Punk duo Bob Vylan have been dropped by their agent after their controversial Glastonbury Festival performance. The band caused outrage on Saturday (June 28) after chanting “death to the IDF” while on stage. The BBC live-streamed the performance on iPlayer and have since admitted regret over not pulling it from airing.
Now, it’s believed the group’s agency United Talent has removed them from their website. They had previously been listed on there.
According to Deadline, the talent agency held discussions over the weekend following the offending performance. A decision was made to part ways with the group.
Bob Vylan performed on the West Holts stage on Saturday, before Irish rap group Kneecap, who also shared pro-Palestine messages.
(Image: PA Wire/PA Images)
During the performance, Bob Vylan also said: “From the river to the sea, Palestine must be, will be, free.”
It’s reported that United Talent shared the opinion of Glastonbury organisers, who said that the band had crossed the line with their on-stage comments.
Glastonbury chief Emily Eavis said in a statement: “We are appalled by the statements made from the West Holts stage by Bob Vylan yesterday. Their chants very much crossed a line and we are urgently reminding everyone involved in the production of the festival that there is no place at Glastonbury for antisemitism, hate speech of incitement to violence.”
Television regulator Ofcom said on Monday: “We have been speaking to the BBC over the weekend and we are obtaining further information as a matter of urgency, including what procedures were in place to ensure compliance with its own editorial guidelines.”
(Image: Getty Images)
Following this, the BBC released a statement which said: “Millions of people tuned in to enjoy Glastonbury this weekend across the BBC’s output but one performance within our livestreams included comments that were deeply offensive. The BBC respects freedom of expression but stands firmly against incitement to violence.
“The antisemitic sentiments expressed by Bob Vylan were utterly unacceptable and have no place on our airwaves. We welcome Glastonbury’s condemnation of the performance.
“The performance was part of a live stream of the West Holts stage on BBC iPlayer.
(Image: PA)
“The judgment on Saturday to issue a warning on screen while streaming online was in line with our editorial guidelines.
“In addition, we took the decision not to make the performance available on demand. The team were dealing with a live situation, but with hindsight we should have pulled the stream during the performance. We regret this did not happen.”
The Beeb stated that following the incident, they would be reviewing their guidelines around live events to ensure “we can be sure teams are clear on when it is acceptable to keep output on air”.
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
