Royal Blood respond to their controversial Big Weekend performance
British rock duo Royal Blood have responded to their controversial appearance at BBC Radio 1’s Big Weekend back in May. During the band’s appearance, frontman Mike Kerr treated the audience with contempt after a less-than-enthusiastic response.
After playing seven songs, Kerr called the crowd “so pathetic” and gave them double middle fingers as he walked off the stage.
In a new interview with BBC 1’s Greg James, Kerr discussed the incident. “I’m amazed, honestly, at how that escalated to that kind of size,” Kerr said. “Walking off from that show, I felt I was being entertaining in a way of trying to make light of the situation. Perhaps I was doing a performance where I felt a little out of place.”
“I expected to be sort of a little bit bemused and maybe confuse a few people, but not to that kind of scale,” Kerr also said.
“It was a moment of madness that has gone out of control,” drummer Ben Thatcher added. “We actually loved the gig. We love playing music and we love doing what we do. It’s been a bit of a mad week to come out of this.”
Kerr claimed that he probably would have acted differently had he taken into account that the audience might not have been familiar with Royal Blood (the band were scheduled between Niall Horan and Lewis Capaldi). Kerr compared his actions to that of a professional wrestler, claiming that he was purposefully trying to rile up the crowd as a “pantomime villain.” Kerr and Thatcher stopped short of offering an apology to the audience.
See Royal Blood’s response down below.
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