calm down.”
