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Thom Yorke walks offstage after being confronted by pro-Palestine protester

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4 weeks ago

November 2, 2024

Thom Yorke walks offstage after being confronted by pro-Palestine protester

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Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke walked offstage after being heckled by a pro-Palestine protester throughout a solo present in Melbourne.

Footage filmed by a member of the viewers exhibits a person within the crowd yelling at Yorke in regards to the “Israeli genocide of Gaza” and the loss of life toll, half of whom he mentioned “have been youngsters”.

Yorke may very well be seen standing and listening earlier than he informed the heckler to “hop up on stage” to make his remarks.

“Don’t stand there like a coward, come right here and say it,” he mentioned. “You need to piss on all people’s night time? OK, you do it, so long.”

He then eliminated his guitar and briefly walked off stage.

Members of the viewers may very well be heard booing, with one other fan shouting: “Shut the f*** up, man.”

Yorke returned shortly after the incident to play Radiohead’s 1997 tune “Karma Police.”

The Impartial has contacted Yorke’s consultant for remark.

One concert-goer, Elly Brus, informed the BBC that the heckler was escorted away by safety however continued to have interaction with folks exterior the venue.

The incident occurred close to the tip of the present on the Sidney Myer Music Bowl, considered one of two live shows being held in Melbourne as a part of Yorke’s Every thing tour.

Thom Yorke briefly walked offstage after being heckled by a pro-Palestine protester (Getty)

The exhibits characteristic a career-spanning setlist of solo materials and songs by his bands Radiohead and The Smile.

Yorke is subsequent scheduled to carry out on the Sydney Opera Home forecourt on Friday 1 November and Saturday 2 November.

Yorke and his Radiohead bandmates have come underneath scrutiny previously over their determination to proceed performing in Israel.

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The band’s historical past with the nation goes again to their debut single, “Creep”, which acquired widespread airplay on Israeli radio stations after initially failing to make an influence elsewhere.

They performed Tel Aviv in 2017, in defiance of the pro-Palestine marketing campaign by the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) motion.

Both Thom Yorke and his Radiohead/The Smile bandmate Jonny Greenwood have defended their decision to continue playing in Israel — Each Thom Yorke and his Radiohead/The Smile bandmate Jonny Greenwood have defended their determination to proceed taking part in in Israel (Jim Dyson/Getty Pictures)

Responding to criticism from British director and BDS supporter Ken Loach, who wrote an op-ed for The Impartial urging Radiohead to affix the boycott, Yorke mentioned: “Enjoying in a rustic isn’t the identical as endorsing the federal government.

“We’ve performed in Israel for over 20 years by a succession of governments, some extra liberal than others. As we’ve got in America. We don’t endorse [Israeli prime minister Benjamin] Netanyahu any greater than [Donald] Trump, however we nonetheless play in America.”

Greater than 43,160 folks have been killed in Gaza – together with 1000’s of girls, youngsters and infants – since Israel launched its marketing campaign to destroy Hamas, in response to the group’s assault on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, which killed round 1,200 folks and noticed 251 others taken hostage.

Earlier this yr, pro-Palestinian activists accused Yorke’s bandmate, Jonny Greenwood, of “artwashing” when he carried out alongside Israeli-Arabic musician Dudu Tassa in Tel Aviv.

Jonny Greenwood has rejected calls to boycott Israel over its war on Gaza — Jonny Greenwood has rejected calls to boycott Israel over its warfare on Gaza (AFP through Getty Pictures)

Greenwood, 52, who’s married to the Israeli visible artist Sharona Katan, condemned what he deemed to be “the silencing of this, or any, creative effort made by Israel Jews” by “those that try to close us down, or who at the moment are making an attempt to ascribe a sinister ulterior motive to the band’s existence”.

In his assertion shared on 4 June, he continued by saying that “no artwork is as ‘necessary’ as stopping all of the loss of life and struggling round us. How can or not it’s? However doing nothing appears a worse choice. And silencing Israeli artists for being born Jewish in Israel doesn’t seem to be any approach to attain an understanding between the 2 sides of this apparently infinite battle.”