Bob Vylan denies celebrating death of Charlie Kirk as gig is cancelled in Netherlands
Bob Vylan has addressed footage of him addressing the death of Charlie Kirk at a recent Amsterdam show, denying claims he was celebrating Kirk’s passing.
At their show in Amsterdam at the Paradiso Grote Zaal on September 13th, days after Kirk’s assassination in Utah, Vylan remarked upon the death of the right-wing political commentator.
During their set, the frontman addressed the crowd, stating, “I want to dedicate this next one to an absolute piece of shit of a human being.”
Making reference to Kirk’s views on the transgender community, he then joked, “Pronouns was/were,” which was greeted by cheers from the Amsterdam crowd. He continued, “Because if you chat shit, you will get Banged. Rest in peace Charlie Kirk, you piece of shit.”
The punk duo then played their song ‘CSGB’, which opens with the refrain, “Oh shit, God damn, Chat shit, get banged.”
In response to footage from the concert circulating on social media, their concert in Tilburg on September 16th has been cancelled. The venue, Poppodium 013, claimed it “trivialized political assassination”, and accused the band of accusing fans to “look for political opponents on the streets”, which they say “clearly crossed a line”.
Vylan took to social media on September 14th to address the backlash, stating, “At no point during yesterday’s show was Charlie Kirk’s death celebrated. At no point whatsover. 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 continued, “If it was, go find me a quote. Go find me something that proves that we were celebrating his death. You’re not going to find it because it didn’t happen. What did happen, is, one reporter who 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. Not a celebration, isn’t a celebration, wasn’t a celebration. Calm down.”
Vylan remain under investigation from Avon and Somerset Police following their performance at Glastonbury Festival in June. During the set, Vylan led the crowd through a chant of “Death to the IDF,” in reference to the Israeli Defence Force.
Last week, while speaking in-front of MPs, the BBC’s director general labelled the performance “an antisemitic broadcast” and said they made “a very significant mistake” in broadcasting the performance on iPlayer.
Vylan hit back at Davie’s comments, calling him a “spineless puppet” on social media while maintaining “there was nothing antisemitic about the performance”.
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