Gabriella Swerling
English punk-rap duo Bob Vylan have announced they are taking legal action against the BBC, following the controversy surrounding their Glastonbury show last summer.
The band performed at the festival last June, with singer Bobby Vylan, whose real name is Pascal Robinson-Foster, leading the crowds in chants of “death, death to the IDF [Israel Defense Forces].”
The BBC, criticised for livestreaming the performance, released a statement shortly afterwards saying the duo’s act had been deemed suitable to go out live, but adding that this was “clearly not the case”.
It also issued an apology for the group’s “offensive and deplorable behaviour”.
On Friday, Bob Vylan, whose performing partner is drummer Wade Laurence George, wrote on Instagram that they were taking legal action against the corporation, accusing it of “placing labels upon us that did not, do not and never will fit”.
The post said: “As a corporation that receives the majority of its funding from the public, [the BBC] has disappointingly continued to prove how little it represents the interests of the people and our access to unbiased news and information.”
The duo also said they had “no choice but to take on this fight”, concluding: “Free Palestine and justice for the Filton 25.”
The Filton 25 refers to a group of pro-Palestinian activists who were arrested and imprisoned following direct action at the Elbit Systems weapons factory in Filton, near Bristol, in 2024.
Bob Vylan’s announcement came after Jewish leader Sir Ephraim Mirvis last week called for the “death to the IDF” chant to be criminalised.
At the Religion Media Festival in Westminster, Mirvis – the Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth – said Britain needed to change legislation to stop the chant.
Avon and Somerset Police took no action over the Glastonbury incident as it did not “meet the criminal threshold” for prosecution.
In October, Robinson-Foster said on the Louis Theroux Podcast that he was “not regretful” over the chant and would “do it again tomorrow”.
A spokesman for the Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “Bob Vylan should, if anything, be thanking the BBC for broadcasting their hate-filled diatribe to the nation. Other channels might have been disgusted by what they were hearing – but not the BBC, which failed to cut the feed.
“Rather than being grateful for the unrivalled platform to rant about ‘working for f—ing Zionists’ and chanting for violence and destruction – ‘Death to the IDF’– the duo now wants to sue the very broadcaster that made them famous.
“Perhaps Bob Vylan has found that it was their inflammatory politics and not their music that appealed to a mass audience, and this stunt is a desperate attempt to get back in the papers.”
The BBC declined to comment.
The Telegraph, London
